Sem Assink's Hold the Line is a fun little animated short about four soldiers marching through the remains of a ruined world. Only discipline keeps them together, but when they are ambushed by an invisible foe, the men come up with the ultimate tactic to take him out.

Sem keeps the palette muted and the pace quick. The soldiers speak the hilarious, non-specific, and universal language of action movie gibberish as the conflict plays out to its logical conclusion. The film subtly makes a point that is all too accurate, yet never loses its sense of humor.

"My name is Sem Assink, born and raised in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. 'Hold the Line' was my graduation film at the Dutch Film Academy. Except from some test animations it was my first 'real' animation. So it was a project with lots of learning moments and eventually it took me nine months to finish from scratch to final render.

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It combines different elements I have been fascinated about my whole life. Things like abandoned destroyed worlds, the overwhelming greatness of nature and enormous machines contrasted with small, fragile creatures. This has always made an impression on me. If you look closely to the 2D backgrounds that I have hand painted you can see the influences of German Romanticism and First World War photography of destroyed landscapes and deserted trenches.

Against these heavy landscapes I placed these clumsy characters. To me they represent the foolishness of mankind who cannot manage its own destructive powers, and is not critical towards its own systems.

"According to some people it was a risky thing combining 3D characters with 2D backgrounds."        --Sem Assink

According to some people it was a risky thing combining 3D characters with 2D backgrounds. But after running some tests I decided it was successful. Besides the time it saved me to model and texture all the background props, it as well adds a very atmospheric layer to the film. Much more then I could ever model and texture in that time with my skills.

Some more people have helped me creating this film. Happily for me there were a lot of talented specialists walking around at the Film Academy. All the 3D stuff I did together with Niels de Groen, A third year student at that time, who helped with the modelling, animating and compositing. Besides those students two friends of mine (Alan van Ramshorst and Lennart Kleinen) created the sound mix.

All together it was a really fun project to work on. It is funny to see how the characters and world (which I invented together with my girlfriend on a long holiday a year before) are now walking around on the big screen and claiming my imaginary world as their own.

       --Sem Assink, MAR 2007