Tele-Sofia · short animation

•

About Tele-Sofia

Tele-sofia is a short animation directed, animated and hand-drawn with Nuno Mendanha and Manuel Sá as a final project for the Master's Degree in Illustration and Animation. The original soundtrack was created by Carabinas: Miguel Barros, Nuno Couto, Marco Nunes e Paulo Praça.

Sofia, the main character, surpasses the limits of consciousness and envisions the world through different eyes, achieving the almost unimaginable aboard a Fiat 127.

This animation evokes Ayrton Senna, one of the most talented and charismatic figures in motorsport history who, according to Martin Brundle, had "a sixth sense to know where the track was". Hence the title "Tele-Sofia" - a word composed by the juxtaposition of two terms tele (which expresses the idea from afar) and sofia (which refers to aptitude, knowledge) - thus referring to a knowledge, a premonitory sense, which operates at a distance - here represented in the projection of Sofia's imagination to reality.

As an academic final project, Tele-sofia is complemented by a dissertation entitled: O contributo da rotoscopia na relação entre cinema de animação e artes plásticas (The contribution of rotoscoping to the relationship between animated film and fine arts). This work emphasizes the importance of drawing as the basis of all visual arts questioning to what extent can rotoscoping based on a responsive drawing experience be able to incorporate the visual arts realm — turning the resulting work into an animation of visual experiences. After all, drawing is not confined to the perfect mechanical reproduction of reality — mimesis — it requires idiosyncratic interpretations and a deep empathy with the referent, facts collected only by a sensitive instrument: the artist.

Available in portuguese at:

https://ciencipca.ipca.pt/jspui/handle/11110/853

Action

The action takes place in the 80's, in Barcelos (a city in the north of Portugal), featuring Sofia, a ten-year-old girl who is a motorsports fan. Some details in the film, besides helping to contextualize the action, also pay tribute to the places and institutions that supported us. For example, in Sofia's room we can see a traditional Rooster of Barcelos and in the girl's sweater there's the logo of the Masters in Illustration and Animation.

Technique

After some initial experimentation, the language to be adopted was determined: we wanted graphics of great dynamism and strength, clear but not clean. We realized that rotoscoping would be the most favorable animation technique to achieve the desired graphic language. With that in mind, we started getting references from real life: drawings, photographs and videos. Nuno sculpted a clay bust of Ayrton Senna and another one of Sofia, both intended to be used as references for future drawings. For the scenes where the Fiat 127 goes fast and furious, a miniature replica of the vehicle was used.

These references were then represented by analogue and digital drawings. Materials and supports varied from graphite pencils on paper, to acrylics on cardboard, Wacom Bamboo pen tablets and digital drawing software.

It should also be noted that these digital tools were either used to make a first capture of the model, or to finalize and adapt drawings previously made by hand. It's important to emphasize that the computer was used in a way that faithfully adapted our traditional techniques and movements, without losing our ductus, our hallmark, because, in reality, "the pencil and the computer are very similar, they are as good as the people who drive them" (Norman Foster, 2005).