Animated short film (BBC/ Apple TV+), 34 min
My role: freelance Layout Artist
Creator: Charlie Mackesy
Director: Peter Baynton
Layout & BG lead: Mike McCain
In 2021 I was approached by director Peter Baynton, whom I’ve had the chance to work with before on other projects, to join the production of this beautiful short film as a layout artist. Peter was looking for a layout artist with a backround in animation and entrusted me to layout a sequence of the film that contains a lot of movement, as the mole character is drifting along a river.
Working on this short film has been a wonderful experience and I’m proud having been part of this amazing team of artists from all over the world who worked on it mostly from their homes during the global Covid pandemic. The film was honoured with an impressive list of awards, including an Academy Award (Oscar!), four Annie Awards and a BAFTA in 2023.
© Nonemore Productions
Here is a comparison edit of a scene from this sequence with my layouts at the top.
Here is the workbook for the rescue sequence with the Boy, the Mole and the Fox. It’s not the first version, so the thumbs you see on the left side have already been worked on and improved for a couple of rounds. Some of the thumbs on the left side include notes by Pete or Mike while the thumbs on the right are the updated versions. Scroll further down to see some of the shots in larger view.
Epilogue - Layout Animatic