Theft

Theft by Victor Preto, recent graduate from Sheridan BAA Animation Program. Theft is Victor’s Thesis film which he talks about below…

Who?

I directed, storyboarded, designed the characters, drew and painted the layouts, made character rigs, animated, and composited the whole film. Caleb Chan made the music for my film and Mark Mayerson who mentored me along the way.

What?

A hungry raccoon breaks into a home to feed himself. But runs into more then just a delicious meal along the way.

Why?

It was a 4th year project we had to do at Sheridan College. So when thinking of ideas, I kept going back to this assignment I did in first year, about a raccoon trying to steal garbage. I tried to avoid it since it didn’t have much of a story. One day I did a drawing of a raccoon that I liked, and I knew no matter what, I was going to be animating a raccoon in the months to come. So I gradually started to form a story around this character and before I knew it the whole thing came together. And even though I didn’t use much inspiration from these animators on my film, my inspiration comes from Ollie Johnston, Frank Thomas, and my favourite of them all Milt Kahl.

How?

I storyboarded everything on Flash (which allowed me to quickly lock down the timing)
Animated everything on Flash (using symbols).
Drew and painted the layouts on Photoshop.
Composited everything in After Effects.
And used a wacom tablet for the most part.

Next Project?

Well there are many things I’ve currently got planned to animate. The biggest thing I’ve got planned is a new short. Without giving anything away, I plan on making it about a minute long. And traditionally animate it on Flash. I plan on finishing it in the next 2 years.

Animated film I wish I made?

To many to count! But A few that I wish I had made would include The Iron Giant, Tekkonkinkreet, 101 Dalmatians, Toy Story, and The Incredibles.