Publicity Coordinator, Linda Zazza

Bunny A New Animated Short,
Bounds Onto the Scene


HARRISON, NY

This fall marks a milestone in animation history as Chris Wedge, one of the founders of Blue Sky Studios Inc., releases his latest short film "Bunny." The seven-minute piece is the first computer-animated film to use radiosity, an advanced computer rendering technique that mimics the most subtle properties of natural light. Written and directed by Wedge, produced by Nina Rappaport, with music by singer/songwriter Tom Waits, "Bunny" has already been invited to show at IMAGINA in Monaco and The Film Forum in New York. It also screened at Laemmle Theaters in Los Angeles, qualifying it for 1998 Academy Award consideration.

Wedge has always encouraged his crew to think like cinematographers and that philosophy is evident in the sometimes dark, film-noirish "Bunny" which sets a new standard of mood and cinematic storytelling in computer animation.

"It's a suspense story. A case of mistaken identity, with a twist that I think has a lot of heart to it," said Wedge. When asked why a rabbit? Wedge answered, "I was always doodling rabbits, I think because I was fascinated by the character of Uncle Wiggly and the animation in those old illustrations from the 1930's. That was definitely an influence. I wanted to create something in that rich storybook style - realistic, yet fantasy."

In fact, the short, which began as an effort to stretch the limits of Blue Sky Studios' proprietary lighting software, has such a warm, filmic, photorealistic style that it belies the computer technology that made it possible. Through the use of a software technique called radiosity, which is a complete simulation of how natural light works, Wedge and his crew were able to create an unparalleled dimensionality and organic realism never before attempted in a computer-animated film.

"In a real environment there is usually more than one single color of light illuminating a scene," Wedge explained. "There are all these sympathetic hues - yellow bouncing off a yellow wall, greens being reflected from trees outside, blue from the sky; colors we may not even be aware of unless they're missing. Recreating that ambient illumination in the computer gives us the richness of live action photography and the versatility to make anything happen."

The Technology:

Still, pioneering this new technique wasn't easy. The technical team began by setting up a master lighting program that would remain fairly consistent throughout the film. "That got us 90 percent of the way there," explained Dave Walvoord, who served as digital effects supervisor for the film. "But the real trick came when you'd be looking at a shot and think – oh man! the stove is just popping out way too much and we really want the attention on Bunny. That's when radiosity stopped being our friend and started working against us."

Walvoord said the team couldn't tweak the lighting to correct the brightness of the stove because with radiosity, that little change affected the whole global lighting structure. Ironically, this problem is exactly what happens on a live-action set. "In the studios, they're always fighting radiosity, " Walvoord said, smiling, "But they can stick out their hands and figure out where the shadow is coming from - It's a little more complicated in the computer." The team ended up putting the computer-equivalent of 'bounce cards' and flags' in the programming, blocks that would add or take away indirect light. "And sometimes, we just had to throw physics out the window and do what looked right," Walvoord stated.

The Animation:

Nina Bafaro, one of two lead animators on the film along with Doug Dooley, said that although extensive reference material of real rabbits and moths was used, both characters are highly stylized to capture the storybook quality of Wedge's vision. That vision is what changed Bafaro's mind about computer animation. "I came from a traditional animation background and I didn't like computers," she said. "But when I saw Bunny even early on, before she had fur, I knew that Blue Sky was the only computer-animation studio I could work for. The company has a real respect for traditional animation roots."

Bafaro, who with Dooley was responsible for the majority of the scenes in the film, said she was especially sensitive to the characters' physical presence, adding "with the moth, the focus was on the giving weight to the body, almost as if it is a struggle for him to stay airborne. Bunny was this crotchety, bitter, old woman character, so her movements had to be feeble and full of effort but with quick expressive rabbit ears and body movements. "

Jim Bresnahan, who also animated for the film, said getting physical substance to read on screen has a lot to do with timing and physics. "A good animator has to be a bit of a scientist as well as an actor," Bresnahan explained, adding "what's unique about "Bunny" and Blue Sky animation in general, is an attention to character development. We aren't just out there moving limbs up and down like puppeteers. We try to understand the character's history and motivation. It is that aspect of a real performance that gives our work a lot of heart and believability."

The Music:

The score is also an original – composed by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan who have collaborated on a number of films including "Dead Man Walking," "One From The heart,"(which garnered an Academy nomination), "Night on Earth" and "American Heart" to name a few. The music for "Bunny," has an emotional range that journeys from an unusual accordion hymn-like solo to an instrumental chaos most reminiscent of an orchestra warming up. Waits lends his infamous gravelly vocal style to lyrics he wrote for the ending credit roll.

"The key to Bunny," Wedge concludes, "is that it is a film experience and a story first." "We just happened to go insane with the technology, but it's designed to hide that fact, so there are no plastic surfaces; nothing that has a defined computer signature and no particularly graphic special effects. We don't want people to think too hard about what went into creating it. We just want them to sit back and enjoy it."