Tidy Town
Tidy Town is a 2D animated graduation film created by Thirza van der Zee and me at the University of the Arts, Utrecht (HKU). Written, directed, and produced by me. The short is about Joy, a raccoon cub with a nifty plan to get rid of plastic bottles destroying her town.
visual development
During visual production, I oversaw and worked on the art style which consisted of concept art for the characters and the environment, the storyboard, and the colour board. I wanted the visuals to be cute, with a hint of realism. Reminiscent of animations I loved when I was little. Next to working on the visuals I also rewrote the script more than once as I gathered feedback from industry professionals and added the visual details Thirza and me came up with into the plot and story. My ultimate goal was simplifying the plot to meet our tight deadline: graduation.
CONCEPT ART
Characters
environment
CHARACTER DESIGN
STORYBOARD
During storyboarding, I focused on enhancing Thirza’s strengths – removing unnecessary shots while adding relevant ones.
Storyboard snippet
colour board
After COVID-19 hit the Netherlands, I had to readjust the planning. I painted the backgrounds based on layouts created by Thirza van der Zee, Charlotte Lemmers, Cecil Eijgendaal, and me.
ebsynth
I created a workflow for using Ebsynth to incorporate a painterly style. First, we (the team) finished all character shots with flat colours. Afterwards, I painted most of the key poses to render in Ebsynth. Finally, I cleaned up all the shots in Tvpaint as sampled below.
Animation
During animation production, I worked on both visual effects and character animation for Joy and Wolf. There were three animators working on Joy’s key animation and little time to get 100% comfortable with her design. For consistency’s sake, at the end, I adjusted some shots of Joy to counter the most notable differences.
Selections & Awards
cinekid
best dutch animated short – nominee
Noordelijk filmfestival
Best student Film – Winner
Netherlands film festival
Student competition – official selection
Giffoni film festival
Elements 6+ – Official selection
FFTG Awards
Quarantine Film – Multiple wins
Canadian cinematography awards
november 2020 animation film – winner
Queen City Film Festival
Animated Short – Official selection
credits
original concept by
Dana Alink & Thirza van der Zee
Written, Directed, & Produced by
Dana Alink & Thirza van der Zee
Componist
Isabella Calmet
Sound Production
Jose Varon
sound effects
Milovan Güich
Final Mix
Geoffrey Cannock
Voice acting
Joy & Mayor – Dana Alink
Linnaeus Wolf – Jon Adams
Secretary – Wesley Eagle
CONCEPT ART
Dana Alink & Thirza van der Zee
CHARACTER DESIGN
Dana Alink & Thirza van der Zee
LEAD STORYBOARD DESIGN
Thirza van der Zee
ADDITIONAL STORYBOARD DESIGN
Dana Alink
LAYOUTS
Dana Alink
Cecil Eijgendaal
Charlotte Lemmers
Thirza van der Zee
BACKGROUND ART
Dana Alink
BACKGROUND ART
Dana Alink
LEAD ANIMATION
Dana Alink
Charlotte Lemmers
Thirza van der Zee
ADDITIONAL ANIMATION
Cecil Eijgendaal
Jil Siu
Noémie Bajor
VISUAL EFFECTS
Dana Alink
COLORING
Dana Alink
Dara Dharmaperwira
Cecil Eijgendaal
Tobi Springer
Emelia Waterman
Thirza van der Zee
