The Reward

I know I said I'll post a big sketchdump... and I will. But for the moment I'm back to work full time and my weekends are crazy which leaves very little time for blogging (and artmaking :( but I'm still doing my best to make time).

In the meantime, one thing I CAN do during lunch at work is write short blog posts about awesome things I find on the internet. And this is the awesomeist thing I have seen in a while. It's an 8-minute thesis film called "The Reward", co-directed by Mikkel Mainz Elkjær and Kenneth Ladekjær at The Animation Workshop in Denmark, and that's all I'll say. Don't think. Just watch.

A bunch of the other art blogs that I follow have already posted about this (Muddy Colors - Lines and Colors - Cartoon Brew), which leaves me very little to do except have my voice join the chorus of praises for this great little film. I love the fact that it's wordless and thus able to be universally understood, I love the tongue-in-cheek tone (which is established within the first 60 seconds), and I love the "moral of the story" which is something I try to remind myself every day: The journey is its own reward. This relates to art education as well as life itself... the process of becoming a better, more complete artist/person is the true reward, as opposed to any particular goal or destination that you have in mind (making x amount of money... becoming famous... winning a certain art contest... getting a certain job). At the end of the day, outside forces are going to influence your life and either allow you to or prevent you from achieving those things... but only YOU have the power to determine your own attitude about how you live the life you have. If, despite everything, you work hard to improve yourself as an artist or grow as a person, then you've already succeeded. Put more succinctly: "Success is not a place at which one arrives but rather the spirit with which one undertakes and continues the journey.” - Alex Noble.

 Some extra links:

Website for The Reward, with LOTS of great concept art etc. (some posted below)
The Animation Workshop website.
Other Animation Workshop shorts.
Mikkel Mainz Elkjær's blog.
Kenneth Ladekjær's blog, on which he reveals they're making an indie game based on the film!

Here's a making-of video:

After watching this, two thoughts - (a) JEEEEEZ do I have a long way to go/a lot to learn about, (b) another great example of 2D animation meeting 3D technology!! I'll admit, as passionate as I am about animation, I'm still so uneducated about the way it works that I had no idea that this film used 3D modeling and animation.

Some backgrounds, character turnarounds and color scripts from the film's website: