2025 | Longlist | Animation
| New Talent
- pronoun
She/Her - Why did you create this work?
With my graduation film "polliwog" (2024), my illustration style could finally be married to animation. This coming-of-age 2d-animated short film tells the story of ten-year-old Marlene, who is struggling with her early pubescent, changing body on a forest home field trip. She feels all alone with her troubles – until she meets an oddly developed tadpole whom she is weirdly identifying with. This film is a warm embrace to anyone struggling with puberty, or still cringing at their memories of it. - How were your illustrations used?
The challenge for me as an illustrator and as the art director and director of this project was to attain a visual style that feels both, simple, minimalist, illustrative yet also: cinematic (including sprayed, noisy light and rich textures). My illustrations were drawn as style frames (see lead image) and served as targets for the final look. Please contact me for a private link to the full film. - What materials and techniques did you use?
While initial sketches for the characters and story beats were scribbled on paper, the illustrations for styleframes and all the film's backgrounds were drawn in Procreate. The animation was then created frame by frame in TVPaint, compositing in Nuke, where hand painted gouache textures were added. - Was this project commissioned?
Un-commissioned / Self-initiated - College / University
Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, Animationsinstitut, Germany. - Course and graduation date
Animation, graduation with this project in 2024 - Personal Website or Portfolio Link
juliaskala.com/
- Instagram
@juliacskala - Biography
Julia Skala (*1997 in Wiesbaden, Germany) is an illustrator, designer and director for animation.
Her new, graduation short film POLLIWOG (2024) has premiered in fall 2024 and has been a nominee for the 2025 Annie Award for "Best Student Film". Having graduated in spring 2024 as an animation director from the renowned Animationsinstitut of Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, Julia has also spent a semester studying handdrawn animation at Gobelins, l'école de l'image in Paris in 2021. - Where are you currently based?
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