Finding a muse in his six-year-old daughter, Spanish mixed media specialist Antoni Sendra hand-paints 2,000 printed video frames to create a sweet and heartfelt ode to the magic of childhood and family in his short film “Joana”.

Antoni Sendra: “The project was born from an inner urge of wanting to step back from the computer. From the beginning I used my daughter as my main inspiration source, so I started recording voice memos with her on my phone.

“My creativity often sparks when I find some new technique that captivates me, so doing my research, I stumbled on the work of Gianluigi Toccafondo, an animation director who repurposes footage using photocopy rotoscoping and painting over the frames. With the audio recordings of Joana and Toccafondo’s animation technique as a reference, I forced myself to write a simple VO to set a minimal narrative structure. Then I started filming Joana with my camera.
 

“With the audio recordings of Joana and Toccafondo’s animation technique as a reference, I forced myself to write a simple VO to set a minimal narrative structure.”

 
“When I did my first animation tests I fell in love with the technique and the process, but immediately understood that I’d better reduce the script to a more realistic duration due to the huge amount of work involved in designing and producing each frame by hand in a practical way (one second is made of 12 hand-painted frames).

“The process can be summarized like this: I would compose Joana’s footage digitally inside After Effects. Then I would print out a few frames and start designing with acrylic paint. Once I was happy with the design, I’d start producing the whole sequence. It took me six months to complete two minutes and 20 seconds of animation.”
 
 

 
Director: Antoni Sendra
Animation: Antoni Sendra, Luis Llácer
Animation Assistant: Ester Hernández, Guille Terrádez

Music: Carles Chiner