Margherita Premuroso:

I started thinking about the story at the beginning of Class 5. I wanted it to be romantic and poetic, but I also wanted a cute style overall. I didn't want it to be ironic or have gags. I imagined the story evoking a tender smile on the spectator's face. Flying is every child's dream and that “dreams come true” theme is important to me, which is why the film is rather autobiographic.

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Margherita Premuroso:

The first lesson I learned while making my film was the importance of pre-production: Plan everything from the start in order to make as few mistakes as possible during development. Of course, many things change, but even if it doesn't turn out exactly as planned, it's important to have clear ideas of the plot's key moments, the character's personality, the way the character moves, key poses, etc.

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Margherita Premuroso:

The best piece of advice I received was to keep it simple, starting with the story and continuing through to key poses. My animation was complex and overloaded, my poses were complex and sometimes my character lost ease and agility. Other times, I neglected arches drawn by arms and nose and my teachers reminded me how important these were for smoothness in movements.

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Margherita Premuroso:

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After my mentor approved my pitch, I started with the storyboard, only a few meaningful shots with good variety. Then I worked on the layouts.

I asked my friends to help me with modeling and rigging the character, followed by production. We came across some issues, but solved them together.

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After assembling the animatic, I understood the duration of each shot better. The layout gave me an idea of the dimensions of the frame, of movements and volumes.

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I went on to key poses that I wanted to be strong and balanced, so I focused my attention on emphasized movements to reflect Tim's intentions.

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The second step was to insert breakdowns and fix "easy in" and "easy out" timing. After receiving my mentor's approval, I went on to spline mode and polishing to refine my animation and fix overlay to anticipation, etc.

The last step was final matte painting, something I really enjoyed!

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Margherita Premuroso:

During pre-production, I often consulted with peers, colleagues and friends who love the industry. Their feedback helped me to build the story, position the cameras and better understand what I aimed to express.

I made quite a few character changes to better understand his physiognomy and personality. I focused on the facial expressions because the framing was close up on the face. This helped me to get an idea of which expressions to create in modeling for the blend shape during the story. I also made a layout of the treehouse environment to choose the light and the main colors I wanted to use. I wanted lighting to evoke some kind of silent and secret event, just as a child's treehouse does.

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Margherita Premuroso:

The main obstacle I came across was being able to tell everything I wanted to tell in 30 seconds. I would have liked to be more descriptive and make the plane building part longer, but respecting the rules and limits given to me by my mentor was rule number one. Having limits and restrictions can actually help, if they guide the way, but can also be limiting because it sets the boundaries. But that's work...

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Margherita Premuroso:

My mentors followed me all the way. They helped me to improve my initial concept to better understand the story development and simplify it. They also gave me tips to hide difficult issues with my rig, such as when Tim puts his helmet on. My mentors helped me with positioning cameras, focusing on the character's psychology, and with defining Tim's personality, emotions and excitement as he builds the plane.

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Margherita Premuroso:

Planning and planning is the basis of everything. It allows you to build a solid structure for the story. It all starts with planning.

Be original, avoid clichés and search for your own style!