The Climb

A Heroic Tale For The Ages.

Clinging to a frosty mountain side, a lone climber faces the elements while battling his inner demons. Will he survive? Will he reach the summit? Do you even care even at all even?

A film that examines the burning question of our time: when life presents challenges, how will we respond?

I made this short in collaboration with my very talented friend Preston Gibson at 90 Degrees West. Scroll below to hear some backstory and figure out what the hell is wrong with us.

Role: Concept, Co-Direction, Character Design, Animation

The Story

At FITC Toronto in 2015, I attended a panel with artists Ash Thorpe and David O’Reilly. I had an opportunity at the end of the talk to ask him how he kept the fire of his ideas alive through the laborious process of design and animation to which he responded: “Every time I have a really weird or interesting idea, I write it down in a notebook. If I keep thinking about the idea months or even years later, I set the time aside and make it.”

I took that advice to heart, and moments later had a ridiculous idea that I jotted down in a notebook. A few years later, I couldn’t shake it and sketched a frame to get it out of my head:

My co-worker Preston saw the sketch on my desk and pressed me for answers. I told him the idea and my plan to execute it in 2D.

"This has to be 3D. It just has to."

Why not? So we set to work. I drew up a character schematic and he began the process of modeling him out while I sketched out and cut together an animatic. When he handed me his rig, I set about animating our hero on 2’s. Preston pressed forward on lighting and texturing.

Check out his website to see a more detailed behind the scenes of his 3D process. 

Sound wizard Mark Bartels cooked up an epic score and an expansive soundscape, while friends Jim Roberson and Hieu Vu Duc helped out with smoke simulations and matte painting respectively.

But why, though?

Countless late nights, weekends, and stressful render crashes later, we had finished the piece. Months of our lives, poured into a minute long animated short that exists solely as a delivery mechanism for an absurdist punchline I half-imagined three years ago. I’m proud of our ability to persevere against logic and good sense.

A day after it was posted, we were awarded a Vimeo Staff Pick. Vindication! I felt relief, identifying just a little bit less with our Mountain Climber.

Credits