Electric Studios, the creative crew housed within London VFX powerhouse Electric Theatre Collective, just dropped us the first in their series of original animated projects, an action fantasy about an aging but fearless cephalopod hunter.

Chiara Sgatti, co-director/lead animator at Electric Studios: “The starting point for the film was simple, we’d designed the Kraken as concept art, then having fallen in love with the beast decided we had to build a story around it. The catch was no budget, so we knew that whatever we made would need to be produced smartly with agility and a focused vision.
 

“The starting point for the film was simple, we’d designed the Kraken as concept art, then having fallen in love with the beast decided we had to build a story around it.”

 
“The answer is a unique sushi western, its bleached aesthetic combining high-detail illustration with intensely sketched moments of movement. We cut our coat to our cloth, containing the process, reducing cel animation cost, and using this sparsity of look to give things a fresh visual direction.

“When it came to Character design, I started by thinking about our heroine’s personality; why she does what she does, how long she’s been doing it, and so on. We landed on a very serious old grandma who has been doing this her whole life, full of scars, very practical clothing, and an appropriately sized weapon to fight huge sea creatures.

“With a team formed from our in-house crew and trusted freelance collaborators it was a true labor of love that took a little longer than planned. Also, big shout out to King Lear for the perfect soundtrack to our visual mayhem.”
 
 

 
Production: Electric Studios
Director: Chiara Sgatti, Electric Studios
CD: Geoff Parsons
EP: Ben Honour
Producer: Naima Souza Vogt
Lead design/compositing: Marina Nakagawa
Lead animator: Chiara Sgatti
Lead cleanup/color: Bebe Ogloza
Cleanup: Mathias Lemaitre-Sgard
Compositor: Marcos Fernandes & Domhnall Malone

Grade: Electric Colour
Colorist: Andi Chu

Music/Sound: King Lear
Sound designer: Diana Amado