Apr 9, 2024

A Deep Dive into 3D Animation Production with "Ink" Directors Joost van den Bos and Eric Verkerk

Curtin Cartoon Animation Studios' "Ink" is a charming two-minute short aimed at children and families. The film was produced in 3D stereoscopic and was intended to be seen in theaters by spectacle-wearing audiences, but due to the pandemic, that plan was scrapped and the film was instead shown primarily in 2D at the festival.

Rotterdam-based Ka-Ching Cartoons is directed by Joost van den Bos and Eric Verkerk. They recently spoke with us about the process of making their 3D (and I do mean 3D, not CG) animated shorts.

"Ink" was produced by the Dutch Ultracourt Program, founded and supported by the Netherlands Film Fund, Vieux Cinemas, NFO, and Fonds21. The program supports five or six short films each year with a budget of €50,000 (approximately US$54,000). Selected projects will take approximately nine months to produce a two-minute short film that will be screened in mainstream and arthouse cinemas ahead of popular feature films. The aim is to introduce the Dutch public to animation produced by their own citizens.

Knowing the format and length of the short film and the type of people who would watch it, the Ka-Ching team began brainstorming. According to van den Bosch and Verkerk,

the idea for the film came purely from the methods we wanted to use. Of the 50-60 films produced within the program, not one was a stereoscopic film. In addition, since the films were shown in theaters prior to the blockbusters, audiences were likely to already have 3D glasses for the main feature. We liked stereoscopic viewing, especially in combination with 2D animation, so we wanted to do something with this technology.

The Ka-Ching team was not the first to create a 3D project either: in 2008, the company produced an 8-minute 2D short film "The 3D Machine" in anaglyph 3D, which was later acquired by Nintendo and shown on its 3DS portable game console. The short film was a hit on the company's game console, and Nintendo financed a mini-series of The 3D Machine in 2012.

Even before ink became an idea, the Ka-Ching team began brainstorming what they liked about stereoscopic movies. van den Bosch and Verkerk explain:

We liked that things came close to our faces, but we also liked the sense of depth. We also liked the sense of depth. Camera movement often does not work well for the 3D sensation. The same goes for cutoffs of screen elements: if the screen ends somewhere and something stops, the illusion of 3D space is lost.

With this in mind, the crew wanted to create a short film that unfolded in one shot, with no camera movement or cuts. The best way to achieve this narratively was to tell the story against the backdrop of a window with depth. Van den Bos recalls:

These materials led to the idea of animals in an aquarium. The glass became an obstacle for him, and he wanted to do something on the other side. The result is the story of an octopus that wants to clean things that are out of reach.

The "Ka-Ching" team hired Wilbert Plijnaar, a semi-retired Hollywood veteran, for the film's scenario. The studio also hired illustrator Jelle Gijsberts to help with the film's design and art direction. Digna van der Putt created the octopus animation in TVPaint.

The other fish, the girl, and the cleaner were animated by Geoffrey Armfield in Adobe Animate. The octopus cleanup was also done in Animate so that the characters could share visual fidelity. This also allowed the staff to use some cropping elements on the hand-drawn octopus.

Visual effects such as bubbles, water, and glass were all drawn later by Thijs Viegers.

The film was composited in Adobe After Effects' 3D environment, and the artist rendered two cameras for the stereoscopic effect. The compositing team worked on a 3D monitor while wearing 3D glasses. Van den Bosch and Verkerk say:

It was an extra step in the production, and it cost us a lot of time and money. But we are glad we did it. After all, every idea came from using this technique.

Storyboarding and development began in November 2019 and the film was completed in June 2020. Sadly, a week after "Ink" started showing in cinemas in front of major commercial films, all Dutch cinemas were closed due to a pandemic. Van den Bosch and Verkerk remember the disappointment of having their screenings cancelled and being further followed by film festival screenings that were sabotaged by Covid-19:

We sent the film to many festivals and it was shown at over 200 festivals. However, due to the pandemic, most of the screenings were online. So even though the film was born out of the idea of a 3D stereoscopic film, most people saw the 2D version. Even the film festivals that were not held online did not want to use 3d glasses. This would have meant that the glasses would have to be handed out or collected, which was a risk at Covid.

Ka-Ching is currently busy with a number of projects, including two hand-drawn feature films about famous Dutch picture book stars Dikkie Dik and Tummy Tom. Both films will be animated in TVPaint and are scheduled for theatrical release in 2024. He also co-produced Nicholas Keppens' latest film, Beautiful Men, which is currently touring festivals and will be in competition at the Annecy International Film Festival in June.