Emilie Goulet:

Animation Mentor offered many lectures that stimulated my creative side. Making a short film was the part I was looking forward to the most when starting the program. I feared the day I would have to come up with an idea, though. The brainstorm exercises were very helpful. The idea for the cookies came from an event that happened in my own childhood. My brother had decided he would go through the whole box of cookies -- just before lunchtime. The story of Cookie Kid is completely different, but I thought the idea of seeking freshly baked cookies, especially my mother’s, was appealing and something many people could relate to.

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Emilie Goulet:

Planning was definitely the most important part for me. Knowing where I was going with each shot was fundamental. Beyond the animation aspect, one thing I knew I had to be careful with was fatigue. Animation Mentor is an intense program and I almost burnt out before starting the film. I didn’t want to make the same mistake during production. I knew the film would suffer from it. Pulling an all-nighter wasn’t an option. To me, that sort of planning was just as important as the planning of the actual animation. Of course, I did work late many times, and I took a big break after I finished the program.

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Emilie Goulet:

Before the program, it was a challenge to show my work in progress to peers and to my lead. I thought I had to justify my choices if the animation wasn’t in a finished stage. Exchanging feedback before showing our work to our mentor and also having to submit it at different stages of the process helped tremendously – it taught me how to deal with insecurity. I realized that if other students didn’t understand what was going on in my shot, it didn’t mean that I was a bad person. I learned to accept my mistakes without putting myself down. There is still progress to be made, but I improved a lot!

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Emilie Goulet:

I started out by brainstorming ideas. With the help of my mentor, Justin Barrett, I wrote a small story, made a story pitch and then moved on to my storyboard. I shot a few video references and looked for images that illustrated the atmosphere of the film. Even if I wanted to go with a very simple look, it was important to define what I was going for. I then moved on to the layout. At that stage, I was working with low resolution props and environment. Daniel, a friend of mine, later created a final version. With Maya’s reference editor, it was very easy to replace the low-resolution models with the final ones. Then I started the animation blocking pass, followed by a spline and polish pass. I took a month after the program to finish the film (textures, lighting, rendering). My brother, Maxime, composed a charming track for the film. Yan, a friend of his, did the final mix. My sister, Virginie, did the compositing.

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Emilie Goulet:

The Story Pitch
I thought finding an idea was difficult, and presenting it was another big challenge. Using words to explain the story helped to clarify the plot and make sure it had some sort of appeal.

The Animatic
I don’t consider myself a good draftsperson, but I did enjoy putting the story on paper. I had a feeling that the film was starting to shape up. I knew exactly what it would look like before going into 3D.

The Layout
Basically, the animatic is in 3D. At first I wanted to add some poses to the layout (see the first few shots), but my mentor helped me realize that the goal of the layout is to see the film in terms of camera angles and where the characters are positioned in each shot.

The Blocking Pass
I like to put as many details as possible in the blocking pass, starting with the main poses and then adding breakdowns and in-betweens. If the actions and emotions aren’t getting across at this stage, it won’t get any better down the line, so I fix it during the blocking pass.

The Spline Pass
Even if I try to have a clean blocking pass, there is always more work to do when I hit “spline.” The good news is that I feel that the transition is getting a little less painful with time!

Final Pass
The icing on the cake. This is where I do final tweaks before hitting “render.”

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Emilie Goulet:

Working full time wasn’t necessarily an obstacle, but it was a constraint I had to take into consideration when making the film. Luckily, I was able to take Fridays off for the last three months of the production. It allowed me to keep my focus on the film and to have a bit more sleep on weekends!

The other constraint was that the other people helping me out were also working full time, even crunching. We had to plan everything carefully. I didn’t want to make their lives difficult with my project. We respected and trusted each other, hence it went pretty smoothly.

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Emilie Goulet:

Animation Mentor helped me build self-confidence. Although I was nervous before starting, I was determined to move forward. The mentors gave me incredible advice and support. Thank you Paul Allen, Dimos Vrysellas, T.Dan Hofstedt, Sean Ermey, Justin Barrett and Ethan Hurd! I made wonderful friends all over the world and in my home city who weren’t afraid to tell me when something didn’t work…and celebrated with me when it did! Student Care and Tech Support were very reassuring. The Animation Mentor community is tight and I think it’s the secret to its success.

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Emilie Goulet:

Never underestimate the power of planning! Practice and sharing your work will also make it easier to go through the intense journey of making a film. It’s important to have an idea of the big picture while doing the storyboard and layout. Once you start the animation, looking at each shot as a single exercise is less intimidating. Use the community as much as possible for advice, but in the end, it’s your film and you make the decisions. Lastly, have fun!!! It’s the most exciting experience!