RED

The epic history of Rudolph, from hero to zero, to hero. ‘Red’ is Ritzy’s first in house short film, created alongside our commercial projects and whenever we got a spare minute.

The film is deer to our hearts having been conceived 2 years before it's final release at an event at the Ritzy Cinema, Brixton - the place where the idea to form Ritzy Animation first began.

THE DARK SIDE OF RUDOLPH

Red had the world at his hoofs, the most famous and talented reindeer on the sleigh. But fame, money, Does and his playboy lifestyle got the better of him. His fall from grace was epic, the party lifestyle getting out of hand, and eventually, he hung up his harness and began living a recluse life in his trailer on the outskirts of town. Filled with regret, and with only whiskey and cigarettes for company, one day he makes a decision to get back in shape and earn his place back at the front of the sleigh.

We love an anti-hero, and for our first Christmas short, we wanted to go against festive tradition and represent a darker side of Rudolph. No longer the happy, bouncy, joyful character, we liked the idea of a guy that had it all and wasted it, only to return to his former glory.

DEER DRAFTS

The first step in the process was to design a beefy reindeer that oozed power, class and a certain element of cheekiness. We wanted our character to have a striking silhouette, sharp piercing antlers, and angular defined muscles. Keen to stay away from classic representations of Rudolph, we researched bodybuilders, bulls, and monsters from ancient Greek mythology for inspiration. There was no place in this film for red shiny noses and fluffy round tails.

After a lot of sketching we arrived on a body and face design we were happy to move forward with, and fairly confident would translate well into 3D.

ALL BUCKED UP

Getting the character right was crucial for the story. We wanted to create someone who was roided up on carrot juice, our own Mr Universe, only Red would be the King of Deers.

The sculpt, led by Dan Edgley, went through many revisions, some of which became quite unfriendly, so we spent time selecting where we wanted this type of detail. We always wanted our character to be likeable, even if he was aggressive, so we made sure that the final iteration struck the right balance.

We loved the idea that he would stop at nothing to deliver the presents to those poor children. In that respect, his character also had to showcase his more sensitive side.

No deer is complete without fur, and this was heavily researched early on in the project. The fur clumps in many different ways on deer - then it was a case of replicating these references as close as possible onto our humanoid furry version!

A REINDEER’S WORLD

Once we had formed the idea for the character, it was time to populate his world. Each prop and object was meticulously researched to give model and texture team of Maddalena Delvecchio and Davide Sasselli the best possible guidance for the level of detail we wanted. As Red had become a recluse, we wanted his environment to reflect this, so everything had a layer of grime and dirt, apart from his most prized posession, his Christmas run harness.

A lot of fun was had designing the objects in his world. He’d obviously replace protein shakes with carrot juice, but it was enjoyable researching and designing the brand of cigarettes he smoked, his choice of magazine, or whiskey.

And as big 80s fans, we also wanted to inject some culture from the era into the film, but with a North Pole twist - American sports branding, Rocky Balboa and Raging Bull all made it in there, along with some more modern references such as Stranger Things, The Wrestler, Kill Bill, 8 mile.

HARD TIMES

The story went through a lot of revisions before we were happy, and at one point our protagonist was Blitzen, rather than Rudolph.

Ably helped by storyboarder extraordinaire, Adam Beer, we created a huge library of panels, which meant we were able to test ideas quickly.

MOVING THE BEAST

When the assets and animatic were ready, we cantered into animation. The team, led by Director Dan Edgley, did a great job of converting the storyboards into a living, breathing, roided up beast.

Many shots required accurate movement and expression, and the team had fun causing havoc in the corridors of Vox Studios creating reference takes of a snarling, angry deer!

FUR REAL

With over 70 shots to render, this was a huge undertaking, especially as there was a decision early in production to show Red’s environment in all sorts of different scenearios - from the first snow of winter to full blown blizzards.

Led by Director Charlie Batho, Ritzy enlisted the help of Tom Flavelle, of No Ghost fame, who was invaluable in adding in subtle details and touches while also keeping to our tight schedule.

With all of the props and character developed before the lighting stage began, lighting shots was a fun process and we were able to achieve good results quickly. However, to render the sequences with the few machines available at Ritzy would have certainly meant missing a Christmas 2019 release.

So, we contacted Yellowdog, who were incredible at troubleshooting the problems we faced with the fur and colour management.

Within a few days we were able to render our heavy fur sequences using their cloud platform, and were stunned with the speed with which they turned the renders around. It was over 4 times quicker than in house!

PUSH IT TO THE LIMIT

Sound always brings an extra dimension to all films, and we were pumped when Box Of Toys agreed to help us with the score.

They were on board from an early part in the story which helped brilliantly with the pacing. With 80s montages at the heart of the film, we originally paced the film to Scarface’s ‘Push it to the Limit’. Chris and Ben did an amazing job of taking references from this genre and creating a fantastic theme - guitar riffs, synths, and custom lyrics, ably voiced by Marcello Music.

THE EVENT

To celebrate the end of this long haul of a production, we went back to where it all began; the Ritzy Cinema in Brixton. With many friends, family and clients joining us at the Upstairs Bar, the film made it’s world premiere in a packed Screen 5.