DVDizzy Forum

Andreas Deja wrote:This is a preproduction sketch for a project I am working on at the moment. The main characters will be a Siberian tiger and a Russian girl. I originally set the story in India, but for various reasons I changed my mind.

The girl will be younger than the one pictured here, and a Siberian tiger is much bulkier than this one. But stylistically I am striving for something along "these lines". Rough animation with hints of color, either done with color pencils or with a CG watercolor look. Of course there will be layouts, but the line work should be reduced to an essence.

My friend Myka is helping me with story development, and maybe because he has no studio experience, his ideas are fresh and exciting. At the moment I am in the middle of a test scene, once I finish it to my liking, I will post it on this blog.

TheSequelOfDisney wrote:I thought Andreas left Disney, though? Apparently not since he has a short in the works. I'm really looking forward to it!

Q: Can you tell us anything about your current or next projects?

Andreas Deja: I posted a style study drawing some weeks ago on my blog. The main characters are gonna be a Siberian tiger and a Russian girl. It has a bit of a message because there are hardly any tigers left in the world. But the essence of the story is not losing tigers but having to let somebody go who you really love because you know that it is best for the person, and in this case creature go. Its the underlying theme of it.

If you have a good theme its actually easier to build a story around. You can hang things on it. Like in ‘Beauty And The Beast’ the theme was: Don’t judge the book by its cover (there could be something else in there). If you have a simple statement like that you can hang all kinds of things on it. Its a solid healthy statement so I was glad that I found that for my film.

The other short film will be a satire. The first film is gonna be about 20 minutes and the other one about 8. So that’s gonna keep me of the streets for a little while.

Andreas Deja wrote:I will be living with these two for a while, since they are the main characters of my animated film. It is a story of love and sacrifice, set in Russia. I have been working on story and pre-production throughout the year and will go into production next year. The style will be a sort of like an animated sketchbook. I had been wondering if instead of using digital color I could just use color pencil shading right on the animation drawings. When applied very carefully the flickering will be minimal. Here are just a few character studies to give you an idea where I am going with this. Luckily the LA Zoo had a couple of tiger cubs (they are almost fully grown now), so I did spend some time there to observe and sketch them.

This is a little teaser I put together. The idea behind the scene is that Sarah, who is raising this tiger cub, realizes for the first time that even at this young age he already has a "killer instinct".

Andreas Deja wrote:It's going to be about twenty minutes long. There will even be a song in it.

Andreas Deja wrote:Here is a little vis dev piece for my film Mushka. The bg/layout is by Peter Moehrle, and captures the sketchbook look of the film very well. So this is could be a final frame from the film.

Andreas Deja wrote:It's been very busy around here, making a movie! The story of "Mushka" is roughly storyboarded all the way through. It's a great feeling to be able to follow the whole story visually for the first time instead of reading the script.

That's me in a recent story meeting with scriptwriter Myka (sitting) and Matthieu Saghezchi who helped me draw the first rough pass. As soon as we were done sketching this early version, we started on corrections and improving ideas. That process will continue all the way through production. But the story reel will go up soon, can't wait to see sequences timed out with temporary music and dialogue (there will be very little of that actually). There are a couple of character designs that need to be finessed….but all in all that's where we are at the moment. So much fun!!

Andreas Deja wrote:The story reel is getting temp sound, and I animated a couple of production scenes. Having a great time!!

Andreas Deja wrote:It's been an interesting year for me. With the help of good friends the story for my film "Mushka" came together beautifully. I am beyond passionate about this project, even though occasionally I wonder if I should have chosen a shorter film for the start of my post Disney years. Too late now, the thing has momentum, and I hope to get most of the animation done next year. The first three sequences are in great animatic shape, with camera moves, temp voices and music. The rest of the film has been storyboarded, but needs to be brought to that level. I have animated a handful of scenes, and it's pure joy to see things come to life. At the moment I am taking a break from Mushka in order to meet deadlines on a book project, which is also coming along well.

Andreas Deja wrote:As a general Mushka update: I just about finished work on the story reel/animatic, even though some changes and improvements will happen as production continues. I am in love with this story, it is emotional, exciting (as in action) and funny. I am extremely thrilled to announce that the one and only Richard Sherman has written a song for the film!! As I am getting into full production on Mushka, I am looking for local LA 2D animation artists.

