Animation studios featured in the second series range from Cartoon Saloon in Ireland, to Punkrobot in Chile, to D’art Shtajio in Japan and, closer to home, Aardman Animations in the UK.

From award-winning director Magdalena Osinska, Aardman Studios’ Star Wars: Vision episode is entitled ‘I Am Your Mother’ (we see what they did there…) and tells the story of young pilot Anni, who is embarrassed by her sweet, but clingy mum, must team with her for a madcap family race at the academy. Along the way, their relationship is tested by the elements, their old ship, other racers…and each other.

We spoke to Osinska about combining Star Wars and Aardman, working with stop motion animation and whether there will be any Aardman easter eggs in her episode…

How did everything begin for you with working on Star Wars: Visions Season Two?

So Star Wars/Lucasfilm approached Aardman two years ago and asked to pitch an idea of Star Wars meets Aardman. And Aardman asked a lot of creative directors and writers to pitch their ideas. I presented about three ideas but this idea was the very first thing that came to my head.

How would you describe ‘I Am Your Mother’?

I would describe it as a love letter to all the mothers. I’m a mother and when I was pitching, my son was four years old and now he’s six. I constantly think about myself as a mum, I constantly analyse myself. I was thinking that there aren’t that many films actually about mothers or mother/daughter relationships or that specifically concentrate on this.

In Star Wars a lot of mums are killed or they die… There are some great mothers in Star Wars but I wanted to have a positive spin on the ‘I am your father’ line and on mother/daughter relationships. So it’s a love letter for the mums because I think that they are quite often overlooked in films.

How did you go about combining that distinct Aardman vibe with the Star Wars universe?

The thing about Aardman is that it is about relationships, and Star Wars is about relationships as well. So I could find a common link in there. But also I was very excited about stop motion.

Just imagining the Star Wars world in stop motion – the original trilogy had the AT-ATs and the Tauntans. So this idea of bringing back this feel, the very tangible and handmade feel of the originals really excited me. So besides the story, I thought that, visually, this is going to be a perfect marriage.

What were your inspirations for the look of ‘I Am Your Mother’?

It was a combination of Star Wars and Aardman and my style as well. We were trying to find a perfect balance between all of these.

We’ve done things a little bit differently than we usually do in Aardman, because in Aardman we often use plasticine and maybe bolder tones of colour. But I really love the Star Wars universe and the detail of the textures, so I wanted to approach the puppets and the whole world that way.

What is your favourite thing about working with stop motion animation?

The best thing is that when you’ve got a puppet, it’s an object. It doesn’t move and you can hold it. So it’s very tangible.

Then the animators are working in their units (they work in darkness for a day or two) and they are just pouring their soul and heart into the shots to give life to these characters. Then when I see these characters now moving, it’s like real magic. That feeling is amazing. And it’s unlike any other. I’ve tried different animations and I love all sorts of different animation styles, but this is very unique, very unusual.

What are your biggest challenges with working with stop motion animation?

With stop motion, if something goes wrong with the animation, you can’t really go back and correct it.

Once the animator goes for the shots, they are in the zone. They are in the unit and they’re animating. And when they finish, that’s it pretty much.

Because it was quite a tight schedule [on Star Wars: Visions], there was not much time to reshoot things, so I really had to be very precise on how to brief the animators and how we prepared the shots.

So we would do live action rehearsals and film each other. Then we’ll look at their videos and decide ‘oh, this is a nice moment, let’s bring this into the animation’.

One of the most challenging sets was the tunnel because it had to feel like it was quite long. We couldn’t build this massive never-ending tunnel, so we had to film one part of it, then move it forward again. So there were a lot of technical tricks, and challenging things that we all actually enjoy doing. There were lots of problem-solving every day!

Now, did we spy the robot cooker from A Grand Day Out in the episode…?

Yeah! The robot cooker is there and the orange rocket from A Grand Day Out is in the kitchen area in the beginning.

