Coquino

Jeff Le Bars made this short while studying at French school Émile Cohl, on the occasion of the visit of Argentine cartoonist Quino (Joaquín Salvador Lavado) to the animation festival Carrefour du Cinéma d’Animation 2012 (an annual event organized by Paris-based Forum des Images).

Students from various French animation schools were asked to create short films based on graphic elements from Quino’s designs. They were projected under the title Quino’Scopage on November 25th, 2012.

Jeff Le Bars’ short mixes 2D and 3D animation techniques and uses a highly subjective level of narration, though it favorably plays with ambiguity in this regard. Editing and close-ups are used to give rhythm to the piece (synced to the music) and to establish a relationship between the actions of the character and the objects in the scene.

One of the most interesting aspects of the short is the aesthetic, and how it mixes 3D graphics that provide realistic illumination with low poly 3D elements that are left almost plain and without materials (giving more prominence to the Guernica painting), together with 2D hand-drawn image textures and animations.

An important part of delivering the message of the messy room being cleaned is done through the animation of hundreds of objects, as well as camera moves which are used to emphasize the visual rhythm and cover the action (note the circling camera at the end of the floating objects sequence). Two characters are employed, in a stylized portrait of an apartment room.