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BROWN BAG FILMS is an Irish company behind award-winning, internationally successful animated shows like Doc McStuffins (if you’ve a child, you’ll know this show well), the Octonauts, and shorts like Give Up Yer Aul Sins.
A trip around their offices showed us that it takes a HUGE amount of work to create every little piece of these shows. Creating the characters isn’t just a matter of scribbling down an idea, and colouring it in.
For a volunteer project led by Brown Bag employee Damien O’Connor, staff worked in their free time to create a stunning short called Anya to help raise money for To Russia With Love.
O’Connor showed us how they worked on one particular scene in Anya, turning it from script to storyboard…
To screen:
How long did it take them to take this nine-second clip from script to screen?
Six months.
For more on how Brown Bag Films works, read our interview with O’Connor about the animation process (and find out his tips on how to get into the business).
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Great stuff,an Irish company involved with Disney and Nickelodeon plus nominated for an Oscar,Bafta and Emmy award.Keep it going!
Doc McStuffin…The saviour of many a parent in around the world..
That is beautiful. No more words needed to describe it.
That animation is stunning. Well done Brown Bag, and all involved.
A friend of mine was working on An American tale and he was showing me what was involved
Serious respect to you folks.
6 months for a 9 second clip? Sounds like they are sitting around scratching their nads all day.
Sounds like you don’t understand what’s involved… or like to spew bile from a fake social media account for fear of interacting on a human level
Well said
Most of the studio’s resources would be dedicated towards the tv series they have going on. Shows like The Octonauts, Hugglemonsters, Doc McStuffins and Peter Rabbit. Those would be the studio’s bread and butter. Deadlines must be met.
Short films like this would not be the priority, so I imagine that not a lot of resources are put towards it. Hence the reason why they take so long to make.
You’ve no idea what’s involved in making an animation! I made a stop motion for my visual communications course, it took months to create/design characters and story boards, shooting the whole thing, then editing. What I did is basic to what these guys are at, so quit being ignorant and appreciate the true talent.
The nine-second clip was just one part of what they were working on – the whole project took 14 months from when the idea was pitched to the piece released on YouTube.
On no Eoghan… You have revealed my underlying issues for all to see. Finally now I might get help for all of my issues.
Or maybe… Just maybe… I made a quick comment on a story and you like to sit reading such comments and analyzing the authors. Really thinking about their mindset and motives. Imagining their state of mind and day dreaming that they have a sad life, while you sit at home (alone) commenting on their comments. The irony is strong here.
I miss the old hand drawn animation style. Computer rendered characters tend to creep me out. They always look like weird marionette dolls.
I presume you meant to say ninety second clip having watched the animation. Pity the type editor didn’t.
What are you on about its a nine second clip
It is nine seconds – check out the longer piece I wrote for more videos of the nine seconds. Also we don’t have ‘type editors’ here, we’re journalists ;)
Being an animator myself I’d say 6 Months for a nine second clip is way too long. Although it would be lovely to have that much time to work on a clip :)
Animators usually get anything from a week for things like Octonautes to around 4 to 10 weeks for something at Pixar quality and that’s if it’s a really difficult shot with many characters.
Obviously this doesn’t account for story-boarding, pre-vis, models, texturing, rigging, lighting and rendering but even if you were to take these into account, looking at the pre-vis supplied and the quality of the animation and assuming they were working on that shot from nothing, as in they had to build all the characters and environments included in that shot. Also assuming they were working on it full time, 5 days a week.
That shot would of taken a maximum of 3 months, 3 and half if they had to actually concept the two characters as well. Also I’m basing it on just one person working on it. If it were a team, that shot should of been completed well within 2 months.
Of course if they were doing this in their spare time then the time would vary greatly. But then the articles title would be very misleading.
Very heart tuching . X
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