My second full animation produced at Freelance Animation School had the benefit of an entire school year devoted to its development.

I chose to go for a more serious tone than the last animation, partly to explore the realistic lighting and rendering techniques I’d been toying with, and partly to differentiate myself from the rest of the class.

By having more time and resources available to me, as well as fewer characters to animate, I was able to implement my first attempts at advanced rendering effects with Mental Ray, simulating cloth and at least a minute of facial dialogue animation.

Even with the extra time, it was a rush to finish it for the end of year exhibition and some scenes from the end of the planned movie (such as a scene where Charles steps back out of the vault into the dawn light) are now non-existent.

Still, it came together how I’d envisioned it in the end and even caught the eye of a certain company in Mount Maunganui...