Andreas Deja wrote:A quick update on my film Mushka. I just finished animating the sequence when Sarah encounters the tiger cub for the first time. Obviously the cub's mother nearby isn't too happy about the human contact, she charges. Above you see one of the key drawings, below is the first rough pass of the same drawing. In tying down the pose I pushed the right shoulder because the weight is on that leg. Another section I finished shows Sarah arriving in Siberia on a train, followed by meeting her father for the first time. So thrilled to see how things are coming together. Also, proud to be able to animate scenes like this one, or shots with human characters without live action reference. I think I am close to 25 % animated. Prepare to use some Kleenex when you'll see the final film. I still can't tell the film's story without getting teary eyed. This is a very personal project.

Andreas Deja wrote:This is one of the last animation drawings of Mushka as a cub. In the film he appears in three sequences, which are just about finished in animation. It's been a blast but from now on I'll continue animating him as a grown tiger. Quite a few dramatic as well as emotional scenes coming up. The most recent issue of Animation Magazine features a nice article about the production of Mushka.

Andreas Deja wrote:Here is an article from Animation Magazine's April edition on my film Mushka. James Gartler interviewed me for this piece. There are exciting news about the project which I will share with you soon.

Andreas Deja wrote:This is a "rough" idea for a poster for my film Mushka by Peter Moehrle. Train travel is an important part of the film, and this image certainly represents that. Peter did refine this design according to the visual style of the film. I will post that image soon. We are currently deep into effects as well as final color, I couldn't be happier. Everything is looking amazing!!

Andreas Deja wrote:We are so ecstatic to move into final color on our film Mushka. In this scene above we find out that Sarah's and Mushka's sleeping quarters have gotten too small for a girl and a Siberian tiger. Mushka turns over in bed, causing Sarah to fall to the floor. A color pencil texture will be added in order to avoid the conventional cel-painted look. Our final color scenes rock!! But in end the humanity of the overall story is what will really matters. And I think we have that.

Andreas Deja wrote:We now have a complete sequence in final color. I call it the "Montage Sequence" where we watch Sarah bonding and growing up with Mushka, the Siberian tiger. The character poses in this frame actually don't match, because by the time the tiger cub jumps forward, Sarah is already running off screen right. But this makes for a better looking film still. In the previous scene Sarah's father asks her: "What are you going to call him?" She looks at the cub's birthmark on its forehead, which reads like an "M". In this scene she calls him from behind: "Muuushka!" Animation by me, background by the wonderful Natalie Franscioni-Karp and effects by Daniel Ernesto, who pluses every scene he works on. And...oh yeah, music by Richard M. Sherman, arranged by the incredibly talented Fabrizio Mancinelli. This will be a 30 min. hand-drawn animated film. We are getting there!!

Andreas Deja wrote:We are in the process of colorizing this scene, early on in the film. Sarah just received a gift from her Grandma, a Russian folklore doll. This all takes place in Kiev in 1975. The feedback from screening the film to select audiences in progress has been wonderful. Kathryn Beaumont told me how much she loves the film's story. Lisa Davis (Anita from 101 Dalmatians) voiced similar comments.

Andreas Deja wrote:Why isn't he finished yet? Because our team is relatively small, and it takes time to maintain quality. We were thinking earlier this year, if everybody gives it an extra push, perhaps we could finish the project by the end of this year. But this would mean compromising here and there in order to get it done. That's not going to happen. So we will go into next year with the hope and intention to finish by mid-year. To be honest. there were times when I thought, what't wrong with a seven minutes format? The fact is, I need 25 minutes to tell this particular story. And we are making progress, with five sequences in final color very soon.

The scene above shows Sarah after she arrives in Eastern Russia. She is sent upstairs to her "room". The camera follows her as she walks across her new home. She trips, then runs into a spider web before arriving by the window on screen left, where she opens her suitcase.

Andreas Deja wrote:My multi-talented friend Mike Peraza created this beautiful poster design. I just love it.

Andreas Deja wrote:We are at it full time! More and more final color is pouring in. I am so excited! Honestly, I didn't expect the final footage to turn out this beautiful. Above Sarah is encountering a tiger cub during a winter sequence in Siberia. The cub's mother isn't happy about this, so she attacks. What is the outcome? You'll have to wait and find out.

