Jul 25, 2024

Fragile Figures Blue Blue Blue Studios on the cursed vignette animation in the documentary The Porcelain War

The film features three two-minute vignettes of small ceramic figurines sitting in a forest, seemingly brought to life by the hand-painted illustrations running across their surfaces. Created at BluBlu Studios in Warsaw, Poland, the animation is paired with a story told in contemporary Ukraine by the figures' creators, Anya and Slava, and the film's cinematographer, Andrei Stefanov.

From the beginning, Belomo and Sidorska planned to use animation to illustrate the beauty of the couple's art. We worked closely with Brendan [Bellomo] and Aniela [Szydowska],” says Jed Skrypczyk, creative director at BluBlu Studios. Aniela is Polish. She left Poland when she was young, but she has a strong connection to Polish animation. At that time, Brendan and Aniela had met Anya and Slava and were thinking about how to tell their story as an animated film”

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In February 2022, Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine. The filmmakers contacted the artists, but Anya and Slava continued working at their country home, while Slava and his friend Andrei decided to support the Ukrainian resistance. The focus of the documentary also shifted. They decided to make a film together. But Brendan and Aniela wanted to keep the animation element to tell the story of the past, present, and future through Anya's work. It is deeply connected to Ukrainian culture and speaks to their situation in Ukraine.”

Cartoon Brew spoke with BluBlu's Skrzypczyk and animation lead Micha.CartoonBrew spoke with BluBlu's Skrzypczyk and animation lead Micha.

Cartoon Brew:. How were the ceramics for the animation process chosen? That's my impression. One of the ideas was to introduce all the figures and create an animation in which the figures change from one to another. In the end, we ended up with three figures - a snail, an owl, and a pegasus - because they felt that was a good summary of the film.

How did you come up with the animation process? Machowina: The animation process started long before we decided what the figures would be. At first, we only had a photo of the owl and a very rough scan. Based on that rough scan, we began all the research and development. It was not a professional scan. It was a cell phone photo taken in my backyard. But we used it for research and development and determined how we would work.

Skrzypczyk: When we started the animation, for the snails, we sent snails from Ukraine to the US to be scanned. They sent me a rough scan and a high-resolution photo. Based on the high-resolution photos, we redrew every detail of the figure. Because they were so small, we had to be very careful to figure out the style and replicate Anya's style. Based on those scans, Micha and I worked out how all the figures should be photographed and created rough animatics. Based on this, Slava and Andrei photographed the figures. Then we started the full animation with a 3D model of the actual figure.

Machojina: The shots were not one-on-one with our privis, but we tried hard to replicate our camera movements. Also, with BluBlu we did not create the entire shot. We only output textures. We needed a 3D model to test our animation and create the camera movement. However, our CG supervisor Quade Biddle, an Australian VFX artist, did the compositing and 3D rendering for us. He managed all the 3D rendering, texture irregularities and reflections. All the little light reflections and details were spot on and made the figure look very realistic.

How did you create the transparency of the paint sliding across the porcelain? The R&D process took a couple of months. We sent tests to Aniela and Brendan, and they passed them on to Anya and Slava to see how they felt. Replicating Anya's style took some work. The biggest challenge was creating completely new illustrations for the animation. We had to be careful not to make too many changes, because Anya is an amazing artist in all of her beautiful drawings. We had to imagine how, for example, the (owl) subway would look in her style. We thought there might be underground tunnels where [shell-less snail] people sat with ladders. Anya thought it was great and she gave us permission to work with it.”

In the movement, we see a 3D relief where the animation seems to flow over small bumps in the paint, is this from Anya's brushwork? Looking at the high-resolution photo, I could see that the illustration of the figure was not flat. This was an important detail. We exported a bump map of that little dot, ready for post-production in Quade.

The snail animation is complex. A little boy with a balloon jumps across the river, the river turns red, and a warship sails by. It was thoroughly prepared with a great deal of pre-visualization and very detailed animatics. For example, the boy playing with balloons and the boat on the river were not presented as one long sequence, but were broken up into their own parts with specific movements.

Skrzypczyk: We also needed to maintain continuity between shots. We storyboarded each piece, taking inspiration from Anya's work, creating small scenarios. We blocked out the characters' actions and cut them into specific shots.

Did the directors allow you to freely interpret the imagery from Anya and Slava's narration? We received the painted figurines, their narration, and the English transcription. From there we tried to understand it. As Poles, the war in Ukraine affected us a lot. So we were connected, and we tried to bring that to life in our animation, trying to be as descriptive as possible. Anya and Slava told the story as if it were a fairy tale. As we storyboarded, thoughts and ideas came to us. When the river turned to blood, we were worried that we were overdoing it, but Aniela and Brendan said, 'Yes, this is powerful, we can definitely use it.'

How did Anya and Slava react-

Skrzypczyk: Brendan showed me a short recording of the first time Anya and Slava saw our animation. They were breathless, smiling and laughing. I knew then that we were on the right track. Then, at Sundance, I had the opportunity to speak with Anya and Slava. Anya told me that she dreamed about her figurines in this way. It is moving, it is alive.

The final animation in Pegasus, of a Ukrainian woman weaving a carpet from the tragedy of destruction, is particularly fascinating. 24]

Machowina: about 150 textures. All character animation was created in Toon Boom Harmony and colored in Photoshop. To recreate Anya's style, I created brushes in Photoshop. Then I created the textures in After Effects for compositing. [For Pegasus] we provided seven layers, with a variety of colors, bumps, borders, and contours, everything Quade needed.

The metaphor of texture bringing a small porcelain creature to life is poetic without comment in the film. 2]

Skrrpczyk: The film reveals how difficult a position these people are in and how resilient they are. I think it reveals how resilient they are. At Sundance, there was a gallery that exhibited the figures, but you needed a magnifying glass to see the paintings. They are that small and delicate. Somehow, they keep going. They keep making art. That is the beautiful thing about the connection between war and art. It can be small, but it can be powerful.