Destiny is for the Birds
Destiny is for the Birds by Michael Ruocco. This short is Michael’s Thesis film from the School of Visual Arts and Won the “Outstanding Achievement in Traditional Animation” award at the 2011 Dusty Film and Animation Festival. Michael spoke to us about the making of his fantastic short…
Who?
Besides myself, the majority of the people who helped out on my film were undergraduate students at SVA (mostly freshman), who colored shots for me. My loving girlfriend, Shannon Murphy, was my “color stylist”. She colored all of the backgrounds in the film, which I drew. Another underclassmen and friend of mine, Andy Scherman, performed the ending song. Without them, I NEVER would have gotten the film done.
What?
The story is about a duck who drags his dodo friend into flying in his makeshift airplane, leading to disastrous results.
Why?
I just really wanted to animate two contrasting personalities and have them bounce off one another. One character is fun-loving and has big dreams and aspirations, but is impatient, overlooks the important things and doesn’t see things all the way through. His friend, on the other hand, always thinks things through, is happy with where he is in life and is content with being down to earth (both characteristically and physically).
I discovered both Walt Kelly’s Pogo and Jeff Smith’s Bone in my first years of college, and they had an immense impact on my work from that point on. And I always loved Calvin and Hobbes and Disney’s Winnie-the-Pooh shorts from the 60’s ever since I was a kid, and they all were a big influence in my thesis, as well as my work in general. I saw the trailer for the recent Winnie the Pooh feature right at the beginning of production of my film in the Fall of 2010, and that really inspired me and helped push me along through the course of my last year of college.
As far as favorite animators go, I adore a lot of the classic Disney animators, Freddie Moore and Ward Kimball especially. Most of my favorite Disney animators, while being exceptionally good at the craft, were unfortunately ones that were overshadowed by the Nine Old Men, and never received proper recognition, both now and during their lifetimes (John Sibley, Hal King, Cliff Nordberg, etc.).
How?
The film was mostly animated, cleaned up (rushed, unfortunately) and colored in Flash, with a handful of scenes done in ToonBoom. The backgrounds were done on paper and colored in Photoshop, and everything was composited in After Effects. For style, I really aimed for the classic Pooh films. I really wanted to go for that sketchy Xerox-line style from the 60’s Disney films, but sadly Flash isn’t really good at translating that idea. Maybe next time.
Next Project?
I’m working on a new short film, as well as a few small tests and things to build a demo reel. One the tests I’m planning is to animate the characters from Walt Kelly’s Pogo comic strip. I’m going to take a Sunday strip and animate it as close to Walt Kelly’s style as possible, ink lines and all. I’m not sure how long it’ll be until it’s completed, but it’s in the early stages now. I’m also doing a little bit of freelance work for the time being. I’m saving up to move out to California by the beginning of next year.
Which animated film would you like to have made?
I would’ve loved to work on something to music like in Fantasia or Allegro Non Troppo, or working with classic characters like last year’s Winnie the Pooh film. There’s something about those characters and the world they live in that draws me to it. It’s such an appealing, charming thing.
