I did not expect to have my idea selected for the LIAF project. It is something new for me to be a director of a film and to work as a leader of a team. Honestly, the idea of it is extremely scary for me. Initially, I had no idea what to do, where to start and how to approach the task. On top of that, my film is 3D animated and I have only been working in this medium for a few months and I am not familiar with the steps and tasks that a 3D animated film requires in order to be made.
Looking back at it now I am thankful that my idea was selected because I got to learn everything about the process of making a 3D animated film: from modelling, rigging, texturing and colouring, lighting, layout, camera settings, animation, rendering, to post-production.
Being the director also helped me understand how important is time management, how to create production schedules, and to overlook not only my own work but also the work of others. I understood that communication is a key point and in order for the tasks to be finished efficiently, I need to make all my ideas (to the finest detail) clear to my team members. Also, being the director doesn’t mean that the other team members do not have a say in the production, it is important to listen to their feedback, ideas and suggestions.
I find myself quite lucky to have the team I did as they excellently supported me and my film. They were responsible and also helped me fill in the gaps in my ideas and technical and production knowledge.
I wanted to be involved in all parts of the production but what I enjoyed doing the most was creating the textures for the film. After that, my second favourite part was doing the actual animation.
In conclusion, I can say that I have discovered a new passion of mine, which is directing animated films and I would love to direct more in the future. The process of coming up with a vague idea and working hard to develop and visualise it is so fascinating for me, and working with people that you can rely on is a plus that you do not always have, but when you do, you should take advantage of it in full. Also, now that I know how things are done, I am no longer scared of being a Director, in fact, I enjoy it and believe that I’m actually quite good at it and the intense work has actually paid off.
I will not be including visuals from the creation process of the film here as everything is submitted to the portfolio, however, I will include a little chart I created to better understand the production line for 3D animated films.
