The short animation film “The Lost Town of Switez” from director Kamil Polak was recently screened at the Los Angeles Academy screenings for short animation films that are qualified for this year’s Oscars race.  The film is one of 45 short films that are vying for a nomination and ultimately the prize.

“The Lost Town of Switez” was created utilizing an original combination of 3D animation and classic animation painted with oil paints.  Specially commissioned large-scale paintings were composited into a multiple-plane 3D computer generated (CG) environment using state-of-the-art digital animation and compositing techniques. This unique artistic style creates a quality in itself and an extraordinary means of expression, which is crucial in animation - where strength of content and visual form merge into a striking and meaningful fusion.  Two distinct styles of paintings were used: 19th-century Slavonic paintings (such as the work of Józef Chełmoński and Aleksander Gierymski), which give the illusion of perspective and use a realistic palette, combined with the much more stylized, brightly-colored and iconic 2D paintings of the Middle Ages.

Produced by Human Ark animation studio based in Warsaw, Poland, the visually stunning “The Lost Town of Switez” has won numerous awards and accolades after its world premiere at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival.  It has continued to wow audiences and juries by winning prizes including: Best Film at the Palm Springs International Shorts Film Festival and winner of the Jean-Lux Xiberras Award at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival.

Recently, we had a chance to sit with filmmaker Kamil Polak to get his insight on the making of the film.  Here’s is the conversation:

Q: Where did you get the idea for “The Lost Town of Switez”?

KAMIL POLAK:  The main inspiration to create a film was based on the poem from 1822 by Adam Mickiewicz a Polish romantic period poet. The poem takes a story about town in the Middle Ages that is covered by the weathers of Switez - the lake in Belarus. The film shows a well-known story about the battle between good and evil, and belief in the power of good, that wins not always in the way that is easy to understand for us. When I was working on visual layer of the film my goal was to alive the paintings, and that’s why there is so many inspirations from the XIX century realistic painting and middle ages iconic painting.

Q:  How long did take you to make the film from the concept of the idea to the final film?

KP: The first time I thought about the film was during my studies at film school in 2003, and I finished the film a year ago. I know that seven years is a long time. But, the film has a rich production history. The film began as a small school project coming from just one student to eventually becoming an international co-production employing a full team of graphic designers and technicians. But working on the film wasn’t always continuous.  There were a few breaks during the production years. One of them was when I was working as a VFX supervisor on the Oscar® winning film “Peter and the Wolf” in 2008.

Q:  What were the challenges in making this film?

KP:  One of the most difficult artistic effects to create was a visual impression of an image inspired by the 19th Century realistic painting. This is the aesthetic by which the film begins and ends. The main character of the Traveller who mystically arrives to the village and discovers its fascinating history is always presented in the 19th Century style. In the beginning, the Traveller was a very rough and raw 3D character, but after using a tool called Brush Shader developed by the Human Ark team especially for the film, this character gained a unique look.

Q:  How does your process work?  Do you just have a story idea and then think about what that would be visually?