Andreas Deja wrote:We recently hit a milestone on our production of Mushka. We have about 16 min. in final color, including effects, highlights, shadows etc. That's more than 1/2 of the 30 min. film. Color backgrounds with character colors are coming in fast and furious. I just need to hold on to my recently-hired talented BG painters. They both make a difference in speeding up production. Richard Sherman loves our project, so does Kathryn Beaumont as wells as Robert Reitherman. It's my post-Disney statement, and it is very personal.

Andreas Deja wrote:Each new color scene for our film Mushka feels like a Christmas gift. Background paintings and character levels combined result in gorgeous images. These colors here are still too vibrant. But after we add a color pencil texture plus some film grain everything turns out looking balanced and more muted. We are closing in on more and more finished color sequences. In this scene Sarah asks her father if she can keep the tiger cub. To find out about Dad's response you need to stay tooned.

Andreas Deja wrote:So happy and proud to report that progress on Mushka has been substantial. We are locking several more sequences in final color, it is a joy watching it all come together. At this pace we should finish around summer/fall of next year. This has been, and still is, an amazing ride. There were times when I thought: What's wrong with a short film that is seven minutes long? But telling a story is funny, in a way that it tells you how long it needs to be. Mushka can't be told in seven or ten minutes. It is a half hour film. That's the length necessary to cover everything, the development and relationships of the characters as well as the overall storyline.

In the photo you can see how we add "character effects". This is a process that happens after character opaquing and coloring. Minor highlights and shadows are being added, but also deeper color areas on a tiger. His back, parts of his face etc.

Andreas Deja wrote:Front row: Ariel Goldberg, voice acting and dialogue coaching. Fabrizio Mancinelli, composer axtraordinaire and Roger Viloria, post production and a lot more. Then Andreas Wessell-Therhorn, animator. Followed by animator Courtney Di Paola. Ambrosio Garcia, character opaquing and painting. Me, Elisabeth and Richard Sherman. Background painters Craig Elliott and Tooba Rezaiei. And background supervisor Natalie Franscioni-Karp. Way in the back, Craig Peck, associate producer.

Andreas Deja wrote:Happy Holidays and wishes for a wonderful new year from our Mushka team to you all!

Andreas Deja wrote:I am animating a bunch of short action scenes right now which will connect longer, already animated sequences. Here Sarah is trying to push her tiger Mushka over the edge of a cliff into a river. Why? I won't say. This is my first rough pass followed by my tied down version which will go to color. Actually the tiger is too heavy, so Sarah asks her friend Alex for help. He enters the scene a few frames later. I was pausing today, thinking this project is the adventure of a lifetime.

Andreas Deja wrote:Here is a frame from the final version of a scene I was animating just recently. At the start we watch only Sarah as she pushes the tiger's front part. Then Alex comes in, he pushes the tiger's back end. Obviously each push is separate from the other in terms of timing, so the kids don't end up pushing simultaneously. A little tricky to work out against the tiger's body, but the scene turned out OK. Regarding effects animation for snow foot prints, I originally had planned for a more icy surface with no foot prints. But we ended up doing the opposite instead. Every step in the snow will have contact animation. And there are quite a few sequences in the snow.

Andreas Deja wrote:Strangely animation maquettes are often finalized late, toward the end of production, and Mushka is no exception. Hand sculpted by Craig Elliott, cast and hand painted, after a sketch of mine.

Andreas Deja wrote:Those scenes represent a little over half of the film. I need more scene stackers. There are other piles of scenes around my studio that need to be stored properly. Home stretch, bits and pieces of footage left to animate, and one long important scene. I guess I'll sell some of these animation drawings to benefit charities that are important to me...

Andreas Deja wrote:Here is an example of a scene from the upcoming film Mushka that shows how we were able to cut corners, and still end up with superior results. The first image is basically a story sketch. Matthieu Saghezchi drew the scenery, I added the character poses. Courtney DiPaola animated this emotional scene beautifully. We have NO rough layout and NO clean up layout on this production. We are going from story sketch straight to final background (which is crazy). That background was pained by Craig Elliott. Craig added beams of moonlight, which create a multiplane effect during the camera move. You can do this sort of thing with top talents only. Everybody is trying to plus what's been given to them. My team on this movie is tiny...but extraordinarily talented. Did I mention that we are almost done?

