Pancake Day

The film is about a little girl who follows a group of weirdly dressed-up townsfolk on the Lithuanian festival Užgavėnės (an equivalent to the pancake day) to get back her toy. On the way, she learns bravery and how to appreciate old traditions.

The technique for the animation is mixed digital 3d and 2d style. Softwares used: Autodesk Maya, 3DCoat, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere Pro and Tvpaint. Rendered using MNPRX tools, accessible at artineering.io.

Užgavėnės:

It’s a Lithuanian pagan festival celebrating the coming of spring. A major element of the holiday, meant to symbolize the defeat of winter in the Northern Hemisphere, is a staged battle between Lašininis (“porky”) personifying winter and Kanapinis (“hempen man”) personifying spring. Furthermore, people dress up and wear masks to scare the winter away and at the end of the festival Morė (an effigy of winter) is burnt as the last step to force out the winter.

Ona is a young girl. A bit of a scaredy cat, but to get back her beloved toy she will learn how to be brave

Lašininis (porky) - another effigy of winter. Portrait as bad traits for the Spring time, like being lazy or over-eating.

Kanapinis (Hempman) - An effigy of spring. Shows desired traits of a good villager. Hardworking and ready for fasting. 

Storyboards:

Visual Development:

Storyboards vs Final Renders:

Full movie (still in progress):