A short animation in relation to the Greenpeace 'Save the Arctic' poster competition and our first foray into a mixture of 2D hand-drawn animation within 3D sets. Whilst being a little short, the idea of the piece was to explore the idea of giving the critters their home back - through the combatting of carbon emissions. 

Production

In producing a 2D / 3D animation I knew I’d have to get the penguins sorted first - my lead actor in the film. This is where I’d like to say that I immersed myself fully in the essence of being a penguin, spent several months acting like a penguin, and brought to life the true form and spirit of the penguin. But no, I watched some videos and did some sketches and below, is my first attempt at animating my little, stumbling penguin.

Once I was happy with my little critters form, I was able to use the sequence as a stencil to create a hand-drawn ‘loop’ whereby I’d draw each individual frame, cut it out, and then be able to move the penguin across the landscape so that it was brought to life. When this moment occurred, I promise I did not laugh like Frankenstein.

Next were the Polar Bears…

After completing the Penguins I did for a brief moment consider casting an actual polar bear, but all auditions were confrontational; no lines were read as written, my skill as a director, casting agent, and person able to defend themselves from polar bear attack were called into question. I decided to continue drawing my animals.

To know which order to place the critters, I wrote their numbers on the back which I was fortunate enough was not visible on the other side because I didn’t really think about that but all’s well that ends well and the like.

Principal Photography

The Poster

With this being a poster competition, it was pertinent to produce a poster and, using some of the little extras I’d drawn along with the scenery, coupled with the beautiful way the model snow appeared to fall on camera, I shot a few stills and produced the following posters.