We are very proud to finally present our animated short film Witches, directed by Thibaut Vuillin and produced by Stim Studio in collaboration with the student association Cpasdec. This one-year project was both an amazing adventure and a great challenge for Stim Studio.
This short film was an opportunity for students (the Cpasdec association) to demonstrate their skills and get a first experience in the 3D industry. Stim Studio supported them with training and 3D animation teachers. Our goal at Stim Studio was to show the extent of our expertise in animation and storytelling.
It was also an opportunity for us to develop our pipeline and collaborate with professional companies in the industry. We were able to partner with Foundry and use their software Katana, Nuke and Mari. The film was completely rendered inside Katana using the Redshift renderer.
We also partnered with the Pilon sound studio in Lyon, which enabled us to professionally record voices and sound effects.
Creating beautiful images and making great animation were not our only goals with this project. We also wanted to bring to the screen a story that would question our time and resonate with viewers. On this project, it was important for us to show that animated films can address serious issues and speak to an adult audience.
The characters and settings design comply with contemporary animation aesthetics. But the film direction uses the codes and conventions from live action films to get more intensity and match the film’s serious subject.
Witches is a feminist tale bringing us back to the Middle Ages, when witch-hunts were sadly very common.
At dawn, in an old house in the middle of a dark forest, four women are discussing quietly. Who are the people threatening them when they try to help heal people? Celeste, our main protagonist, is determined to go help a family in need despite the dangers awaiting her outside.
Will she succeed in her mission without getting caught? Are witch-hunts really a thing of the past in our modern times
