Channel Frederator Blog

If Neopets came out in the 1930’s, you probably might end up with this well designed, wacky short called, Seveur Sans Sushi, from Christine Sevigny!

1) Where did you get the idea for Serveur Sans Sushi?
I first got an idea so much larger than the final movie. I had to do this movie for school, in my final year in animation. We had to do a one minute short. So I cut all the parts that could be cut of my idea to end up with a cook who doesn’t have anything to cook in his kitchen.

2) Who are some of your influences?
Some of my influence come from the Looney Tunes, some Walt Disney movies, Garfield comics, and some design artists like Peter DeSève and Claire Wendling. I also like old cartoons, when they are bouncing and dancing to the sound of music.

3) The designs were very unique and entertaining! They had the marketability of pokemon or Neopets, but almost as if they were created in the 1930s! I mean that in the best of ways, as I am a connoisseur of all things cute. How did you come up with that great style?
First, I had the idea for the story of my movie. I had also come design for my characters and the kitchen. One day, I bought a dvd of the old mickey mouse with steamboat willie and other movies made in those years. It all changed my perspective! I wanted to do something with that old style. So I worked hard to design my characters to have my style with a touch of old cartoon.

4) Can you explain the process that went into creating serveur sans sushi from start to finish?
The first thing is to come up with an idea. After I developped it, cut some things that were not essential. When I was creating the story, I was also designing my characters and backgrounds. Then I did a storyboard to illustrate my story. With the storyboard I did an animatic, which is very magic because you see for the first time the movie with almost the good timing. After the animatic, it’s time to create the backgrounds and to prepare the scenes to be animated. Then, I animated all the movie, colored backgrounds and animation. I also recorded the music over my movie. The pianist was playing while my movie was playing. It was very impressive. And the final step was to do the montage of the frames and the sound together. And that’s it! Serveur Sans Sushi was born!

5) What are you working on currently?
I am now at school in 3D animation and I now in the preproduction of my movie that I will be doing next year. I have made the story and I am now searching for designs for the charcaters and the backgrounds as well as starting to do the storyboard. I am surrely going to send it to you next year when it will be all done!

Thanks for submitting Christine! We are looking forward to yr next film!
-Jeaux Janovsky