Billy’s Birthday Bash – CAF Quick Draw 2024
As part of the “Inklings” team, “Billy’s Birthday Bash” was our submission to the Cardiff Animation Festival 2024’s Quickdraw event- a 48 hour short film challenge where teams are given said amount time from being given the prompt, and submitting a complete film. The prompt for 2024 was “Treat”.
This was the first shot I worked on. It was a unique challenge due to the camera movement being plotted while I was animating, as well as making sure it transitioned nicely with it’s adjacent shots.
Credit: Ruari Chisolm – Compositing, Katy Smith: Background elements, Music and SFX: Ohm Vaewuthinand. Coloured by Catarina Varela.
This shot was relatively straightforward once I snuck out to shoot some LAV. It was quite fun adding the smears on the bat at the end- though it did make it less fun to colour.
The final shot of the film. I was brought in the animate the protagonist ‘Billy’ as the clock was closing in on the deadline. This shot had some of the most individual contributions in the whole film, and seeing it come together last-minute was satisfying.
Credit: Abi Dean & Charlie Dingemans: Background Character Animation, Ruari Chisolm – Compositing, Katy Smith: Background elements, Khaled Samuel: Foreground elements and VFX, Music and SFX: Ohm Vaewuthinand.
Character designs I made for the background kids. Simple enough and visually distinct, but blends in nicely in the background.
Everyone in the team had a crack at a preliminary storyboard in the first few hours, and this was my contribution. Some ideas were used to inform the final outcome; the final board was put together by Katy Smith.
The Finished Film:
This years’ challenge was down to the wire, but it was great fun working with everyone for a second year, and the outcome really pushed our skills to create something really incredible!