Animated Paintings
Wildlife
Remembered
The Great Media Works
For this project, we produced animated artworks for ‘Wildlife Remembered’, a powerful short documentary film produced by Graham Makepeace-Warne, now CEO of Manx Wildlife Trust and UNESCO Biosphere Isle of Man.
The piece captures the perspectives of some of the Isle of Man's older residents on the decline in wildlife on the island over the past fifty years, underscoring the issue of 'shifting baseline syndrome' — how each generation perceives their environment as "normal" even as wildlife populations dwindle.
The brief
Wildlife photography or video would have conflicted with the film’s message of scarcity, so instead Graham asked us to produce artworks inspired by the memories expressed in the interviews that could be layered into the edit.
Our approach
We drew the outline for each artwork from reference photography, taking inspiration from the look of naturalist’s sketchbooks. We then digitally painted in the colour - with a nod to the Bake Off style cake preview artworks! This then animates in behind each composition to ‘bring it to life’.
Finally, we rigged each composition using a variety of techniques in After Effects to make the various critters and environments move about.
The film was premiered at the King’s Court Theatre on the 20th April 2024 to a great reception from the Manx public and Manx Wildlife Trust members.