Concept and creative process
Titles for ‘The Two Ronnies’, a comedy series showcasing the double act of Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett. The titles featured their iconic signature specs, forever associated with ‘The Two Ronnies’, zooming to meet centre screen, with the top pair as always Ronnie Barker’s and Ronnie Corbett’s pair beneath. The specs and the animation were generated by computer and plotted out on individual animation cels as black outline drawings. These were copied photographically and turned into clear lines on a black background and filmed back lit with colour gels on a rostrum camera. Matching mattes enabled the compositing of stills of Two Ronnies’ sketches to be inserted inside the vignettes of the specs’ lenses. A separate light-scan animation inserted the programme title, with additional star sparkle effects burned in on a subsequent camera pass. A final animation of the specs multiplied their number into two stacks, which opened to wipe in the studio shot with the comedy duo sitting behind their habitual News Desk.