No Bird's Land - Esma

What if three strangers woke up alone in the middle of a battlefield?

Teaser

Full Movie

Still Frames

Production

Characters

When we designed the characters, the intend was to keep some bird like features such as the beak and the foot. However, we didn’t want the characters to be able to fly. It was really important they remain stuck to the ground, like soldiers during the war.

We just put feathers on their hands to remind wings. We put a specific focus on their faces giving them human eyes as we wanted the spectator to be able to empathise with them.

The modelling of feathers has been a major stake at the beginning of the production. We knew they would be only on the head and the hands, but we weren't sure how to create distinctive pigeon feathers. Through trials and errors, the groom artist eventually based our model on the feathers from pigeon neck.

Assets and Background

For our background, we aimed at being as realistic as possible despite our stylization. We conducted extensive research on World War I and created a variety of assets with numerous variations. For the stylization, we chose a blend of realistic shaders with painted textures. In the compositing phase, we added hoarfrost all over the battlefield, and matte painting completed the composition of painted and realistic elements.

Breakdown

Matte Painting

Pre-Production

Character Design

Set Design

Color Script & Luma Script

Directed by :

Léa Clastres : Chara Design, Rigging, Animation, Editing

Thomas Coppée : Chara Modeling, CFX, Modeling, Texturing, Rendering

Romain Ferrandez : Compositing, Modeling, LookDev, Texturing, Lighting

Emélie Garcia : Production, Layout, Animation, Rigging, Editing

Coline Laclau-Pussacq : Chara Texturing, Groom, Set Dressing, Lighting, Compositing

Louise Massardi : FX, Set Dressing, Lighting, Compositing

Romain Mosser : Set Design, Matte Painting, Animation

Quitterie Ortuno : Modeling, Set Dressing,  Environment, Texturing, LookDev, Lighting

Chloé Raynal : Storyboard, Rigging, Layout, Animation

A huge thanks to our interns, especially to : 

Maëline Dalous (Animation)

Evaline Vaiti (Animation)

Maëlle Couzinier (Animation)

Ghita Hsaine (Animation)

Original Score :

Inès Hadjla

Sound Recording, Sound Editing :

Sébastien Fournier

Tristan Le Bozec

José Vicente

Mixing 5.1 :

José Vicente

Yoann Poncet

Studio Des Aviateurs

Voiced By :

Benoît Allemane : Jean

Emmanuel Curtil : Edgar

Tristan Le Bozec : Georges

Gregoire Vannier : Georges

Jean Bultingaire : Soldiers