“Fatherhood” – Creating a contest-winning short in six days

“Limitless worlds at the power of my fingertips, it’s a beautiful feeling.”

Marius: You created this short for the “Stay at home” challenge from Film Riot. How did you decide to participate?

Brennan: I’ve been following Film Riot for years. Actually, I found them pretty much when they first started. They frequently hold online film festivals/contests and I’ve always wanted to participate but have never had the chance. Whether it was work or personal life, I just haven’t ever had the time before.

I got particularly excited about this competition because one of the criteria for the festival was no “Gloom and Doom”. The first thing I thought of was my son, because he is the exact opposite of that. He’s the best part of my day, and he makes me smile every single day. So my 7 month-year-old son, now 8 months, was my inspiration for the film. And it brought me so much joy to make this film almost as a tribute to him, and to the first 7 months of parenting.

I was also extremely happy to see how many parents I was able to reach and relate with after the film came out. To know that other parents have a similar experience to what I showed in the film is heart warming.

You entered the contest with an animation short, while the vast majority of the entries were camera work. What did you think about your chances to win?

To be honest, I thought they were very slim. Because technically it didn’t even say in the rules that an animated film could be submitted. So it was a real shot in the dark, and I thought I might get disqualified.

However, the rules didn’t say they couldn’t be submitted, and the only stipulation was that it had to be made in your home. Which is exactly what I did. I made it right here in my home office on my computer. But I’m extremely happy that my film wasn’t overlooked for being an animated film. I’m just glad Ryan and Scott loved it and judged it for what it is…a film!

Tell me about your creative process – from script to the completed short. Do you have a method for approaching this kind of production?

Yes I do have a pretty specific method that I generally stick to. I’ve directed a decent amount of animation now that I kind of have a process that I think works. And honestly, it’s really not much different than what I do when I’m directing live action. There are obviously a couple of advantages and disadvantages to both. But for the most part they are very similar.

Everything always starts out with the concept and the story. Before anything else, before I start even thinking about design I have to lock down the story.

After that, I write the script. There is something beautiful about animation because although we were confined to our house (one of the criteria of the film festival due to lockdown), I actually wasn’t confined or limited by anything. The possibilities of my imagination were limitless. So in fact, it’s as if I had an advantage over everyone in that regard. Considering that I believe I am one of the few that did an animated film. Limitless worlds at the power of my fingertips, it’s a beautiful feeling.

So everything revolves around the script and the story. The design of the characters is directly impacted by the story, as is the design of the environment.

For “Fatherhood”, I spent all of day one locking down the script and the concept before I moved on to anything. After that every second of every day was a race to the finish line, trying to capitalize on every single moment to get this thing done in time. I found out about the competition a day late. So in total, I actually had six days. And by the time I finalized the script, I only had five days.

Day two was spent entirely on modeling the Dad character. Since he was in a majority of the shots, I had to nail him down first.

Day three was texturing the Dad character, lighting, and test renders. That night I also designed the living room where the film takes place in.

Day four was rigging and animating. I knew I had to get some shots rendering or I was never going to make it.

Day 5 was rendering, more animating, and as shots would start to download from the render farm, I would composite them and color them in After Effects.

Finally – Day six was sound design, music and any final touches!

What did it take to create one minute of animation from scratch in 6 days?

Honestly, it took A LOT! Haha ask my fiancé.

The brutal truth is it does take a mental and physical toll on your mind and body to pull something like this off.

Most nights I slept at my desk, or on the floor by my desk for about two hours. I would usually sleep from 4am to 6am, or 3am to 6am. This was strictly because there’s just not enough hours in the day sometimes. And I knew in order to do this I needed every last minute I could get. And it just so happens that it came down to the wire for me, as I knew it would.

I submitted the film 15 minutes before the deadline. And up until that final moment of submission, I never for once actually thought I was going to pull this off. I continued to push and push, but there was a good part of me that thought I was making this for myself, and I wouldn’t actually get to release it. Throughout the entire process, I was unsure. It’s not a good feeling, haha. Especially when about 14 hours before the submission deadline I still hadn’t designed the son character! If I had taken longer on even just one thing I would have most likely missed the deadline!

What was the most difficult part of creating the movie?

The most difficult part for me was modeling and texturing. I LOVE texturing and lighting, but it was very time-consuming. I hand-painted every single grunge map on the robots. I didn’t use any clever node setups because nothing looked quite right, and I couldn’t afford to waste time messing with that. So that was frustrating to hand paint I think about 30 grunge maps. Every bolt and hinge and body piece was hand-painted.