Andreas Deja wrote:I didn't get around to drawing up a new holiday illustration, so instead here are a few doodles for a scene from Mushka that is set in the winter. Actually the film includes a few sequences in the snow, but this one will look different in terms of rendering and camera moves.

Andreas Deja wrote:Early this week I got up with the sunrise and discovered our Mushka maquette looking amazing in this natural light. See below a Mushka mug made for our crew members. Right now I am actually animating the last scene for the film. That's it, animation is done, just some post production left to do like final sound mix. Negotiations with streaming services will begin as early as next week.

Andreas Deja wrote:I am still recovering from one of the most amazing days during production of Mushka. We recorded the film's score last Wednesday over Zoom with the outstanding Synchron Stage Vienna Orchestra. This is what we saw from Vienna on our monitor. The recording mixers, The orchestra (60 musicians) and the conductor. When Richard Sherman joined us at around 11 am the whole orchestra gave him this huge ovation! Did I tear up? Of course I did. Especially when he blew a kiss to the orchestra. That's our composer, the magnificent Fabrizio Mancinelli, who is also a good friend of Richard's. This pic includes Marco Valerio Antonini, the score's orchestrator. He wrote the sheet music for every single instrument in the orchestra. And this is conductor Bernhard Melbye Voss. He was professional, but also enthusiastic. He mentioned on a couple of occasions how much he liked the score. Fabrizio and Marco would give him notes on certain musical passages, and he just answered: "Gut!" And went on to get those adjustments from the orchestra perfectly. A truly magical day I will remember for the rest of my life. Imagine the score as a mix of John Williams and the Sherman Brothers...because that's what you are going to get!

Andreas Deja wrote:We just spent the most amazing week at George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch. This was all about final sound for Mushka. And boy...what an experience. These artists take your film to an entire new level. Through sound they plus your storytelling and add environmental atmosphere. I am in awe, these guys are magicians. And of course you get the Skywalker tour through the expansive property. It is still sinking in...but we are DONE with Mushka. And I enjoy finding out that the Skywalker crew loved working on our film.

Andreas Deja wrote:Just about a month ago the Mushka crew finally got together for a premiere screening of our film. Most people had never met each other. Everyone had worked from home, and the voice talents were recorded separately at my home studio. We invited a few guests of honor as well. Before the screening I introduced the artists individually. Actor Tanner Beard, who voiced the Father, turned around and shook hands with his on-screen animated daughter Helena Aviv Perez (Sarah) for the first time. It was such a funny but beautiful moment. Of course we had to give out goodie bags for all of the guests. They included a copy of the Jungle Book catalogue as well as.... some Mushka merchandise.

Andreas Deja wrote:I still draw characters from my film Mushka occasionally. In order to show my gratitude to certain artists who contributed so generously, a special sketch seems appropriate.

Andreas Deja wrote:I can't say enough about Richard's talent, his enthusiasm and curiosity (for life), his generosity and kindness. The fact that we have a Sherman song in Mushka is because Richard offered to write one...not because I asked him to. That just didn't cross my mind way back, after all...this is Richard Sherman. He was so collaborative with composer Fabrizio Mancinelli and me, always encouraging about storytelling and music. I remember telling him about the ending of the film, mentioning that there is an A and a B version. He immediately shouted: "It's version B, you've got to do version B!" Version B was the more emotional ending, and of course that became the final version.

Andreas Deja wrote:I am very happy to say that we recently won a Kids Choice Award at Palm Springs international short film festival. Reviews for the movie are starting to show up. This one tells me that Mushka has the potential to touch people in all the right ways.

Andreas Deja wrote:Last Tuesday we invited the animation industry to attend a special screening of Mushka. The old Fine Arts Theatre on Wilshire Boulevard turned out to be the perfect venue because of its superior sound and picture quality. We showed the film in 4K with full blown surround sound. We had a full house, about 400 people. What an amazing feeling to share the film with industry colleagues. Two standing ovations...I was literally flabbergasted. What a lovely reaction. The guest of honor was of course Richard Sherman who loved connecting with old friends that night. The musical dream team behind Mushka..Richard with composer Fabrizio Mancinelli. The lovely and super talented Holly Sedillos, who sang Mushka's lullaby for the film. The song was written by Richard.

