Currently in production at Oscar-winning studio BreakThru Films, Loving Vincent is the first feature-length animated film made solely through hand-painted canvases.
Currently in production at Oscar-winning studio BreakThru Films, Loving Vincent will be the first feature-length animated film made solely through hand-painted canvases.
BreakThru Films is the London-Polish animation studio responsible for the Oscar-winning stop-motion film Peter and the Wolf, directed by Susie Templeton and based on Sergei Prokofiev's celebrated story and music.
A co-production with Trademark Films (Billy Elliot, Shakespeare in Love), Loving Vincent examines the life of post-Impressionist painter Vincent Van Gogh and the circumstances surrounding his violent and mysterious death some 123 years ago. The story is told through revealing interviews with the characters from Van Gogh's own paintings.
Loving Vincent will employ the technique of oil paint on canvas to animate Van Gogh's famous paintings at 8K resolution. This technique is similar to the paint-on-glass animation technique used by the Russian master Alexandr Petrov.
The production requires the help of 70 painters to create the numerous hand-painted oil canvases required to bring the story to life. To make this film possible, BreakThru developed its own proprietary painting animation technology, PAWS (Painted Animation Work Stations). Thanks to PAWS, the studio will be able to create around 56,000 keyframes in just two years in order to make the film.
Directed by Dorota Kobiela (Little Postman, Chopin's Drawings) and produced by Hugh Welchman, Loving Vincent is scheduled to be completed in 2015 -- the 125th anniversary of Van Gogh's death.
For more about the film, visit www.lovingvincent.com or find the project on Facebook at www.facebook.com/lovingvincentmovie.
Source: BreakThru Films
Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.
