Imagine, if you will, a feature-length animation about the life and death of post-Impressionist painter Vincent Van Gogh. Now imagine that the animation is made entirely from paintings created in Van Gogh's iconic style, and you're beginning to understand why we're so excited about Loving Vincent.
The movie is currently in production at Oscar-winning studio BreakThru Films, and will be the first feature-length film animated entirely through hand-painted canvases. Remember the 35-minute version of Blade Runner that was created in 12,597 watercolor paintings? Loving Vincent is a little like that, but more labor intensive. BreakThru describes the project on its Kickstarter page, where the studio is raising money to bring the project to fruition:
Every film you see is actually a collection of still images, played back at a speed that makes it appear to be moving. In our film about Vincent Van Gogh, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THESE individual images will be a painting in the style of Van Gogh. That means our 40 painters (which we will be able to train thanks to YOUR support) will create 56,800 PAINTINGS to make this film!! To make this possible OUR WONDERFUL TEAM created PAWS (Painted Animation Work Stations) that allows us to make the demanding process of stop-motion painting as efficient as possible, by allowing our artists to focus on the painting as opposed to the animation. In fact, over the past 18 months of R&D we've managed to halve the painting time of each frame, while maintaining the individuality of the painters.
And here's what the PAWS look like in person:
Pretty incredible, no? We hesitate to call Loving Vincent a more daunting undertaking than this 35-minute version of Blade Runner, which was animated with 12,597 watercolor paintings, seeing as it will ultimately represent the work of significantly more people (although Loving Vincent will also involve more paintings, of arguably greater detail); but we think you'll agree it looks impressive. We can't wait to see where this project goes.
[Loving Vincent via COLOSSAL]