Sketchtravel - Animated Short Film

Sketchtravel - Animated Short Film

The animated short film above promotes a book that was given to 71 illustrators, animators and comic book artists. It was passed from one artist to another, traveling across 12 countries over 4 and a half years. Some well known artists who contributed to the book were: Hayao Miyazaki, Glen Keane and Quentin Blake. Each artist had one page to fill and each page inspired the next. The whole book is a collective style of many different pieces of work. This book will be auctioned off and the proceeds from the auction and royalties from the book's publication will be donated to the international literacy non-profit, Room to Read.

When I first saw this short, I had not read into the story behind it, yet without reading it I found myself becoming really engaged within the storyline. I wondered what was so special about this book, that it was being passed from one to another. The style of the animation is quite simple yet is really effective, there is nothing that overwhelms the eye and therefore you can concentrate on the main characters and the storyline. (After knowing the background story, I see that the brushstrokes not only adds texture to the animation but it also relates to art in general, how everything in the book has been hand produced.)

The music in this I find is really powerful, it's really in time with the movements of the scene and when the book is passed onto another character, there is a dramatic change in tempo yet it flows into the next change without you noticing too much. Music is always a big part of any film, game or animation, without it no mood or atmosphere would be fully developed. With sound, it puts you in a mind set whether that be happy, sad, scared or even just drawn into the piece more. There are no fluid movements in this animation, it almost resembles an animatic where storyboards are put together to get an idea of what the final outcome may look like. Without the music you would find it to seem out of place and not look right, however the music itself seems to fit perfectly and joins the whole piece together.

I really like this piece, mainly because most of the things you see now-a-days is more CG, VFX and 3D animation, whereas this is not. It's 2D, where everything began. 2D seems to be falling more and more out of fashion as technology advances, but I find that this is a breath of fresh air. It allows you to appreciate the storyline and the artwork rather than be astounded by the extreme visual effects. It strips back to the most important things. All in all, it really makes me smile.