We've all had a flatmate like this haven't we? You know the sort. He loses your keys, touches things he oughtn't, and generally drives you to thoughts of homicide. Matthew Walker's short film "Astronauts" gives us just such a relationship between two spacefarers.

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The animator has injected his film with humour, alternately gentle and wicked, as the close confines of a spaceship begin to bring out the worst in the title characters. "I wanted to make a subtle character piece that focused more on narrative and characterization than impressive visuals," says the Bristol resident. "I liked the idea of two characters in an isolated environment, and space seems to be the most isolated environment of all."

Walker made the student film while at the University of Wales, and now works as an animator at Arthur Cox, where he's been working on commercials, and pitching Astronauts as a TV series. His sense of humour is informed by such British comedies as Marion and Geoff, The Office and Phoenix Nights. That humour largely exists in the spaces between the dialog - the flick of the eye, the exasperated breath - and the animation had to be handled just right to allow it to come across. Walker credits such influences as Pixar and Aardman for giving him good examples of animated character acting.

As for the look of the characters, Walker feels that a little bit of Pixar slipped in unintentionally. Because he wanted the characters to be as expressive as possible and capable of subtle facial ticks, he feels it was natural that they developed toward a slight Pixar look. "One of the things that Pixar are so good at is rich character design and that was certainly something I wanted to achieve. There is a touch of Buzz Lightyear in the design of the astronauts."

GREEN LIGHT FOR LIFTOFF

Characters aside, the overall look of the film was partly a creative choice, and partly down to technical limitations. Walker felt that when it came to texturing and lighting, he lacked the technical ability to get it to a professional standard. In looking to avoid the 'cheap CG' look, he opted for a more monotone approach, with spots of colour.

"I liked the idea of two characters in an isolated environment, and space seems to be the most isolated environment of all."         - Matthew Walker

"The hints of red and green just seemed to set it off nicely, and provided a subtle way to set the astronauts apart: one has a green light on his chest, the other a red one."

Because he lacked technical lighting experience, Walker kept his lighting simple, faking global illumination with simple cheats. For instance, when the exterior spaceship door opens and lights the back of the astronaut outside, it's a scene light behind the door that lights him up. Walker simply faded up the value as the door slid open.

He used a similar technique in the opening scene to get the look of bounced sunlight coming into the ship. Unable to get the look he wanted with a standard directional light, he used an angled spot light through the front window to create the desired shadows, and an area light in the side window to fill in. An ambient light in the cockpit further dispersed the shadows. Similarly, each of the astronauts had his own area light in the cockpit, to emphasize him against the background.