![pixa birds pixa birds](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5709ac46b09f959184ddea1a/1492998108326-S8XQ3C8YSSOZ3LM94S5Y/ke17ZwdGBToddI8pDm48kDu-OvKe9-yMBj32JSWknrt7gQa3H78H3Y0txjaiv_0fDoOvxcdMmMKkDsyUqMSsMWxHk725yiiHCCLfrh8O1z5QPOohDIaIeljMHgDF5CVlOqpeNLcJ80NK65_fV7S1UZNNUmsixw3l8iPy3vgDTPMwfMBbaTJA8uE3oWp8JUwqzkQXHaRS3Yhvu0vV6Jt1AA/for-the-birds+pic2.jpg)
“For the backgrounds, I worked closely with my production designer Tim Evatt, as well as Bill Cone, to find a gritty, impressionistic feel to the environments.” “They’re love of 2D helped craft the final look and design of the characters,” Sullivan adds. Helping Sullivan arrive at the film’s final look was animation supervisor Guillaume Chartier, and character designer Zaruhi Galastian. “Fortunately, we had a team of brilliant minds that was up for the challenge,” Hendrickson notes. One of their biggest challenges was the most obvious: how best to leverage Pixar’s cutting-edge 3D animation pipeline to make a 2D animated short that captured Sullivan’s desired hand-drawn look. Their base crew of eight expanded to as many as 20 during peak production. They spent the first three months developing their story, design and pipeline technology, followed by three months of layout, background painting, animation, compositing, sound, score and post-production. Once greenlit, they were given six months to complete the film. “It was primarily nostalgic, but I also decided that the kitten's frenetic energy could best be captured through hand-drawn animation, especially within our limited resources and six-month production timeline.” She also drew inspiration from old classic Disney shorts, like 1939’s The Ugly Duckling, admiring “how they managed to balance character-driven humor and heart without dialogue.” “I had always wanted to do a 2D animated short, because I grew up watching hand-drawn animation,” she describes. Sullivan had always envisioned Kitbull as a 2D project, inspired in part by her love of European and Japanese animation, such as Ernest and Celestine and the Studio Ghibli films. “Originally, we were planning on making the short on our own, but when the SparkShorts program was born and Rosie was given the opportunity to direct, Kitbull found its home at the studio.” “A few years before the SparkShorts program was created, Rosie and I partnered and began collaborating on the idea for Kitbull outside of work hours,” she shares. “I've also always had a deep love for animals, so I wanted to tell a story through the lens of animal welfare.”Įnter Hendrickson.
![pixa birds pixa birds](https://live.staticflickr.com/3010/3042847017_10110523b3.jpg)
reality, that I wanted to draw a tiny kitten who embodied this essence of ‘cat-ness.’”Ĭontinuing to work the idea visually, she “started to crave something more,” and the story eventually evolved into something deeper, focusing on “a lonely cat and dog learning to connect.” “The themes of isolation, empathy and vulnerability always resonated with me growing up as a shy kid,” she notes. I was so entertained by the contrast of this cat's self-perception vs. In 2013, my officemate showed me a video of a cat arching its back and trying to act tough, then promptly falling off a counter. As the director explains, “During stressful crunch times on projects, I often resorted to watching funny cat videos for relief. The film’s development began simply enough with Sullivan’s indulgence in an activity that for many people, is the one thing they rely on to bring a smile to their faces and a tugging in their chests. Together, they experience friendship for the first time. One of the first projects produced within the studio’s SparkShorts experimental short film initiative, Kitbull is in many ways a simple story the film reveals an unlikely connection that sparks between a fiercely independent stray kitten and a pit bull chained inside a junk-filled yard.