How do you keep yourself going over an 18-month schedule? Was there a lot of planning?

Well first off, I didn't really have a deadline as such, just a rough idea that I'd like it finished for autumn, as I wanted it to be shown at that time, (I see it as an autumn film).

There was a fair bit of planning involved, I worked out a detailed storyboard and animatic. Its hard to say, "I'll create three shots this week" because of the different complexities involved in each one. I also completed the scenes out of order, as I was learning as I went and didn't want the film to gradually get better towards the end.

Creating the animatic, from the actual 3D sets with 3D camera moves helped a lot with the pacing and editing of the film. All of these steps were milestones throughout the production, as I passed each one it gave me more inspiration to finish the piece.

From a personal point of view, the hardest thing when making your own animated film is losing faith in the project. Because you spend so much time so close to the project you begin to lose sight of the finished thing, and that's when you need some feedback. So I put some images up on various 3D forums to see what people thought. I also showed tests to friends to see what they thought as they would have "fresh eyes". All of this helped with keeping the film on track.

Where is the film being shown?

As soon as all the post work is done, it will be entered to animation festivals.

Did you have any collaborators, or did you do all the sound and editing as well?

I'm working with a composer called Dimitri Tchamouroff who is scoring the film. The rest was done by me. Next time I'm hoping to get a small team together.

Did Dimitri score after you had finished the visuals?

Dimitri is still working on the score now. I gave him a rough cut of the film for timing.

Do you play video games? Some of the camera angles reminded me of games...

I think a lot of good games draw inspiration from films: lighting and so on. I do get some inspiration from games and the Prince of Persia was one of them, I really liked the soft focus effect, it was near to an effect I was trying to create for some of the shots.

Tell us about the model you entered into 3D World's 3D Art To Part contest?

The character was originally a 2D concept way back when I finished university, he was used in my graduation film. So I decided to see how the character would look in 3D. I was pleased with the resulting model so I submitted it earlier this year and had actually forgotten about it. Then I was contacted and told I was getting it made.

I received it recently and was amazed by the quality. Even though I spent a while modelling the character, I was still surprised by the little details. It's nice to be able to have a physical model of something you've created in the computer.

Why can't we have a trailer for your short film?

Well I got a call the other day confirming that the film will be receiving funding. It should be premiered at the Edinburgh film festival in August. As a result, I am unable to show the trailer until the films release. In its place I've given you my showreel.

What are you working on now?

I've just finished work a Christmas TV advert for Clinton cards. It's a fly-through of an empty store, as the camera moves the store fills up. There was a large amount of objects to model, including lots of furry bears, so we had lots of Sasquatch work. It's the first time I've used Sasquatch so it was quite a challenge for me.

Thanks for the details Adam. You can see more of Adam's work at his website.