Another thing that was difficult was modeling because I am a perfectionist and I tend to obsess about every little detail. Obviously, with a deadline like this, I couldn’t afford to. So struggling to find a happy medium was tough. Also designing robots to mimic humans was harder than it sounds. Making a robot look like a kid and a dad is not an easy task.

How did RenderStreet help?

RenderStreet saved my life. Without RenderStreet this film would not have been possible. Not even close. I think one frame took about 10 minutes to render on my computer. At that rate, I wouldn’t have been done for weeks. RenderStreet has been my go-to Render Farm for years, and they really came through for me when I needed them the most. I started rendering all of my shots the day before the deadline. To be able to upload, render, and download all of my shots ( I think there were about 14) in less than 24 hours is insane.

Looking back, would creating a one-minute short in 6 days have been possible for you three years ago?

Haaa! Absolutely not. 3 years ago I was not the artist I am today. I was still using Cinema4D and I don’t want to hate on that program at all, because it’s all personal preference, but I truly did not grow as much as I have until I switched over to Blender. I switched over about 2 years ago. But also 3 years ago I had never designed a character before. Never even attempted character animation. I had never done full CG environments, and had never integrated an acting performance with a 3D character. So no, I can confidently say 3 years ago, my film would not have looked like it does now.

We are living in unprecedented times, because of the worldwide quarantine. Did this impact the way you work? What about your creative process?

I think I was lucky in a sense, because the quarantine didn’t really affect me that much, creatively speaking. I am very used to working from home with my family. Although I was working at a studio for the last two years, I would still come home and work on my own projects at night. And years before that I freelanced from home. So myself and my family are both very used to it. So being stuck in a house quarantined together didn’t affect me creatively at all. What it did do was put a little bit of extra stress on everyone. My mother was in town for what would have been my wedding, before it got canceled. So my mom got stuck in Los Angeles with us. So it was me, my fiancé Shelby, our 7 month year old son, and my mom in a townhouse in Los Angeles, not super ideal haha. Since everyone is used to me being able to help out around the house with our son, or just anything in general really, the stress came from me not being able to do that.

Has your experience as a director influenced your work as a 3D artist?

Absolutely. They go hand in hand together so well. My experience directing helped tremendously. I believe if I had no experience directing, I would never have been able to make “Fatherhood”. Because ultimately making a film, wether it be CG or not, is all about telling a story. I think a lot of people forget that when they see an animated film.

Directing an animated film is full of all of the beautiful intricacies of making a traditional film. Camera angles, camera movement, lighting, cinematography, props, wardrobe, characters, acting, etc. For example, early on in the development stages of the script, I decided to add a third character. The two main characters are Dad and his Son. But the third character is actually the camera.

I decided to make the entire film shot from the perspective of Dad. He’s vlogging the entire experience of being a parent. The audience can imagine that the universe these characters exist in is pretty similar to the one we live in now. So we can assume he’s filming on his phone or personal camera. I did this very specifically to eliminate any possibilities for crazy camera movement. I did this because I tend to obsess about angles, coverage, and complex camera moves. Which can be good, but also sometimes crippling. And it can get in the way of what’s important, rather than helping, which is the story. So I immediately eliminated any dolly or slider shots, jib shots, or anything too cinematic. Every single angle had to make sense and feel as though the dad was actually filming it.

I think in the end this actually helped me out in more ways than one. I think it actually helped assist some of the humor and relatability of the film. Everyone can relate to filming an experience on their phone. And in “Fatherhood” when the Son character throws his rattle at the dad, I think one of the reasons it’s so funny to me is that when the dad gets hit, the camera drops to the floor. If this weren’t the case, and I had a traditional camera angle, I don’t think the joke would have landed as well.

What would be the most important piece of advice you would give to a 3D artist who is interested in improving?

I would say that just know the possibilities are endless. The answer IS out there somewhere if you search hard enough and work hard enough. I would advise to research as much as possible, whenever and wherever you can. And never stop creating because, at the end of the day, that is the best way to learn. Trial and error, and repeating that as much as possible until the error margin starts to shrink smaller and smaller.

And also, have fun, because that’s what it’s all about!

Brennan has more work, as well as scene breakdowns from the movie, on his YouTube channel.