The Lost Thing

If you watched the Academy Awards Sunday night, you may have noticed that Shaun Tan won best animated short film for The Lost Thing, based on his 2002 picture book by the same name.

I've posted the trailer for the book, but you can also see the entire short film here.

Work on this film, produced by Passion Pictures Austrailia, began way back in 2002 with a small team of four people. The film is 15 minutes long, using CGI (computer generated imagery) with 2D handpainted elements. It was completed in April 2010. Shaun was involved in just about every aspect which included director, writer, designer and artist. He said it was a great opportunity to learn about the differences between book illustration and animated film. More accustomed to working with still, silent pictures that allow a viewer plenty of time to contemplate individual compositions, he was now faced with a medium where questions of time and pace are much more critical, not to mention layers of sound and music.

You must visit the official The Lost Thing website which is just beyond words it is so creative.

And it will lead you right into Shaun's own website featuring all his art.

Next week I will feature some of his insights into picuture book writing and illustrating.