Those damn Supinfocom kids do it again! Gary, a short film created by Clement Soulmagnon, Yann Benedi, Sebastien Eballard and Quentin Charillet is a unique vision of a boy struggle with his sexual coming of age. In a time when we are so used to crispy 3d animations with cutesy round beavers and big eyed rabbits as the main characters, that only emulate what Pixar churns out on a yearly basis, I find animations with this illustrative style and somewhat risque storyline to be a far cut above the rest.The Supinfocom and Gobelins students have learned a very hard and important lesson with their software and that is to not let it dictate their style. With each animation that comes out of these schools I find that style exploration is a lengthy process and then they bend the software to meet their needs.
I was able to get in touch with some of the crew and ask them some questions about their film. Its a long interview but make sure to read it, there are some gems of information and techniques about their production not to be missed. Read it here.
Make sure to go to the official Gary website to check out images of their lengthy design and research process. Also if you are wondering, Clement is in Paris working as a young director with Gary Levesque under the name, Viking & Viking. Yann is in London working as a director and illustrator. Sebastien works as a TD and lead animator for Mathematic in Paris and Quentin is freelancing as a 3d animator.