Interview with Animator
Ben Fiquet Creator of
"Pyrats"
Watch it now!
We were wowed by the amazing classic animation of "Pyrats", a short adventure by students from the famous Gobelins School in France.
What are your backgrounds?
The movie was co-directed by five people, coming from very different backgrounds. But we've all had a passion for animation since childhood, from classic Disney movies to the Japanese animation that airs on Saturday mornings.
Ben's Portfolio
What sort of training do you have? At our school Gobelins in Paris, we have a really strong course in all aspects of animation; backgrounds, storyboards, 3D but especially
2D animation training. We studied with really amazing professionals for 2 years before starting our graduation movie "Pyrats".
Why do you like doing animation?
I think this is the fact that it brings life to something that is just coming from your imagination. And it goes further, beyond, you can stretch the reality that you give to this for aiming to something better, different .Something you can't see in live action.
What influences do you have?
The influences are really different from one director to another. Some of us were more into Japanese animation including great animators or directors like Imaishi, Miyazaki or Hosoda and some of us were into classical animation such as Disney, Warner Bros. and Pixar. But we knew that, though different, all of these influences were beneficial as we could learn from them.
Watch "Pyrats"
What inspired your story?
The story was just something we wanted to see on screen - pirates fighting with blood and sweat... not the typical kind of thing you can see nowadays in traditional animated movies.
But we also wanted, in the short amount of time we had in this film, to bring a lot to every character and have a story where you could empathize with them. It's not just a joke at the end. We wanted the spectator to ask himself where the characters are coming from...what they want.
What techniques did you use?
It's mainly traditional animation on paper, scan and colorized in
Photoshop. For one shot, we used 3d backgrounds hand painted to look similar to what we had in 2d backgrounds. We also used Flash for adding some shadows and some effects. All of this is composited in After Effects.
How much time did it take?
It took 7 months to complete.
Any big challenges?
The main challenge was to learn how to work together. As you multiply the number of directors, you also multiply the number of ideas and opinions.
Watch "Pyrats"
View Ben's Portfolio