Animation Supervisor Aulo Licínio Named One of Variety’s 10 Artisans to Watch

Variety has unveiled its annual list of 10 Artisans to Watch, spotlighting the behind-the-scenes visionaries shaping the year’s most compelling cinema.  This year’s cohort includes our Montreal-based Framestore Animation Supervisor Aulo Licínio.

During the panel, at the SCAD Savannah Film Festival, Licínio was asked by Variety’s Jazz Tangcay how, for the character Rocky in Project Hail Mary “you would get him to emote so we would be sitting there, hot messes and emotionally attached to this creature?”  To which Aulo responds “I really appreciate when people cry in this movie as that was the brief!”

So how do you get an audience to connect with a rocky extraterrestrial that has no eyes, mouth, or facial expressions?

Drawing inspiration from Andy Weir’s novel and silent film icons like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, the animation team studied how subtle physical comedy, rhythm, and body language could convey a full spectrum of emotion without relying on dialogue or facial cues.

The team experimented relentlessly with Rocky’s mannerisms, translating tiny shifts in movement into universal cues: adjusting the cadence of a gesture to convey anxiety, slowing a motion down to show hesitation, or speeding it up to reveal pure excitement.  Licínio also credited the physical puppetry used during production. Having a physical presence on set gave co-star Ryan Gosling something tangible to react to, imbuing the raw footage with genuine chemistry and emotion that guided the animators.

Watch the complete panel over at Variety.