Uncle Antlers official release!

It's been two years since I finished making Uncle Antlers, and after a run on the festival circuit it's time for an official release!

My gratitude to the many involved in helping this film come to fruition. I am especially indebted to the Toronto Arts Council, the National Film Board of Canada's Filmmaker Assistance Program, the good folks at the Toronto Animated Image Society, Indiegogo supporters, Chris Walsh, everyone who served as an extra set of eyeballs during the making of this thing, and my Heavenly Father.

Special thanks to local Toronto band The Most Loyal for their beautiful score.

You can watch it below or better yet, see it in full glory on Vimeo here.

Uncle Antlers from Carla Veldman on Vimeo.

Uncle Antlers: character development and preliminary boarding

At some point in the early portion of the character and story development stage of Uncle Antlers, I played around with the idea of switching out one of the characters - the boy - with a separate character I had kicking around at the time, a girl. Myrtle. I had previously done a graduate film centering around a boy and his grandmother, and wanted to try something different this time, switch up the dynamics a bit. Myrtle also had a more distinct character and style that I thought would make an interesting contrast with the melancholy and sombre Uncle A. I think it worked quite beautifully.

 

early boarding, pre-Myrtle

the magnificent Myrtle

the two, together

 

an early concept that made it into one of the final scenes

I storyboarded the film several times, over the course of two or so years - picking it up and working on it, putting it down and letting it percolate, returning to it, reworking it and repeat. Within that time frame I also ran it by a few trusted people with fresh eyes for feedback, implemented suggestions,  and continued shaping it). By the end of 2013 the story was at a point of being finished; I worked towards the deadline of film grant applications. I must mention that I am very thankful to live in a country that has a number of grant programs available for artists to create their own projects outside of the commercial sphere.

A sample of the boards I compiled for grants:

'Uncle Antlers' at Photophobia!

Hey folks! Uncle Antlers will be screening at this year's Photophobia Contemporary Moving Image Festival in Hamilton, June 4th and 23rd, in partnership with the Art Gallery of Hamilton and Hamilton Artists Inc. I'll be in attendance at the first screening - you can check out more info on their facebook page here.

Uncle Antlers: origins & early sketches

Sometime shortly after graduating in 2010, this mental image popped in my head. I sketched it out. 

Two characters, walking in the rain; one being a child and the other an odd deer-head creature holding an umbrella.

 

From there came exploratory drawings; 

who the characters were, and what their relation to each other was.

How did they meet?

 

How did they interact? 

What were their personalities like?

The Most Loyal/ Uncle Antlers

Hey! The Most Loyal, who composed the music for Uncle Antlers, will be playing a show in Toronto at The Burdock on March 30th, as well as the talented Richmond musician Lucy Daucus. The Most Loyal crafts some really beautiful music, we'll be including a screening of the film, and I hope to see you there!

More deets here on the facebook page.

Indie Filmmaking Talk at Sheridan

 I had the pleasure of giving a talk to third and fourth-year animation students at Sheridan this week about independent film-making and what that can look like. It was an enjoyable discourse and the students contributed some excellent and informed questions along the way. A few pictures below, courtesy of Aldines Zapparoli:

 

Sharing an independent music video I created for local Toronto band The Most Loyal, and some of the creative processes involved.

 I brought in a smattering of production and pre-production pieces from Uncle Antlers; backgrounds, colour tests, concept paintings, and an animation scene.

Stop-mo-jammed with some of the third-year students afterwards who are working on a stop-motion group film - really ambitious and fantastic-looking - can't wait to see the finished film! These folks are awesome.

A sneak peek!

I've put together a trailer for Uncle Antlers, check it out here!

Uncle Antlers (Trailer) from Carla Veldman on Vimeo.

an early-ish concept piece

Uncle Antlers - almost finito!

Well friends, I am excited to let you know that the film is very, very close to being finished. Compositing, editing, final music (which sounds gorgeous by the way) and foley have all been completed. Right now things are in the sound mixing stage, followed by a final mastering - then it's off to the races with film festival submissions and a limited online release (a private link as one of the crowd-funding perks).

I haven't done a whole lot of posting on the film here - it's been a somewhat constant 'keep going, keep going' phase for the last few months, but there will be more related posts to come in the next little while, and updates on where the film goes from here (intersprinkled with the usual sketchbook posts, naturally).

