Joris Bergmans and myself made all the backgrounds for Panta Rhei. Ever since the beginning of production we wanted the short to take place in a very tactile, recognisable, Flemish world; our own world.
It’s very normal for Flemish live-action (short) films to show our local landscape, cities and towns. In animation though, it has hardly ever been done. Joris and I both had the urge to translate our familiar surroundings into appealing, yet honest scenery that clearly shows the story takes place in Flanders. Not as a gimmick, but simply because Stefaan and Liesbeth live in Belgium, not far from the coastline. We almost approached the sets as a live-action film, drawing what we would otherwise film. We tried to convey a sense of the sometimes ugly but very charming Belgian aesthetic.
Here are a couple of stills from the film. We both love it when backgrounds are sketchy and seemingly effortless, but nail a certain shape/composition. (Cyril Pedrosa was a big inspiration.) Less is more. It was a hard balance to find at first. Especially when it came to plants/trees, i.e. organic objects, we had to find a ‘visual sauce’ that we could pour over everything so all the sets were part of one cohesive world.
At the end of development we were still figuring out how ‘correct’ we wanted to draw our sets, regarding perspective and proportions. Drawing too ‘perfect’ made the backgrounds a bit dull. Drawing them too loose made them quite random. Eventually we found our sweet spot. Also the idea of shading the darker parts with the line-art itself and not the painted layer was a big find.
Props go to Joris Bergmans for creating this world and style. I really enjoy how the background drawings are relatively simple when you look at them up close, but from afar some of them almost feel like photographs because of the lighting and colours. Together Joris and I drew and painted all the backgrounds. Once we found out what the ‘sauce’ was, the train left the station.
