DRAWING THE REFERENCES - There Is Still Space For Analogue
- Maria Francisca Moura
- Oct 7, 2024
- 2 min read
Nowadays projects tend to rely more and more on technology and new ways of doing animation are furthering the industry into unknown fields. But if it's true that the discoveries of the twentieth century gave us more tools to do our work, transforming it and making it more simple and less wasteful in both time and materials, it is also true that the digital era has opened a lot of doors for new explorations in the traditional field.
Traditional techniques of drawing and painting, as well as the use of expressive materials, can help a film by establishing a rich and personal aesthetic. At the same time, digital tools and softwares can be used to take animation and visual effects further, expanding production possibilities and unleashing creativity potential.
For this film, we started off with the graphite drawings made by the director, Alberto Rodriguez Collía. We tried to find a way to translate his drawings into a rotoscopy animation pipeline that could be used in a feature film production. It was essential that, while using different digital tools and softwares, such as Krita and Ebsynth, the final aesthetic of the film translated the richness of the original drawings, without losing its expressive qualities and delicate aesthetic.
For that to happen, we established that every shot that was to be animated should start with an analogue drawing, supervised by the director, that would serve as a reference for the whole shot.
The reference drawings were made using graphite pencils over tracing paper and then digitally combined as they featured a high level of detail, thus forming a complete drawing that would match the frame from the live action footage.
From there we would draw the keyframes digitally, followed by the full animation. With digital pencils developed specifically for this, and the help of Ebsynth, we were able to accomplish our goals, ending up with an animated result that, at least to our eyes, doesn't come across as unfaithful to its analogic origins.
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