What I Learned on "Quest For Camelot"

Death of Ruber by Alex Williams (FX by Michael Gagne)

In the summer of 1996, I started work as an animator at Warner Bros. Feature Animation on Quest for Camelot, directed by Frederik Du Chau. 

It was an exciting time — Warner Bros. was building its feature animation division, hoping to rival Disney animation, and was recruiting artists from all over the world (including me) to join its team. 

Gary Oldman: The Voice of "Ruber"

Gary Oldman

One of the most memorable parts of the production was working with Gary Oldman, who was voice of the villain, Ruber.  

As animators, we share our performance with the actor who delivers the lines - and their job comes first.  Gary Oldman's vocal performance was full of energy, precision, and menace.  

As the lead animator on Ruber my role was to capture Oldman's performance on screen, and I was invited to attend the recording sessions, and was able to draw Oldman acting out his lines.  

I filled a sketch book with scribbles; later on I was able to use these sketches as thumbnails for the animation of Ruber, getting Oldman's performance organically into the animation on screen. 

"I'm so glad you noticed" - The Ruber Twitch

Creating a Memorable Character
Quest for Camelot taught me the importance of collaboration between actor, director, and animator to create a memorable character.  The voice comes first - and the animator has to match the actor's performance. 

When all three align — the actor's voice, the director's vision, and final the performance — the character comes alive. 

It was also a lesson in how much the success of a scene depends on listening: to the director, to the audio track, and to the story itself. 

The Ruber Walk

"The Ruber strut"

One important element of Ruber's character was his walk. How would he move? And what would his walk tell us about him?  

The answer I came up with was a kind of arrogant bar room strut, a peacock walk with rolling shoulders and a head wobble. 

Ruber was a villain completely convinced of his own importance, chest puffed out and walking like a self-important cockerel in a henhouse.  Ruber had no character arc to speak of - he was just as crazy at the start of the film as he was at the end. 

The "Ruber Twitch"

"The Ruberian Age"

I had an idea that Ruber's insanity might be exposed by a nervous twitch in his eyes.  

For this I was inspired by the character of the police chief played by Herbert Lom in Blake Edwards classic comedy "The Return of The Pink Panther".  

In the film, Lom is gradually driven mad by Clouseau, and the twitch betrays his growing insanity.

Flashing Eyes

Ruber with "flashing eyes"

I also tried another animation trick to give Ruber "flashing eyes", by erasing Ruber's eyeballs for two consecutive frames, so that his eyes "flashed" on and off. 

Animation Check (a department from the old 2D days) kept kicking these shots back as a mistake, but eventually everyone got the idea, and it made its way into the final film. 

Director Frederik Du Chau liked these ideas, and let me run with them. Looking back, I probably overplayed my hand, and overused these devices, but they did work to create a villain who looked like he was on the edge of insanity.  It gave Ruber his character, a psychopath on the brink.

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