The Ultimate Space Race
A short film recounting the events of the space race that took place between the USA and the USSR from 1955 until 1969. Our team has long had a fascination with space. A period of history that brought about a well of inspiration and excitement. In this piece, we took a lot of liberties on how the events took place, and this is by no means meant to be a historical tool. The biggest liberty we took was ending this film after the landing of Apollo 11. The USA sent more missions to the moon, the USSR launched the Space Station program, David Scott drove on the moon, and eventually, the two countries launched joint missions that still continue today. Maybe the future will hold a sequel to this animation, but for now, please enjoy a comedic retelling of the Ultimate Space Race.
For a long time, we have wanted to create a short film about space. It has actually been almost two years since we first wrote the initial concept out - but things do change over time. In this specific case, it was all about finding the right story to carry a short film. What began as a short film about humanity's changing understanding of the moon over the centuries (with the space race as a small section) eventually landed on being a short only about the space race. There of course is plenty more we would have loved to focus on from the ancient Greek's early mathematical pondering about the distance and makeup of the moon. All the way to the fascinating beginnings of the International Space Station program, and our personal favorite, the Space Shuttle program. However, in order to keep a cohesive story line, we needed to focus on a shorter time period. And the years between 1955 and 1970 provided the perfect, action packed slate of events to base this piece on.
There are many visual liberties we took throughout this piece. The soviets had technology far beyond using a plunger release to launch their rockets, for one. Laika was launched inside of a spaceship, not outside of one. And although they may have fallen over a few times due to a radical adjustment in gravity, Neil and Buzz were not launched out of a giant slingshot face first into the moon.
The technological advancements and bravery shown by both nations during this time is truly something to look back on in wonder. But what we love to do as a studio is to take the basic facts, and make them funny. Using the unexpected, the hidden, and the outright bizarre to bring joy to people who can hopefully learn something along the way. Now, we would like to show a little bit of the process that this particular piece went through. From a written script, loosely sketched out ideas, blocking animations, complex 3D VFX, and finally, a complete edit, we will talk about each step along the way in the next section.
Process Breakdown
As with all animation projects, this one started with a single idea. Our director had been thinking about making a space themed short for a long time, and when he sketched out a contraption that would have the astronauts launched into space by a giant slingshot held up by rockets, we ended up laughing to for a long time envisioning the astronauts being flung across the void of space. And so we decided to create a short film about the space race utilizing the unexpected and ridiculous wherever we could.
We have talked about our storyboarding process in other project breakdowns, but the studio’s philosophy here is just to get the idea across and move on. For each project we do, we try to adjust and adapt the style of storyboard art we use. For this project, the thick lines and grey tones fit the 1950s soviet vibe our director was going for - although at the time we had not made the decision to have the piece in black and white. This process moved quickly, getting all of the jokes, key moments, and transitions down in drawing so we could begin to see what would work together in a full edit.
After we have a the edit populated with scratch VO and storyboards, our team moves onto a blocking pass. Usually, this would be a very coarse, wireframe of each scene. However, due to this being an internal project and not needing to hit check points with a client, we skipped ahead slightly in the process and went straight into a first animation pass. Sometimes it can be challenging to stay motivated through to the end of a big project, but the constant jokes, funny character designs, and rapidly progressing edit helped to keep us motivated through the final day.
We had initially planned to do this piece in full color, however, after seeing the first animation pass in the edit with the flat, grey shaders, it really clicked that keeping the piece in monotone was the way forward. A new style that our studio had not tried before, and a fantastic way to keep the feeling set in the period we were telling the story about.
Once the edit was filled out with the animation passes, it was on to the most tedious, but also one of the most fun parts of the process. Lighting and shading. Dressing the sets, adding realistic textures, and placing proper lighting takes a bland and flat scene into something believable with loads of character. This step was the first time in this project that we could see what the end product would look like. On all client projects, we design styleframes early on in the process so that we can know what functionality is needed in the rigs and the models. But when there is no end client to give input, we find it to be a good excercise to keep a loose hold on things and see where they end up. In this case, it paid off well, and we are thrilled with the result. In this step, our team also did all of the secondary effects work. Clothing simulations, procedural modelling systems, pyro simulations, and particle systems.
This project is the first time our studio has taken on a project driven by narration. There were many discussions early on about what type of voice we were looking for. British war reporter from the 40s? An old American grandfather telling the story of his youth to the next generation? Ultimately, our team decided on the classic American radio voice from the 1950s. And in that field, our American director ended up being a great fit for the job. Brushing up on a few classic tv shows helped us to get in the mood and feel like we were all out on Coney Island for the day as we recorded the narration for this video.
With the animation completed, renders finished, and timeline populated - this was the home stretch. It was also our last chance to fit in as many ridiculous moments as we could into the video. From yelling across the room to use for Neil flying through the void of space to learning to curse in Russian, crafting the sound for this project was a real treat.
This project represents our biggest undertaking to date, and one of our most enjoyable projects. It marks a big step where we will be working hard with new collaborators to bring more ideas to life, and new stories into the world.
Selected Stills
Credits
Created by: Ambient Press
Directed by: Jake Wegesin
Music by: Benjamin Widawski
Audio mix and master by: Jordan Ruiz