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When Laurel Fantauzzo met a young woman and her bicycle in Manila, her relationship to the city was transformed.

In Circle Line, London-based Adam Wells depicts the life cycle of a creative individual, and its accompanying compromises and heartbreaks. At least, that’s my reading of the short; I’m sure there’ll be other interpretations, too. In common with Wells’ earlier shorts Brave New Old and The Rest is Science, Circle Line shares a preoccupation with the inherent beauty of mechanical processes (especially moving sidewalks in this film) and physical routines.

I invited Wells to share with readers how he achieved the film’s distinctive look. He writes:

The project is CGI, but there are no character rigs. I use ‘point level’ animation on 2D planes, working directly on the postion, frame by frame. CG animation is often compared to puppeteering, and a lot of traditional animation lovers are put off by the asthetic. I am trying to build something that is fully CG and looks it, but is built from a more traditional technique, which is why I make such liberal use of stretch and smearing. (This does not require fancy CGI calculations, it’s just drawn polygons.) It’s a technique I have used for my larger project Risehigh.

CREDITS
Directed by Adam Wells
Sound Design by Nic Smith
Typography by Joseph Alessio

After a summer and autumn at film festivals, London-based motion-graphics designer Adam Wells has now put his 9-1/2 minute short online for everyone else to see. Don’t let its deceptively simplistic look scare you, this is a clever little piece of experimental filmmaking. Wells sent us some background:

I work as a motion designer in London for TV and corporate stuff, and did this project after hours at home. It look me about six months in total, working haphazardly. It was completed in March and has been playing at festivals. I found the online vs. festival thing very frustrating, but watching the film with an audience in a cinema is a very gratifying experience. (One particular Cartoon Brew post here was very insightful – thanks!).

I really wanted to try something different with 3d animated storytelling. I feel that 3D is often sidelined, as been a little bit cheaper and less artistic (possibly because of the technical skills required to pull it off) in the festival scene. So I want to try and prove its potential by using what I call mechanical storytelling – as opposed to the cinematography route that so many 3D film makers use. I feel there is no reason why experimental films cannot be fun and entertaining as well.

I couldn’t agree more.