What is the film about?

This film is about the sun slowly rising over our planet, encouraging the lonely humans below, lost in a cold winter, to come together and celebrate the growth, the colour and the warmth of springtime. 

What influenced it?

My work is always inspired by nature in one way or another. I have so much admiration for our world; for its beauty and its magic and the way it holds us. I love to depict wonderous, earthly moments that encourage me to care for the planet and the people on it. I hope this sunrise will foster an appreciation for our home, for one another and for a bright, hopeful future. 

A little background information...

I don’t have a lot of formal training as an animator; my background is in illustration. Each time I create an animated project like this I learn so much. The concept of the piece, the composition of the scenes, and the world and character design were familiar territory. My favourite part of the process is the colour, which I spend hours and hours toiling away at and tweaking.

How was the film made?

I used a combination of traditional and digital techniques. I painted all the individual elements on paper in watercolour, which I then brought onto the computer to colour, compose and animate. Each scene is built up of many, many separate elements that come together to create the environments and the animated bits. This process involves a lot of back and forth from physical to digital, so by the time the film was complete I had piles and piles of paper all over my apartment, paint on my hands and desk and computer, and very tired eyes from the hours spent looking at my screen.