The Last Witch Hunter

Prologue 1: Before Mankind by August Floren

• August Floren
• Age: 24
• Stockholm, Sweden
• Joined DeviantArt: 2007

What made you interested in art and/or animation?

The simplest explanation, which probably goes for many other artists out there, is that I started drawing as a young child and never came up with a good enough reason to stop doing it. I still haven’t.

Who is your role model or who pushed you to continue your art? If its not a person, what inspires you to draw?

Friends. Family. Rebels. Kind words of strangers. Pure stubbornness. Sounds, sights and smells.

What did you like most about this project?

The trust put into me and my fellow animators and the freedom given to us to do more or less whatever we wanted (as long as it was all kept within the magical realms of PG-13).

A brief description or summary of yourself.

I would like to think of myself as a storyteller and a human being. Not necessarily in that order.

Can you please describe your Process/Concept/Rationale?

For me, when working on a project like this, there’s a constant balancing act between making something I can be happy with, and actually meeting a deadline. So, much of the decision-making tend to boil down to three things – Ambition, Ability and Time.

“Before Mankind” is, as the name might suggest, a story about when the world was young and ruled by darker, stranger forces than our own. But there’s also a recurring theme of growth and expansion: The growth of the human race, the growing tensions that follows between us and the witches… and then there’s all those giant growing trees.

All this was something I wanted to reflect in my animation, and tell a relatively slow-moving story with a dark, ominous feeling throughout, and a vague sense of impending doom.

Visually, I knew early on I wanted it to have a rough, somewhat angular style – partly because it seemed to suit the mood of the film, and partly because it gave me an excuse not to focus too much on having perfect details/consistency. Tick tock.

The landscapes were inspired by the mountainous regions of northernmost Sweden.

Prologue 2: Witch Lords by Meredith Nolan

• Meredith Nolan
• Age: 23
• Brooklyn, NY, USA
• Joined DeviantArt: 2007

What made you interested in art and/or animation?

I’ve been drawing ever since I could grasp a crayon as most artists would say. I also grew up in the house that did not have TV or video games so I spent a lot of time sitting around using my imagination to express myself. It wasn’t until college time that I decided that animation right for me. I’ve always wanted to create comics, but I thought animation was way more interesting and challenging, so on a whim that is what I pursued. Now that I’m out of college and working in the industry, I’ve had the opportunity to create a webcomic like I’ve always wanted to.

Who is your role model or who pushed you to continue your art? If its not a person, what inspires you to draw?

Friends, family and colleague have always been there to support and get me through the rough times as well as being an endless source of inspiration. If I am unable to find pleasure in my own work, the next best thing is seeing that someone else enjoys my work.

What did you like most about this project?

Being given the creative freedom to tell my own story within the world of The Last Witch Hunter.

A brief description or summary of yourself.

I am one of those people who spend all day at my job drawing, then I come home and draw more. I’ve been working in NYC for a year as a freelance animator to pay the bills, but my other full time job is developing personal projects and occasionally going out on the town with friends and co workers.

Can you please describe your Process/Concept/Rationale?

From the initial descriptions and concepts I was given, this world seemed like it was playing on Viking esq themes, which is high on the list of things I LOVE.

The main mythological influence was the Hulder, a seductive forest creature that rewards those who satisfy her needs and kills those who do not - this seemed like appropriate behavior for a witch to have so I ran with it. Unlike my previous films, I wanted to try something that was more atmospheric, no interiors, city scapes or crowds, simple enough in design and concept so that I could complete the project but also effectively express my ideas.

Prologue 3: The Witch Hunter by Austin Hillebrecht

• Austin Hillebrecht
• Age: 28
• Portland, Oregon USA
• Joined DeviantArt: 2009

What made you interested in art and/or animation?

I’ve been drawing ever since I could remember. I liked being able to come up with my own characters and the worlds they lived in and then creating stories for them. I was a child of the '90s and grew up watching the movies and cartoons that came out around that time. When I was 11 or so I started making my own crudely animated short films with a home video camera and my action figures. Calling it stop motion would’ve be an overstatement, but that was the beginning of it all. I’ve been making animated and live action films ever since. The drawing and animation have become tools in my toolbox that help me pursue my passions in film making.

