ROBIN - AN INTERACTIVE LIFESTORY
Interactive Animated Movie (2023)
Storyboard, Layout, Concept Art, Colorscript & Background Art
- Directed by Douwe van der Werf
- Produced by Public Cinema
- Commissioned by Dutch Research Agenda (NWA)
‘Robin – An interactive Lifestory’ is the first animated interactive movie made in the Netherlands. It explores potential scientific and societal questions of the near future. Questions such as:
- “Would you dim the sun to combat climate change”
- “Would you let an ‘potentially more impartial’ AI judge make a court verdict”
- “Would you leave everyone behind to venture to the new mars colony”
The movie was commissioned by de NWA (the Dutch Research Agenda) and premiered at the ‘Night of the Science’ on the 4th of October 2019 at 4 different locations throughout the Netherlands. Where an audience, at each location, could collectively decide on the dilemmas.
The movie was produced by Public Cinema.
The Process
Robin was my first large production to which I contributed. It was made in a very short time frame. In 3 months, 90 minutes of film needed to be storyboarded, designed, drawn and animated with a small team of around 12 artists.
I was originally hired to draw layouts – translating storyboards into sketches ready for painting. But my contract was brought forward so I could aid in making storyboards, and also extended throughout the whole production so I could help with background art.
What followed was a very hectic but creative 3 months. Roles blended together as we as a team had to juggle the short timeframes for every phase of the project.
- The first 2 weeks were spent on translating the script to storyboard, whilst revisions were still being made to the story itself to make it more scientifically accurate.
- The next 4 to 5 weeks were spent on making layouts, designs and colorscripts.
- The last 6 to 7 weeks we illustrated everything. The animation was done concurrently in After Effects, with some team members hopping from illustration to animation later in the production.
You can view/play the Dutch version of the film on Robindefilm.nl.
Below you can view some of the work I did for Robin!
Production Design