Andreas Deja wrote:We look forward to presenting Mushka this Saturday at the San Diego Comic-Con. After the screening there will be a panel discussion. To me this is a big honor, because of my own history with the Con. I started visiting in the early 1980s. It was always fun to meet comic strip artists, run into animation peers and occasionally purchase original artwork. I hope to see you on Saturday!

Andreas Deja wrote:Mushka Sequence 14, Scenes 63 and 64. I loved animating these scenes. The tiger is being pushed from a cliff into a river. By Sarah and Alex. I won't give you the story context here, but this moment is part of the Mushka trailer. It is extremely comforting when you realize that you can animate such a scene without any reference. These are actually poses for the storyboard, but I also used them as a guide for the animation. After drawing tigers at the local zoo, studying footage of them frame by frame, you get to a point where you just wing it. Gut feeling, intuition. Of course Daniel Ernesto's beautiful water splash animation sure helped to make this a convincing scene. At Disney I hardly ever had the chance to do action scenes. I needed to focus on personality shots. But on Mushka I was able to do both, and I loved it. Figuring out the proper pacing for an action sequence was absolutely thrilling. You try to escalate the danger before things come to a halt. And then the resolve. Woolie Reitherman talked about this in several interviews. And I definitely kept that in mind.

Andreas Deja wrote:The San Jose International Short Film Festival will screen Mushka this Saturday 10/14 at 11 am.

Andreas Deja wrote:After a whirlwind trip to Turin/Italy, London and New York, we had a terrific response to our Mushka presentation at Lightbox in Pasadena last weekend. It ended with a standing ovation...how about that?!

Andreas Deja wrote:Thanksgiving.

Andreas Deja wrote:Fabrizio wrote the score for Mushka. It is a magnificent score! Here you see him with Richard M Sherman during a musical "brainstorm", a few years ago. This pic was taken at my home. I do own a piano, but I don't play myself. So it is always a special occasion when Richard or Fabrizio (or both) stop by to fill the house with beautiful music. It was magic witnessing these two magnificent talents coming together to produce the emotional musical landscape for our film. Richard started out by writing a beautiful lullaby (Mushka's lullaby). Fabrizio picked up this theme and incorporated it throughout the overall score. I remember when Fabrizio had finished writing his first piece of music for a montage sequence. He sent the file to Richard to listen to and to get his input. It turned out that Richard left a phone message full of praise and affection. It was beautiful! Now everyone was on the same page as far as the musical direction. I cannot overstate how grateful I am to this young composer who contributed so much to our film with a musical score that exceeded my wildest expectations.

Andreas Deja wrote:These are key animation drawings from individual scenes, arranged for model sheets.

Andreas Deja wrote:Can't tell you how happy I am about Mushka's musical success. Richard M. Sherman kicked off our musical journey years ago by contributing the film's melodious theme as well as a beautiful song. Richard is the most inspirational, generous, down to earth genius you could ever meet.

Andreas Deja wrote:We made a music video featuring Richard Sherman's "Mushka's Lullaby". The wonderful Holly Sedillos is featured during her actual recording. The amazing Synchron Stage Orchestra Vienna is playing the music. The song was arranged by the great Fabrizio Mancinelli, who also provided the film's score. Negotiations regarding Mushka's distribution have only just begun.

What's also going on here is that - while Deja is perfectly happy to look back at the Nine Old Men and discuss their importance - he isn't all that fond at looking back at his own older work. Andreas would much prefer to talk about the future. To be specific: "Mushka," the 25-to-26 minute-long hand-drawn featurette that he's been working on for the past few years which is built around a young girl and a tiger.

'I just had an update screening last night for my tiny story crew, 'Mushka' 's composer and the Shermans. Richard Sherman and his wife were at my house yesterday afternoon. Richard contributed a song to this film," Deja enthused. " "Mushka' 's about 40% animated at this point. At this pace, I think that I can have all of the animation done on this project by the end of this year. Then - come January - I'll focus on color, post-production and sound. 'Mushka' should be ready to start screening by the second half of next year."

Through his friendship with both Disney Legends, Fabrizio has been chosen to score Andreas Deja’s original film Mushka, collaborating with Richard Sherman on an original song. “I’m speechless every time I see that because of the style,” he explains about the upcoming film. “You can see the Disney greatness of the past without copying that.” He shared that Andreas Deja has created his own style for the film that’s like a moving picture book. He provided the arrangement for Richard Sherman’s song, which was recorded in February.