In addition, Walker rendered the exterior of the spaceship separate from the interior, to prevent the lighting setups from affecting each other. This shows particularly well in the shot of Astronaut Two returning to the cockpit as Astronaut One floats away.

These lighting techniques had the added benefit of keeping render times lower than they would have been with a more technical lighting solution, and the film wound up with a unique look.

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Although he storyboarded every element of the film, Walker allowed himself a great deal of flexibility during the animation. "I had a very clear idea of the performances beforehand and I was able to produce a very detailed animatic. Most of the shots stuck fairly closely to the storyboard, although I was a bit freer with the timing [during production]. When I started animating, I more or less ignored the animatic and just animated what felt right for each shot." This freedom naturally added a bit to the running time; the animatic clocked in at about 5 minutes, but the final film is just over 8.

"I wanted to make a subtle character piece that focused more on narrative and characterization than impressive visuals."         - Matthew Walker

Walker feels he came across just about every obstacle possible during the making of the short. "When I started the film I was still coming to terms with Maya, and I certainly hadn't attempted anything as ambitious before." Because he feels he spent most of the production time just learning the software and solving problems, Walker assumes if he made the film again, it would take about half the time.

Still, he is happy with the way the film turned out. "I'm surprised it turned out as watchable as it did, though it is still riddled with technical faults. In fact, a lot of the inactivity of the astronauts was due to limitations of the rigging. But I think this worked to the film's benefit; less turned out to be more."

       -Steve Ogden

SEE the movie. You can see Astronauts in full at The Student Moving Image Festival of Wales as well as the Animations section of the 3D World magazine website. This story first appeared as the Showreel article in 3D World magazine #78.