Also, the Gammorean pigs, which are one of the alien species in Star Wars, are suspiciously similar to the Shaun The Sheep pigs.

There are lots of Star Wars easter eggs as well…

What do you want audiences to take away from the episode?

To appreciate the sacrifices that mums make and that actually they teach us a lot. I think we often forget about that and we just take it for granted. This is what Anni the character learns, and I wanted people to have a feeling of ‘oh yeah, my mum taught me this and that as well!’.

 Star Wars: Visions—Volume 2 streams exclusively on Disney+ beginning 4 May.  

The post “Visually, this is going to be a perfect marriage.” Aardman meets Star Wars in Visions Season Two appeared first on Sci-Fi Tips.

Good news everyone! The second volume of the animated anthology series Star Wars: Visions will be landing on Disney+ this May with nine new shorts from nine studios from around the globe. 

“The reaction to the first volume of Star Wars: Visions blew us away,” says James Waugh, Star Wars: Visions executive producer and Senior Vice President Franchise Content & Strategy at Lucasfilm. “We were delighted that this project inspired and resonated with so many people,

“We always saw Star Wars: Visions as a framework for celebratory expressions of the franchise from some of the best creators working today. Animation is in a global renaissance, and we’re constantly staggered by the amount of creativity pushing the medium forward. With Volume 1, the imaginative minds of Japan’s anime industry were on full display.”

Check out some of what we saw in Star Wars: Visions Volume 1 with the trailer…

“With Volume 2, we expanded our canvas to take audiences on a global tour of some of the most talented creators from around the world,” Waugh continues. “We’re so proud to be able to reveal the line-up of studios we’ve assembled. Every short is incredible, full of heart, scope, imagination, and the values that make stories distinctly ‘Star Wars’ — all while opening up bold new ways of seeing what a Star Wars story can be.”

The shorts included in Star Wars: Visions Volume 2 were created by the following international animation studios: El Guiri (Spain), Cartoon Saloon (Ireland), Punkrobot (Chile), Aardman (United Kingdom), Studio Mir (South Korea) Studio La Cachette (France), 88 Pictures (India), D’art Shtajio (Japan), and Triggerfish (South Africa). D’Art Shtajio’s short was created in collaboration with Lucasfilm Ltd. (United States). 

Here’s what we know about each short from Star Wars: Visions Volume 2 and their filmmakers…

Sith 

Studio: El Guiri

Writer-director: Rodrigo Blaas

Rodrigo Blaas is an Emmy Award®-winning director who has spent more than 20 years in animation. After co-founding Stromboli Animation in 1997, Blaas joined Blue Sky Studios in 2000, working on the feature film Ice Age, before transitioning to Pixar Animation Studios. There, he worked on such projects as Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille and Wall-E. More recently, Blaas partnered with Guillermo del Toro to develop the award-winning series Trollhunters, served as creative director for Mikros Animation Paris and, in 2021, created El Guiri Studios in Madrid with his partner, Cecile Hokes. Screecher’s Reach

Studio: Cartoon Saloon

Director: Paul Young

Paul Young is a co-founder of Cartoon Saloon, an IFTA winner and Oscar®, Emmy® and BAFTA nominee. He produced the animated features My Father’s Dragon, WolfWalkers, The Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea and The Breadwinner as well as award-winning TV series including Puffin Rock, Dorg Van Dango and Viking Skool.

In the Stars

Studio: Punkrobot

Writer-director: Gabriel Osorio

Gabriel Osorio majored in Fine Arts at Universidad de Chile, later specializing in 3D animation. After working in commercials, movies and television series, he founded Punkrobot Studio. Since 2008, he has directed projects for children’s television including Flipos, Muelin y Perlita, Soccer Girls and television spots. In 2016, his short film Bear Story became the first Latin American project to win an Oscar® in the animated short category. 