Who is your role model or who pushed you to continue your art? If its not a person, what inspires you to draw?

When I was 6 I saw Indiana Jones and knew I wanted to grow up and become an archaeologist. My mom, being the the awesome woman she is, saw my thirst for adventure these films stirred up in me and suggested that instead I become an actor. That way I can play people who go on all these adventures. My plans were quickly redirected and have unwavered ever since. All along the way my Mom and Dad have been huge supporters in helping me pursue my dreams in art and film. Aside from them I have a ton of other role models whose work inspires me, some of them being Steven Spielberg, Tim Burton, Brad Bird, Norman Rockwell, Edward Gorey, Abigail Larson, Gris Grimly, Jeff Delgado and Walt Disney.

What did you like most about this project?

I really enjoyed the creative freedom I had with the project. I liked being given someone else’s world and getting to play around in it and put my own spin on things. There’s a lot of imagery from the Last Witch Hunter that already is in the same vein as my work, so I enjoyed how natural it felt to work on.

A brief description or summary of yourself.

I’m tall and usually quiet with dark eyes, demented sense of humor and an affinity for hats. Freelance animation and illustration currently pay the bills and I also act, direct, write, produce, compose music and do visual effects for films and television. I have a Youtube sketch comedy channel I’ve created with my partner in crime Sean Parker (SeantheDandy) called Hapstance Films. If you like absurd and slightly disturbing humor I suggest you give it a looky loo.

Can you please describe your Process/Concept/Rationale?

The script for my short was one that delved into the history of The Witch Hunter and I wanted to make sure it didn’t just turn out to be a list of events. I wanted some sort of an over arching structure to the piece and an emotional through line.

I decided to make the short take place in a bar and have all the history parts be more like flashbacks that Kaulder was remembering as he had some drinks. The element that I liked about this setup was it naturally fit itself into the style of film noir, which is something I really love.

A lot of my art is inspired by the moody lighting and tones found in those types of films. It also helped me practically because I had a month or so create the short, there was a lot of stuff going on in my script, and I needed a way to feasibly be able to pull it all off.

By going with the film noir direction, and stylizing the flashbacks even more than the present day sections, I could get away with not having to create a ton of detail in my drawings as things became more shadowed and silhouetted. It saved a ton of time in the long run and gave it a cool visual language. In fact my favorite bits that I worked on were the flashbacks for that very reason.

Prologue 4: Witches Live Amongst Us by Robertas Nevecka

• Robertas Nevecka
• Age: 31
• Vilnius, Lithuania
• Joined DeviantArt: 2006

What made you interested in art and/or animation?

One of my very first memories from childhood is my mother drawing a rooster. I still remember it in detail. It’s the most beautiful drawing I’ve ever seen. That’s it.

Who is your role model or who pushed you to continue your art? If its not a person, what inspires you to draw?

I don’t have a single role model. Beauty of the world inspires me to create art.

What did you like most about this project?

It might sound funny, but receiving Michael Caine’s voiceover was breathtaking. This had an amazing impulse to animate better than you could ever imagine.

A brief description or summary of yourself.

A guy with many professions. I’ve finished BA in film directing, but I work as a designer, illustrator, animator, digital image technician, camera assistant, set designer. Now I’m writing a script for my next short live-action film.

Can you please describe your Process/Concept/Rationale?

The main character in my clip is the environment. The script tells the story of the world that is changing. So I want to show this world in extreme wide shots with humongous buildings placed by very small people. I wan’t my camera static so the viewer wouldn’t be distracted from the environment (as if looking into a painting). And it’s a dark story about evil, so everything shouldn’t be funny looking. Therefore it’s nighttime in all the shots, there’s a lot of shadows on the characters. And I use a lot of sharp details for the feeling something’s bad gonna happen.