Mary Poppins (1964) — jumping into the chalk drawing
See our character’s iconic-scene parody →When people jump into a chalk drawing on the pavement, their surroundings turn into a hand-drawn animated world, and live-action actors and cartoon characters sing together in the same frame. Borrow it when you want to put live-action characters into a drawn world, or to put an ad mascot and a real model in the same frame.
It was shot in front of a white screen lit with yellow sodium lamps, and a prism camera split the light between two films so that only the actors were cut out accurately.
To recreate it: With AI, generate the live-action character separately against a plain background, remove the background, put it over the animated background, and soften the hair edges slightly.
The drawn world is made of brush-painted backgrounds and hand-drawn characters.
To recreate it: Put 'hand-painted watercolor backgrounds, cel-animated characters' into the background generation prompt.
The cartoon band and audience stand in layers in front of and behind the actors, so they look like they are in the same space.
To recreate it: If you hang one drawn element in front of the live-action character too, the composite look drops a lot.
It seems the actors were lit brightly and evenly so no dark shadows fall on them.
To recreate it: Drawn backgrounds have weak shadows, so match the live-action shots too with 'flat even bright light'.
In composite scenes, the camera mostly doesn't move (observed).
To recreate it: If the camera moves, the drawn background has to move with it, so it is safer to lock off composite shots.
Join them so that the shot goes from the live-action street to the drawn world right in the middle of the jumping motion (suggestion).
To recreate it: Cut at the highest frame of the jump, and even though the place changes, the movement looks continuous.
Cinematic multi-shot sequence, 13 seconds total. Shot 1 (3s): static top-down view of a colorful chalk drawing of a sunny countryside on a gray city pavement. Shot 2 (3s): static full shot of a nanny in a long blue coat, a chimney sweep in a striped jacket and two children jumping into the air above it, slow motion. Shot 3 (4s): static wide shot of the four live-action people landing in a hand-painted watercolor countryside with cartoon animals. Shot 4 (3s): static medium shot of the two adults dancing among cel-animated cartoon musicians. Consistent live-action actors, flat bright light, 1960s film grain.
This film mixed live action and animation. Instead of the usual blue screen for putting actors into animation, it shot them in front of a white screen lit yellow with sodium lamps. A prism split the light in two, with one side going to color film that doesn't react to the sodium light and the other to black-and-white film that reacts only to that light, giving a very accurate matte (the shape to cut out). So the compositing edge was accurate enough to be almost invisible, making people and drawings look as if they were in the same space, and the film won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.
Top-down static shot of a colorful chalk drawing of a sunny countryside with a river and hills on a gray city pavement, a straw boater hat and chalk sticks lying beside it, four pairs of shoes at the edge of the picture; soft overcast daylight, 1960s film grain.
Full shot on a London-style sidewalk: a nanny in a long blue coat and a chimney sweep in a striped jacket hold hands with two children and jump together into the air above a chalk drawing; static camera, slow motion, bright overcast light, 1960s film grain.
Wide static shot of the same four live-action people landing in a hand-painted watercolor countryside with cel-animated flowers, trees and smiling cartoon animals around them, soft real shadows on the painted grass; flat bright high-key light, vivid 1960s musical colors.
Medium shot of the nanny in a white lace dress and the chimney sweep in a striped jacket dancing side by side while cel-animated cartoon musicians play drums and horns in front of and behind them; static camera, flat bright light, hand-painted backdrop, 1960s film grain.
Show the drawing first with Shot 1, then cut on action to Shot 3 at the highest frame of the jump in Shot 2. Open the music brightly with the sound of the landing in Shot 3, and join Shot 4 on the beat to carry on into the song scene.
If you mix 'live-action person + 2D animation' in one prompt, AI easily draws the person like a cartoon or turns the cartoon into live action. So it is more stable to make the live-action character and the drawn background separately and composite them in editing. When compositing, draw a faint shadow under the character's feet and lower the character's color slightly to match the brightness of the background, and it won't look like it's floating.
Wikipedia — Mary Poppins (film) · Wikipedia — Sodium vapor process