While studying illustration at the Academy of Fine Arts in Leipzig Germany, Franz Impler taught himself 3D animation then went on to break every rule and convention of the genre in his wonderfully bizarre thesis project “Out Of Bounds”.

Franz Impler: “The film is about the question of how the places or spaces you live in influence your identity and who you are. I explore these topics here through the motive of a video game. For me, these topics like boundaries, freedom, or rules are very complex and have a lot of ambiguities.

“What I like about the videogame theme is that things in games are often very clear and plain. That makes it easier for me to talk about topics that feel very difficult and complex to me.
 

“At some point, I decided to make everything myself, including the music and sound, which was probably a very bad idea.”

 
“I started teaching myself 3D animation about a year before I began this project. So I learned all the 3D stuff while making the film which was pretty challenging.

“At some point, I decided to make everything myself, including the music and sound, which was probably a very bad idea.

“For example, it was the first time I tried to make music. And it was a lot of work to have complete responsibility for every part of the film. But in the end, I think I learned a lot about every aspect of filmmaking. So maybe it was worth it.”
 
 

 
School: Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig

Director/animator: Franz Impler
Music/sound design: Franz Impler