THE MAKING OF

Warm Brothers
Vincent Lange
THE MAKING OF
Warm Brothers

Vincent Lange
THE CONTENTS
• The Idea
• The Music
• The Story
• The Dance
• The Environment
• The Stags
• The 3D Production
• The Film Stils
THE IDEA
 Like day and night,
two stags fight for dominance, but their natural energy soon shifts
from repel to attraction.
The initial idea
I set out to achieve an animated short
that looks visually stunning and also
makes the viewer question the meaning
behind it. Animation, from my point of
view, is the most intense form of art as
it links so many different art forms
together - drawing, modelling, painting,
acting, character design, texture
design, environment design, sound
design and music. The last - music -
has always been a big inspiration in my
life. Which is why I wanted to have an
animation that is strongly driven by
music. Through the abstract look of my
stags I wanted to make the film feel
more out of this world, but still feel
familiar with its natural look of the
stags and environment. So they are a
mix of a realistic stags and ghost,
almost robot like energy sources. The
story of two hyper masculine creatures
that equally envy and adore one
another - for their appearance and
strength. The queer coding of this film
is very subtle but it was important for
me to create a film that I feel strongly
connected with - because after all
when will you get the chance again to
create something that is entirely
created and inspired by your own
fantasy?

“Warm Brother” comes from the

German term “Warmer Bruder”
Musical/ Dance Man VS Man Love Story

Act 1 Act 2 Act 3

The Setup The Confrontation The Resolution

Jump
Stop Fight - Start Dance
Share energy
Stags meet Repel each other Unite Their energy merges

Push & Pull Fluent Climax Outburst

Recharge
Attract each other
THE MUSIC
Foreplay Love Act Outburst
THE DANCE
The Dance
The two stag characters in my premise
film will perform a dance together
which is why I have been looking for
sources of dance movements that a
stag can perform.

First I looked at different ballet and

contemporary dance movements and
sketched them out, as well as looking
into different dance sequences. I also
studied the male form in extrem dance
movements, by hoping to not only find
movements that the stags could
perform, but also to help me with the
character design of my stags, to give
them a more human look.

But then I thought it probably would be

the easiest to look into horse
movements, since their body structure
is fairly equal to the one of a stag. That
is why I looked at pictures of dressage
poses, as well as the performances of
the Spanish Riding school and
sketched them out.

I then used these poses as references

to draw stags in the same pose. Even
though I used stag reference pictures
to follow their anatomy, some of the
stag drawings have a horse-ish look to
them.
THE STORY
The Animatic Version 1
In my premise film my characters move
a lot in space and perform a lot of
different movements in it. I knew I
would struggle visualizing my first
Animatic ideas in 2D. That is why I
decided to record my first Animatic
physically. I made some stag stick
figures out of wire, which I could
position how ever I would like. I then
made a 3D scene where my two
characters can move in. The result is a
stop motion kind of style animatic.

This first version of an Animatic helped

me a lot to just see how my two
characters can move in space. It was
not so much about camera movements
yet, but more about timing and possible
fight and dance movements of the
stags.
THE ENVIRONMENT
THE STAGS
Daily 5 minute stag sketches
Horse Power VS Horse Power

To push my character designs for my stags even

further, Iooked into logos, product- and car-
designs. The idea of a race, as a power battle, links
very nicely to my idea of a stag fight. A stag fight
does not link completely with a boxing match, since
stags do not try to kill/ hurt one another but show
off their strength when they fight for a mate. 

So I looked into the idea of Ferrari VS Ford

(Mustang) which stands for horse power VS horse
power and therefore links to my stag characters.

Therefore I researched and studied the different

streamline designs of Ferrari and Ford race cars
and tried to use their design language to draw
stylised stags. 
Ferrari Ford
Light Source
I came up with the idea of having an energy source
within each stag character. That power source will
come through as a light source underneath the skin. I
first was thinking to have the lights follow the muscle
or bone structure of the stag. But also has the idea to
turn the light "cracks" on the skin into some sort of
tattoos or war paint.

While looking at influences for these tattoos I looked

into tribe or native tattoos, as well as films like Tron
Legacy, Frozen 2 or Atlantis. I realized, since stags
are deeply connected to nature, that I need to find a
natural source for this energy. The sun is one of the
biggest energy sources in our universe since it
provides us with solar energy. But On the other hand
we also have the moon which pushes and pulls the
oceans.

So one stag represents the heat, fire, lava and

therefore summer and also daytime. The other stag
represents the cold, snow, ice and therefore winter.
But also links with the night, stars and the moon.
Which is why for his designs I looked into different ice
crystal patterns or included starsand moon shapes.

In order to distinguish the two stag characters I not

only gave each character a different colour for the
light source, but also their design language is
different. One has only straight lines and geometric
forms, while the other has fluent and ergonomic lines.
Final Character Design
THE 3D PRODUCTION
THE FILM STILS
THE END