Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1516015
ALL ABOARD ANIMATOR ANDREW CHESWORTH USED MODERN TOOLS TO CAPTURE THE WHIMSY OF THE PAST IN HIS SHORT FILM THE BRAVE LOCOMOTIVE. To call The Brave Locomotive a nostalgic joy ride is an understate- ment. Written and directed by Andrew Chesworth, who also served as the Lead Animator and EP, this Oscar-qualifying short film embraces the past in look, feel, and story. Henry the engineer and Linus the coal train engine work in cooperation to get their job done, transporting modest loads and caring for even the smallest creatures crossing the tracks. But along comes progress in the form of cigar-puffing Samson the steam engine, and Linus is cast aside in what becomes a little train that could, then couldn't, then could again tale. The story is told completely in lyrics and melody, and Chesworth's inspirations were 1940s Disney anthology films like Melody Time and Make Mine Music. "Creating music in parallel with storyboards and animation can yield a rich, unified, vintage result," he says. Before the melodies were written, Chesworth crafted prose like a bedtime story. Then he collaborated with Composer and Sound Designer Tom Hambleton to rewrite that material as simplified lyrics that conformed to the melodies they developed. The two worked strategically, removing lyrics when they felt the visuals and score were strong enough to sustain the drama on their own. The lyrics themselves add to the film's old timey feel, capturing the boogie-woogie style popularized by the Andrew Sisters. Production design was equally informed by 1940s animation, although Chesworth explains that everything was created on computer. Layouts and backgrounds were painted in Photoshop, while animation was created primarily in TVPaint. Although rendered to look like the drawn characters, the trains were created in Maya, and scenes were assembled in After Effects and given a vintage treatment with subtle film grain and other filters. Finally, the whole film was edited together in Premiere. "The fully digital pipeline is just so independent-friendly and remote-friendly," Chesworth says. Nominated for an Oscar for his short film, One Small Step, Chesworth is an animation veteran. He's worked as an Animator on numerous films including Wreck-It Ralph, Moana, and The Monkey King. Currently Character Lead on an upcoming animated series for Netflix, he notes that there was still a lot to learn on this project. "Even a scene that goes by in the blink of an eye can require days of dedicated work," he says. "Balancing my producer hat with my ground-level artist hat was the hardest thing." Animating about one-third of the film himself, Chesworth worked with a team of about 30 visual artists on the rest. Chesworth funded the film through Patreon, an income-generating website that operates on a subscription model. Subscribers usually receive something in return for their subscription, and for this project, higher subscription tiers came with "more visibility into our processes of design, animation, and music," Chesworth says. Using Patreon removed pressure since he made the project on the side of his regular job, and he didn't have a definitive end date. Using social media to promote, he had hundreds of Patreon supporters from 2020 to 2023. "This enabled me to pay freelance background painters and animators, and subsidized the cost of music production," he says. When asked what he'd advise new filmmakers wanting to make a short, he says, "It sounds obvious, but pick a concept that you truly love and can always engage with even at your lowest point. The whole point of a passion project is to express something that can only come from you." Chesworth grew up loving trains, classical animation, and musicals, and he says that everything about The Brave Locomotive was built around things he appreciates. Chesworth also offers more practical advice: "Confront the numbers early to form a cohesive strategy." He suggests tracking everything in a document, including how long your film is, how many shots are in it, and how many days it takes to do one shot. "[From here] you can find places to simplify," he says. "Streamlining a story for cost can also make it more interesting for the audience. Brevity is the soul of wit, and short films are all about brevity." Nostalgia played a major role in the creation of The Brave Locomotive. F I N A L N O T E 42 KEYFRAME