On The Fence

On The Fence by Thaxnay Kapdee and Laura Knighton, University of Lincoln.

Who?

Thaxnay Kapdee – Director, Animator, Rigging, Technical Animator and Post Production
Laura Knighton – Co-Story, Animator, Concept Artist and Texture
Michael Macfadyen – Lighting & Rendering
Amelia George and Zoe Cheale – Modelling, Texturing

What?

On The Fence is a heart-warming tale of young, unadultarated love, between a young, shy little boy and a surefoot, hot-tempered girl. With strokes of drama, comedy and emotion, this story is bought to life by a small team of students, all passionate to present a simple tale, with big ambitions.

How?

After a story concept was conceived, and the storyboards approved, production on our film began and we stuck to a strict schedule throughout the semester(s) to ensure we were on track. Because the sets and assets were simple enough it was easy to get these finished quickly, and plenty of time was allowed to experiment with lighting and rendering styles.

The animation process was the longest, as both me and Laura were learning and improving on our shots as time went on. A shot completed in January of 2014, looked completely different or may have been entirely scrapped by May of the same year, it was a tight ship and an intensive process.

The bulk of the film was made in Autodesk Maya, we used a combination of 3D models with Painterly textures created in Photoshop. Many of the backgrounds are composited in post and additional lighting adjustments and DOF adjustments were made in After Effects.

I used Adobe Flash to create dozens of pencil tests for my scenes, I found that as a beginner this really helped me in getting my head around animating in 3D space. As you can see from the film there are also times when the styles of animation differ, I suppose this was the beauty of being a student; being able to experiment with different styles. If I could I go back to this, I would certainly make it feel more cohesive!

Next Project?

I have been working at Tt Games, creators of the LEGO Video Games, since May 2014. I feel incredibly lucky to be here, and learn from some very talented people, my skills have certainly improved since On The Fence, and I’m still learning tons! We’ve almost wrapped up on one of this years biggest games; LEGO Dimensions, a mashup of incredible IP’s (such an honour to work on The Simpsons and Back to the Future at 22 years old!) and a great, fun game.

I’d like to continue to pursue being a storyteller in Animation, or in any medium. I also have my eyes set on the Animation Direction course at the National Film and Television School, but I know it’s a long road there…best thing to do is just go with it and see where it takes me!

Which Film do you wish you could have made?

The Emperor’s New Groove.

This is one of my all time favourite Disney films, but I feel like there is a ton of potential here that was lost in Development hell on Kingdom of the Sun. “The Sweatbox”, to this day, is one of the most fascinating film documentaries I’ve seen.

I feel like the film’s plot, cast and setting could have been fleshed out a lot more. There are some character beats in the film but too often I feel they are lacking in sincerity or charm. It’s a strange film in the sense that despite the large scale of the journey, it feels very, very small after the grand opening section of the movie. The ending is also slightly messy, but it’s eventually effective and serves its purpose.

It may sound like I’ve knocked the film quite a fair bit, but I’ve just watched it that many times that it’s easy for me to be picky!