For now, a film still:

A belated Merry Christmas (& Happy New Year's)!

An obligatory 'sorry for the neglection, blog' post

It's been a while, I realize. I have the above to remedy this: a film's-worth of coloured animation, currently being processed right now. And a sketch of some fûgels, below:

Uncle Antlers Indiegogo

A huge, huge thank you to all who contributed and helped spread the word for 'Uncle Antlers'! While I didn't reach the campaign goal, the funds raised will help me carry the film forward for the coming months. I will be happily working away on the colouring and compositing stages for the next little while!

early concept art

Uncle Antlers Indiegogo - One Week Left!

Well, I'm very pleased to announce that animation for Uncle Antlers is officially wrapped up; colouring is next in line. It's also down to the last week of crowdfunding for Uncle Antlers - it's not too late to contribute if you haven't already! And I want to thank everyone involved so far for all their support, be it funds, sharing the campaign, or words of encouragement - that means a great deal to me.

For more deets and updates, check out the campaign here!
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/uncle-antlers/x/595829#home

Uncle Antlers Indiegogo!

Friends, loyal readers, and fellow artists: I've been working on a short film for the last little while via Arts Council grants, and am running a crowd-funding campaign to raise the rest of the budget.

Are you a patron of the arts? Do you adore independent films and want to help them come to fruition? Do you know others also interested in being a part of this? Help me get the word out and spread the love! You can contribute, share, and get the low-down on the campaign here!

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/uncle-antlers/x/595829

Edit: And some nice words over here at Canadian Animation Resources!

some little style explorations:

pen, watercolour, pencil crayon, crayon

mmmm... fields

New & ImproO0oved

I gave him a new body and shoes. The original was alright in terms of a first try, but I knew I could do better.


Lengthened his bowtie and shirt sleeves, smaller stitching on his pant seams, and better stitching overall on his vest, the pockets in particular. Quite pleased with this version.




(This shot actually creeps me out a little).

Jackets & Coats, Jackets & Coats

First post of a new year, and with that, first things first: Happy New Year!


I did a bit of sewing over the holidays; mostly alterations/re-purposing on 'big-people clothes' as I tend to to call them, in comparison to the usual miniature size. Happily, I worked on some of the latter as well and learned some valuable things along the way. Namely - the fabric used (a sort of corduroy) is actually a little too thick to be working with on this scale. It's deceptive because on first touch it's not an overly stiff or heavy fabric (or so I thought), but it really bulks up at seams and pairing it with a thinner silky material for the collar caused some trouble. Additionally, attaching the collar first before the side-seams (coupled with an under-stitched lining at the bottom of the jacket) really limited the ability to do any adjusting afterwards. Corduroy - this version, at any rate - also attracts alot of dust. Not so good when you're animating.

But you finish what you started and ponder all these things up for next time.


A little coat-tail.


I've also started on his over-coat, with the intention of it having the look of some sort of thick-textured, winter-defying heavy ..thing. I'm exploring different looks and am undecided between adapting a literal representation of the conceptual sketches I've done (the needle-thread one on the right), or something a little softer and more experimental, a la needle-felted (on the left). Thoughts?

Geetar-playing reference and then-some.

Uncle Antlers - Costuming, Part II!

Pants, shirt, vest, polka-dot bow-tie.. (he's been expecting a jacket, currently in production).

I like the progression his wardrobe's been making. He may be technically dead but he's not unpleasant - his clothes are of a proper sort, and the bow-tie (polka-dots and warm pastels) makes him a little more endearing.




I opted for painting a layer of brown acrylic over the tissue-paper-covered antlers, and used ink and a toothpick to add lines and grooves.

The Bowtie:

French knots on silk (remnants of a childhood hair-scrunchie).


I added interfacing to add more durability - the fabric by itself isn't terribly strong, and this prevents it from excessive splitting between the fabric fibres when I'm poking the needle through.


Trimmed to size and ironed.


Top and sides sewn; from there I tucked under and hand-stitched the bottom closed, then scrunched the square down into a bow-tie volume and sewed the middle to maintain that shape. I was originally going to use some of the silk to form the middle band, but it would have been too bulky and I've since warmed up to the thread alternative - it adds a bit of a folksy, hand-made feel.