 I Am Your Mother

Studio: Aardman

Director: Magdalena Osinska

 Magdalena Osinska is an award-winning director who has been with Aardman for eight years. She has directed stop-motion, CGI, 2D and live-action commercials including Wallace & Gromit’s The Great Sofa Caper and Share the Orange. Osinska directed development of the children’s series Joyets and has also directed films including Spirits of the Piano and Zbigniev’s Cupboard. A graduate of the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield, UK, as well as the Polish Film School in Lodz and Art College in Warsaw, Osinska is currently developing the feature film Jasia, based on her grandmother’s memories of WWII Poland. 

Journey to the Dark Head

Studio: Studio Mir

Director: Hyeong Geun Park

Rising star Hyeong Geun Park had already made a name for himself when he entered the Korean animation industry in 2017, thanks to his strong drawing and animation sensibilities. He has directed animation for dozens of cinematic game trailers and has since expanded into animated series, working on projects including Dota: Dragon’s Blood: Book 3 and Lookism. Journey to the Dark Head is the first title he has executive produced from start to finish. 

The Spy Dancer

Studio: Studio La Cachette

Writer-Director: Julien Chheng

Julien Chheng is CEO of Studio La Cachette, an Emmy Award®-winning French animation studio he co-founded in 2014 with fellow Gobelins school’s alumni Oussama Bouacheria and Ulysse Malassagne. Chheng was trained in visual development at Disney and has worked as a character animator on acclaimed 2D animated features The Rabbi’s Cat, Mune and the Academy Award®-nominated Ernest and Celestine. In 2021, he won an Emmy Award® as animation executive producer of Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal, for which he also served as animation supervisor. In 2022, Chheng directed with Jean-Christophe Roger the Cesar-nominated feature Ernest and Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia.

The Bandits of Golak

Studio: 88 Pictures

Director: Ishan Shukla

Ishan Shukla started his career as a CG artist in Singapore. For more than a decade, he spearheaded projects ranging from TV commercials to series and music videos. His 2016 animated short, Schirkoa, was long listed for the Academy Awards® after receiving dozens of awards. He then set up his own animation studio to work on adult-oriented animated feature films including a feature-length version of Schirkoa, set to hit festivals in summer 2023. 

The Pit

Studios: D’art Shtajio and Lucasfilm Ltd.

Writer-director-executive producer: LeAndre Thomas

Co-Director: Justin Ridge

LeAndre Thomas is an award-winning writer and director from Oakland, Calif., whose most recent film won Best Director at the Pasadena International Film Festival. In addition to his independent films, Thomas is a part of the franchise studio team at Lucasfilm Ltd. where he has worked for more than 11 years being credited on recent titles such as Light & Magic, The Mandalorian, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi, and many more. 

Justin Ridge executive produced the Emmy®-nominated series Star Wars Resistance. His credits also include Star Wars Rebels, Storks, The Cleveland Show, Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Aau’s Song

Studio: Triggerfish

Writer-Directors: Nadia Darries and Daniel Clarke 

Nadia Darries is a director, animator and co-founder of Goon Valley Animation, with an avocation for songwriting. Born in the Cape Flats in South Africa, Darries has worked on high-end animated film and motion design as an animator, project manager, creative director and director since 2015. Her experience includes animating at Triggerfish Animation Studios on the award-winning BBC films Stick Man, Revolting Rhymes and Highway Rat. 

Daniel Clarke is a Cape Town-based director and artist working in animation, film and illustration. He started his career in animation in 2008 at Triggerfish Animation Studios, where he has served as production designer, art director and director on projects such as the feature film Khumba, BBC’s Stick Man and The Snail and the Whale. In 2018, along with James Clarke and Daniel Snaddon, he completed the graphic novel Kariba.

 Star Wars: Visions—Volume 2 streams exclusively on Disney+ beginning 4 May.  

The post Star Wars: Visions: What we know about Volume 2 appeared first on Sci-Fi Tips.