Red Thumb — kolya.anim

Red Thumb

2023

SYNOPSIS
A gardener tries to control his environment as he discovers a pulsing red plant. As it physically grows so does their connection, becoming his prized blooming obsession.

CREDITS
Directors/Storyboarders/Animators/Fabricators/Editors: Kolya Kishinsky, Geneva Huffman
Lead Visual Development & Fabrication: Geneva Huffman
Lead Animator: Kolya Kishinsky
Sound: Geneva Huffman, Kolya Kishinsky
Music: EXYL

STILLS

GALLERIES & SCREENINGS

FABRICATION BREAKDOWN
Character
Gardender

Worked on:

Ball and socket armature (connected lashed wire to shoulders for thinner arms and creating fortified feet with smaller tie downs for smaller feet).
Wire armature, lashed with 1 wire method with 23 gauge steel for support.
Rotocast heads for duplication
Hand wire armature lashing for replacement hands, (gloved and ungloved hands).
Created mold for hands, prepped mold for silicone pour.

Plants

Worked on:

Mold making for all parts: creating clay base level, adding keys, wrench points, and edge blocks
Cleaning and drying plaster, prepping with vaseline for mold release to be ready for silicone pour

Garden Details

*All painted with acrylic gouache after fabrication

Close Up Shot Fabrication

Larger hands and garden were fabricated for close up scene to get detail shot of thumb being cut.

In charge of mold making and armature for larger hands.

Set Fabrication
Set was fabricated in our apartment. Sorry for the mess! And thank you to our roomates!

Hill base: made lightweight with wooden connective pieces for stability.

Main base: 4 pieces (Box for house, large hill, main base, side base)

Pull apart side piece for easy shooting. Bent wooden pathway fro tie downs.

Base Carving: Hang over elements to disguise connection pieces.

Set Up of house and environment. Geneva in charge of house carving.

Worked on:

Designed set to be able to be animated from 360,° designed size, material and shape of the set. Used puppet to set scale
Wooden base for tie downs, created a 3 piece set for easy transport and camera placement. Base is able to be clamped together for stability.
Interior wooden base for house
Fabrication and carving of large hill
Landscape carving, carved details on wooden platform
Hill carving for edge pieces: carved hills that can slot into sides but removed for camera placement.
Used silicone caulk to fill holes that foam carving would leave
Painted set under collaborator - Geneva’s color vision

My cat having fun with the set !!!!

Gessoed e

Painted base colors of set before starting to detail enviroment.

Finishing Set, Setup and Lighting

Ladders brought in for sky and lighting set up. Only main base and house on boxes.

Wide shot of studio with tension bar on ceiling for lighting.

Final shot set up. Trees angles for forced perspective.

*Background elements were rearranged to add depth for each shot, lighitng was adjusted for each shot.

Kolya Kishinsky

KOLYA KISHINSKY