See how the film came to be

Oil painting on glass

by Oscar Wyndham Lewis

Oil paint on glass is a traditional 2D animation technique where the animator applies slow drying paint directly onto a piece of glass and photographs the image, then either wipes off the paint completely or manipulates the paint to create the movement or the ‘animation’ for the next photograph.

Typically a live action film is shot at 24 frames per second, in animation, a common frame rate would be 12 frames per second with each frame being photographed twice. So in this film there are approximately 12 original paintings per second. According to Oscar, nearly 8,000 cels make up the film.

Music & Sound Design

by Julia Vasiliev

It all started with hearing the story. Hearing the terrible thing that happened to Joe, Julia immediately thought of the saddest chord in the world, D minor. She began writing the main melody timing it out to the narration, to make sure each beat matched ‘tsk, tsk’, ‘there, there’.

From then on each scene unravelled on new dynamic emotion, a new obstacle and a new journey. Using piano and strings are the main instruments, Julia painted the emotional story melodically.

Watch the little snippets of how the music looks from the software & how she created the sound design to create the coal noises.