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www.postmagazine.com 43 POST JULY 2016 EDUCATION & RECRUITMENT 'An Object at Rest' The world has experienced a great deal of change over the course of its history. In the animated short film "An Object at Rest," the main character — a rock — witnesses the passage of time in a life-altering way. "The character has a single want: sleep," says director/artist-animator Seth Boyden from California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). "The film is also a fun way to see the world in a new way, from the perspective of a rock and how time and movement plays around in a different way to something that's been here for millions of years." In a 2D painterly, organic style, Boyden detailed the life of the stone as it trav- els over the course of millennia, fac- ing nature's greatest obstacle: human civilization. He generated all the visual elements for the 5-minute, 43-second film. Meanwhile, Julian Beutel served as com- poser, and Cooper Babbes and Pin-Hua Chen designed the sounds. "I remember my favorite moments were hearing the sounds and music cre- ated for this movie for the first time," says Boyden. "All the voice actors, designers, the composer, and musicians all exceed- ed my expectations in bringing my rock character to life." Boyden came up with the concept at the end of August 2014, and completed the project in mid-April 2015. A visit to his family in Indiana led to the story. "I was walking with my dad on an old country road. We were talking about time and how we as humans have existed for such a short time on earth," he recalls. "We talked about the gravel rocks on the road and how much of the world they must have seen in the millions of years they've been there. I thought it would be fun to have a character who would be a witness to the slow development of our world." Boyden continues: "Personally, I've been amazed how many people enjoy a movie about a rock that doesn't want to do anything. However, I think it goes back to this film being about getting to know a character who has a single want and struggles against unthinkable odds to get it." A Colorful History The 2D imagery paints a colorful history of the world over the course of many, many millennia — from the evolution of ocean dwellers to the land, the rise and fall of dinosaurs, to settlers clearing fields, through the Civil War, the rise of industry and even a future space launch. "I had developed a watercolor style in the previous two years of school that I was still trying to develop. Since the film had a lot to do with nature, I thought wa- tercolor was a good way to introduce or- ganic colors and soft lines," says Boyden. Along the way, the artist was influ- enced by illustrations from Disney artist Bill Peet and Japanese film director/ani- mator Hayao Miyazaki. The style, however, proved to be one of the most difficult things about making the film. It required more than 1,000 hand- drawn frames that are all moving and telling a story. Particularly challenging was the 300 million-year timelapse shots at the begin- ning and end of the film, Boyden says. While the film took approximately nine months to make, close to five months of that was for animation alone. Boyden animated the film in TVPaint Developpement's TVPaint software, using traditional backgrounds. He added special effects, such as moving animation layers, watercolor paper textures on the characters, and camera moves in Adobe's After Effects. The only CG integration the artist used was for basic solid objects that would move slowly in frame. "There was a mill wheel, the second-stage space module that gets detached and the on- coming cars in the city sequence, which were all crudely modeled in Maya," he explains. To save time, he exported a rough copy of the moving models and then drew over them in TVPaint. According to Boyden, the most difficult part of the process was "patiently ani- mating very complex 2D animation shots. Whether it was the timelapse animation or the Civil War naval battle scene, they all had lots of things action occurring at the same time. The only solution was many