Feeling overworked and realizing she hadn’t animated anything just for fun in a long time, Chicago animation director Margaret Bialis gathered 11 talented friends for a joint look at the big and small in their lives.

Margaret Bialis: “The idea for the film came to me in January. I was overwhelmed by the current state of the world and found myself overthinking big ideas and reading too much into unnecessary details (especially when reading the news).

“At the same time, I knew I was surrounded by amazingly talented colleagues who helped inspire my creativity. With the help of my friend Alex Rumsa (who animated the ladybug sequence in the film), the idea for MACRO/micro was then born! I reached out to a few animation friends and pitched them a deck.

“The idea was for each animator to present a large, general idea, and either literally or figuratively transition into a smaller, specific version of that idea. There was a deadline and a shared color palette. The rest was up to the individual taste of each animator.

“I think it all came together nicely into one bite-sized package, where you can either read into it as much as you like or just observe the pretty pictures.

“It also wouldn’t have come together without our amazing sound designer, Ben Banovese at Limes & Cherries Sound. He had full creative control of the sound process, and the end product couldn’t sound cooler.”
 

 
Animators (in order of appearance): Ryan Bechtel, Margaret Bialis, Shane Beam, Chris Rutledge, Sarah Schmidt, Nolan J. Downs, Hero Paul See, Dave Pryor, Ian Ballantyne, Greg Radi, Alex Rumsa, Maddie Brewer

Sound Design: Ben Bavonese (Limes and Cherries)