Fox and Hare Save the Forest
ROLE
Art Director, Production Designer
DESCRIPTION
The Fox and Hare save the forest (2024) is based on the popular Dutch illustrated children books by writer Sylvia Van den Heede and illustrator The Tjong-Khing, in which Fox and Hare go find their missing friend and find bigger mysteries instead.
The style was settled in the making of the Fox and Hare series (2018, Submarine), but this film expanded this world in scope significantly; which meant quite a lot of fresh design challenges.
New for me in this project, was that I was involved as art director and production designer not just in pre-production and animation production, but also in post. This meant that I was able to give much more input in the colors, light and the overall mood and look of the film.
PROJECT DURATION
2017-2023 (pre)production, February 2024 world premiere at Berlinale
CREDITS
Directed by Mascha Halberstadt, Produced by Submarine (NL), Walking the Dog (BE) and Doghouse (LUX)
FORM
3D animated feature film, 72 minutes
LINK TO FILM
Link to the trailer here (2 min)
Colour the World
For this film I was tasked as art director to create a colourboard for the film as a guide for the lighting and compositing team at Walking the Dog.
Contrast is key
The world of Fox and Hare for the series was a natural world - the forest with modest living spaces. The Beaver introduced in the film, however is a 'disruptor' - he builds an enormous dam and lodge that cause the forest be gnawed-down and flooded, threatening the homes of the other animals. It was a great challenge to design the Beaver spaces in visual story-telling contrast to what already existed.