Dork Toes and suchlike.

Our 4 animators worked hard for about 2 months in total. It went well, we even finished a bit ahead of schedule. A small miracle. :) I am extremely happy with the results. The crew did a stellar job.

This is the first big classical 2D project that I direct. I really enjoyed the organic character of the hand drawn animation. A first rough pass of a shot already has so much life in it, compared to 3D animation where everything feels much more stale at the start. With the first sketchy animation passes that the animators were making across the whole film, it really felt like we were gradually molding the characters. Step by step Stefaan and Liesbeth became more and more themselves.

These are the best moments for me when I make my shorts. Animation is by far my favorite phase. You have been developing the story, the characters and the designs for several years, mostly by yourself. Struggling, doubting yourself, persisting. And then it all starts happening. The joy of seeing the characters that up until then existed only in your head come to life is such a rush. And to be able to do this with a group of passionate, eager and incredibly talented friends is just plain amazing. When things click and these moments happen, I’m just in awe and thankful to experience this.

I would like to put the spotlight on our animators for a moment.

I could write a whole plea about why being an animator is a tough and underrated job. About how you need to be incredibly skilled and talented just to find a job in the business, and stay in it. About how they endlessly need to find new jobs after every production. About how they need to reinvent themselves every time they work on a new film, in a new style, in new software, in a new studio, with new people, with new challenges. These people are legit artists. Most people outside the business don’t realize how demanding this job is. But let’s skip that.

The point is, they are here. Doing their thing. Doing it well. Travelling all over the country to work on films. And I had the pleasure to have these 4 people bring Stefaan and Liesbeth to life for me. They are the actors of my film. We talked endlessly about where a certain character would place his hand and in what manner. How Liesbeth her eyes would shift, what the shape of her eyebrows would be, before and after. How many times a character would blink. A fast blink, or a slow blink? Or maybe a fast one directly followed by a slow one? How exactly Stefaan his hair would blow in the wind and what impact it would have on the shot. And they have to do it all in the style of the film. This is no small feat.

I’m so happy with the animation team we had for Panta Rhei. I’m so proud of all your work. You guys are sick.

So without any further ado, a big shout-out to Hanne Dewachter, Olivier Vanden Bussche, David Bols and Sarah Menheere! Go check their work. 

Hanne Dewachter

Olivier Vanden Bussche

David Bols

Sarah Menheere

-squishface-

Soo.. Does anyone else know this character outside of the whole of Flanders?

Don’t know if people do that, reblogging the prompt with their drawing, but here we are.