Brazilian director/animator Filipe Consoni and the animation team at Fern in Atlanta mark Mental Health Awareness Month with a dramatic journey through surreal worlds to drive home the message “no one is ever truly alone”.

Filipe Consoni: “The biggest creative challenge working on Lonely was actually finding time to execute the concept without sacrificing our own mental health and quality of life. Balancing the need to take on client work during the day with the desire to start a passion project at night is difficult and something other artists can relate to.

“The creative team started very small, but it wasn’t working and the film paused due to major burnout. There were a couple of months when the project wasn’t touched at all.
 

“It’s kind of funny that the main message of the film was the exact reason that I was able to finish the project: I was not alone.”

 
“Then, things began to feel better. We reached out to friends and animators who we pitched the concept, and to our surprise, a lot of them showed interest and believed in the idea. It’s kind of funny that the main message of the film was the exact reason that I was able to finish the project: I was not alone.

“On the technical side, the short has 56 shots and a runtime of 3:28. Finding the balance between looking good and keeping it achievable was a crucial decision. The team tried to solve each shot as simply as possible while picking a few key shots to really go all in on.

“All character animation is hand-drawn, frame-by-frame, and finished in Photoshop because the textured brushes are a key visual element of the film. Not a super clean workflow, as Photoshop is still clanky for animation, but using the AnimDessin plugin helped a lot.”
 
 

 
Production: Fern
Director: Filipe Consoni
EP: James Mabery
Art Director: Jefferson Biglia
Animator: Adelir Boeira, Deco Daviola, Filipe Consoni, Guilherme Gurian, Gustavo Mochiuti, Natália Faria, Pola Lucas, Wander Deley
Compositor/animator: Adelir Boeira, Filipe Consoni, Henrique Zago, Matheus Canto
Cleanup: Adelir Boeira, Dazy Teodoro, Filipe Consoni, Francine Rocha, Jefferson Biglia

Sound Designer: Saulo Baumgartner