The Mountain

We had the honour to work with Gorillaz for the third time for this 8 minute short! A love letter to the golden era of 2D animation...

/ Behind the line

DIRECTOR
Max Taylor
DIRECTOR
Tim McCourt
DIRECTOR
Jamie Hewlett
Client
Gorillaz

The Mountain

08.00

THE LINE © MMXXVI

Play

/ overview

We worked incredibly hard to make it as period-accurate as possible and, like all our projects, it was hand-drawn by an incredible team of artists. We even used a variety of practical effects in the film, which was a lot of fun to do. We had a brilliant time making this film and learnt a huge amount while studying the masters of the 60s and 70s.

/ Backgrounds

We tried to compose shots in the same way they would have in the animated feature films of the 60s, they often painted master backgrounds for scenes and cut into crops of these, often that resulted in beautiful impressionistic close ups of beautiful brush work and simplification reminiscent of depth of field in camera. All the backgrounds are hand painted, but for many of the shots we adopted a hybrid approach, mixing real watercolours with a digital polish and final paint. The natural behaviour of watercolours on paper, the way pigments bleed, settle and absorb into the surface, revealing its texture, is difficult to replicate digitally. With traditional materials, you get those organic qualities for free.

/ Backgrounds

/ behind the line

The Crew

● Client / Gorillaz / Eleven Management ● Director / Jamie Hewlett / Max Taylor / Tim McCourt ● Sequence Director / Jonathan Djob Nkondo ● Producer / Eva Dahlqvist ● Producer Cover / Macarena Gaset / Adriana Piasek-Wanski ● Executive Producer / Tan Baptista ● Production Manager / Michaela Dede ● Production Coordinator / Ekaterina Saiapina / Daisy Link ● Production Assistant / Ed Farish / Isabella Fitzsimons ● Head of Production / Nick Miller ● Managing Director | Commercials & Branded Content / Laura Breaden ● Executive Creative Director / Tim McCourt ● Head of Operations / Anna Degenaar ● Head of Operations (Maternity Cover) / Kallista Omotosho ● Studio Coordinator / Sophia Owen-Moulding ● Marketing Manager / Ella Johnston ● Talent & Scheduling Coordinator / Jesus Ovejero ● Art Director / Eido Hayashi / Rosie Tonkin ● Head of Art / Juancho Crespo ● Animation Lead / Xavier Ramonède ● Assistant Animation Lead / Setareh Erfan ● Head of Animation / Kwok Fung Lam ● Animation / Pierre Rutz / Robin Eide / Jonathan Djob Nkondo / Yağızhan Misirli / Felipe Almeida / Jamie Merry / Sarah Dhorne / Sergio Mateo / Peter Dodd / Gaëlle Thierry / Gustavo Carvalho / Kwok Fung Lam / Venla Linna / Juanpe Arroyo / Tim McCourt ● FX Animation / Erwin Rieffel / Louve Sarfati Karnas / Olivier Malric ● Animation Assist / Setareh Erfan / Christian Maymó / Krisi Zhupali / Ron Chevarie / Jay Wren / Daniel Morales / Clara Schildhauer / Judith Boor ● Animation Reference Actor / Laurel Taylor / Moss Taylor / Max Taylor / Nick Miller / Ekaterina Saiapina / Eva Dahlqvist / Michaela Dede / Tim McCourt / Skye Van Der Walt ● Character Design / Jamie Hewlett / Jonathan Djob Nkondo ● Character Layout / Julien Perron / Jamie Hewlett / Xavier Ramonède ● Background Layout / Simon Masse / Nicola Bernardi / Darina Lapkovskaya ● Background Paint / Eido Hayashi / Arnaud Tribout / Luc Courtois / Paul-Emmanuel Separi / Daniel Clarke ● Concepts / Igor Piwowarczyk / Arnaud Tribout / Daniel Clarke / Eido Hayashi / Paul Sabado / Simon Masse / Jonathan Djob Nkondo / Freddie Lewis-Wall ● Storyboard Artist / Jamie Hewlett / Jonathan Djob Nkondo / Gaïa Lamiot / Ayşe Aktaş / Jon Lam ● Colour Script / Eido Hayashi ● Colour Script Support / Antoine Perez ● Graphics Design / Max Taylor / Eido Hayashi ● Compositing / Freddie Lewis-Wall / Abel Kohen / Clarisse Valeix / Doru Ondun / Vincent E Sousa / Skye Van Der Walt / Natasha Z Francis / Patricia Andrades ● Compositing Lead / Freddie Lewis-Wall ● Head of Compositing / Freddie Lewis-Wall ● Colour Grade / Freddie Lewis-Wall ● Editor / Peter Scott ● Edit Assistant / Ekaterina Saiapina ● Music / Damon Albarn / Gorillaz ● Featuring Performances By / Asha Puthli / Bobby Womack / Dave Jolicoeur / Jalen Ngonda / Ajay Asanna / Anoushka Shankar ● Sound Design & Mix / Box of Toys Audio ● Live Action Studio / Clapham Road Studios ● DOP / Ed Tucker ● Gaffer/ Pearce Crowley ● Book Binders / Wyvern Bindery ● Cleanup and Colour Outsource / Amix / Pudoctopus ● IT Support / Rob Riley (Gal Consultancy) ● Pipeline Developer / Ynput ● Eleven Management / Niamh Byrne / Régine Moylett / Tanyel Vahdettin / Suzi Grossman / Ina Dubois / Saoirse Kavanagh / Ellie Nolan / Saskia Blow / Bolia Bamolende / Melody Perry / Bibiana Puglisi / Atay Hassan / Selena Dion / Astrid Ferguson / Stars Redmond / Molly Harris / Felicity Lotter / Ellie Thomson / Nadine Parker