Night cap with Knock Strike
An interview with Marc Torices, director of Knock Strike
Which techniques did you use in the animation?
We used traditional animation with Photoshop as a tool. We used pencils and other objects to make the first drafts, but always finishing on the computer with Photoshop for the graphic part.
How did you work on the different styles of drawings?
Several illustrators worked on the different blueprints, so the art isn’t all from the same person. We chose each illustrator depending on which style suited best the scene or the sequence. As we were a bit concerned about the unity of the whole piece, we decided to work on a defined colour palette to set all the designs a bit together.
Do you enjoy fantasy stories and heroic characters?
Yes, sometimes. In this case, it was mostly about picking up characters and situations and push their consequences to the extreme. It was not really about putting a hero in a fantasy story, but mostly picking up a stupid and coward guy and set him as the hero of a story from which we only see certain moments.
Do you believe the travel is more important than the destination?
Well it depends, maybe. In this project, the most important was the travel, for obvious reasons (the destination is a little bit obscure and without a concrete idea, in this case).
Do you enjoy questioning our hidden senses?
The case may arise where we enjoy questioning that kind of thing, but not during the creative process of the short. This short is the product of a development of little meditation in which we focus on the graphic result (exaggerating it to the maximum) and in the collective process. No deep questions about the nature of the human being or things like that were asked during the making of the film. Just friends with some time on their hands playing and trying things. For most of us, it was the first time we did animation, so we focused on that, on the animation.
What sort of freedom would you say the short format allows?
The limited time (both in the piece and in your personal life) is an obstacle, so is the money (that can change your availability of time) and the resources or tools that you have and that can either help your idea or be an obstacle. The rest is freedom, I guess…
If you’ve already been to Clermont-Ferrand, could you share with us an anecdote or story from the festival? If not, what are your expectations for this year?
We have never visited the festival. We hope to see many good shorts and have fun and eat well.
Knock Strike is being shown in Lab Competition L5.
