ABOUT

TECHNIQUE: 2D ANIMATION, MOTION DESIGN
DIRECTOR/ ANIMATOR: ERIC LARSON
PRODUTION: FLYING DUCK STUDIO LAB

OVERVIEW & BRIEF
In this Ident, we wanted to showcase the incredible talent of motion designer, Eric Larson, and his ability to make hand-drawn 2D animation come to life on a whole other level. Surreal images and sci-fi survival mode is what this one-minute short is about. Out of this world, like Flying Duck Studio Lab and its team of amazing artists.

During a routine check of Station No. 47, a Pilot emergency lands in the desert too far from their base of operations.


THE PROCESS
After a request from Flying Duck, Eric sat down doing writing and thumbnails (small sketches) to break down the kernel of the idea into recognizable pieces. Once he had the backbone of the story, he began to make rough sketches in Photoshop, then made cleaner illustrations, and finally added depth of field blurs to indicate where he wanted the audience to look in each shot.

Once the design work was finished a sketch was composed of what would become the score for the project. Eric wanted the animation to rely heavily on the dramatic timing of the music, so there was a bit of back and forth to make sure that the music served the animation, and that the animation fit well with the music. An animatic, or timed-out style frames in this case, was used to help streamline this process.
After timing was set, the next step was rough animation in TVPaint, to make very rough passes at the characters and other elements to see how things could move. After the rough animation, Eric tied down the animation with clean black lines so he could see everything clearly, and put the main character “on model” so it would look consistent throughout the film. Every frame is coloured in TVPaint, which is a very time-consuming process. Finally, everything was imported into After Effects to add depth of field blur, and some processing effects to give the film a richer feeling. When the film was complete, it went to Hopper Race to take the music Eric had composed and make it sing. He added synthesisers and vocal processing to flesh out the bones of the music, then he mixed everything together to get the ultimate impact that the film has now.

THE TECHNIQUE
TVPaint, Photoshop, After Effects


OUR CREDITS
Director and animator: Eric Larson
Executive Producer: Alixe Lobato
Producer: Josephine Amalie von Bülow
Sound design and mix: Hopper Race