Tumbleweed Tango' Provides A humble Pair Of Dancing Dogs

'Tumbleweed Tango' Provides A humble Pair Of Dancing Dogs

It's safe to say that the medium of animation can be used to bring even the wackiest of ideas to life. However, it's down to the skill of the animator to bring these concepts and contradictions to the screen in a way that endears audiences regardless – be they a wise-talking wabbit, a lovable sponge from the bottom of the sea or… a pair of balloon-poodles dancing the tango in a cactus patch.


 
For their new short 'Tumbleweed Tango', New York-based animation house humble have thrown the favourite output of children's parties, the arid locations of the desert and the fancy footwork of 'Dancing With The Stars' into a digital blender and have emerged with a heart-warming micro-movie that delivers on an emotional and visual level. The public seems to have agreed, with the film picking up a Vimeo Staff Pick (alongside over 150K views) and a rave review in the Huffington Post – 'Like the characters, you just might dance on air after checking this out.'
 
We spoke to Sam Stephens, Creative Director at humble and co-director of the film (along with Christopher Mauch), to find out how they came up with the concept, the process of putting together the aesthetic and how important it is to work on creatively-led projects like this.

 
Your latest short features a couple of balloon dogs dancing the Tango in a cactus patch. Where the heck did you get the inspiration? Did you forget to take enough water whilst wandering the desert? Inhaled a little too much helium?
 
Our EP Eric Berkowitz challenged us with making something cheerful and fun – not the weird, slightly disturbing work we tend to migrate to for personal projects.  I immediately thought, what's more fun than balloon animals?  Everyone loves balloon animals.  Ok, how do we put them into mortal danger?  Hence the cactus patch and the pathological tango dancing. I loved the idea of making a love story/dance number in which the protagonists are an inch away from certain death at all times. 
 
When it comes to animating characters like this, how do you get the choreography and movement right? Is there a trick to making featureless figures endearing?
 
The choreography was definitely a challenge.  As someone pointed out on Vimeo, it's not really pure tango; it's a mongrel mix of flamenco, folk dancing, ridiculous ballroom dancing competitions and a dash of tango footwork. We accumulated a big library of reference material and spent an embarrassing amount of time watching "Dancing With The Stars."  Even though the models don't have eyes, we made sure to carefully design and rig the area above the nose to have a "brow bulge."  It's a love story, and it's absolutely necessary to have eye contact between the characters.  We also got the chance to add a little "hubba hubba" eyebrow raise during the flower shot.

The visuals of the film are lush and vibrant. Was it a conscious decision to crank up the grade? What influenced the asthetic?
 
"Once Upon a Time in the West" was playing at the Film Forum in Greenwich Village around the time we started the project – and the super-saturated skies against the dusty, slightly magenta earth and rocks was a big influence. It took a lot of tweaking to find the right balance of realism versus poppy saturation. We had color correction controls for every thorn, pebble, and sagebrush in the scene.

Aside from the movement of the film's engaging leads, the physical properties of the balloons themselves are really well captured. Is it tough to get something like that right? It strikes us as the kind of element that's difficult to ascertain the 'reality' yet obvious to audiences if done wrong.
 
Yeah, the balloons were deceptively tricky. Kevin Harper, our render TD, created a pretty sophisticated shader network that took into account the thickness of the balloon at any given point and how much air was separating it from the its neighboring surfaces. On top of that we had layers of dust maps and even finger print maps – since some 'creator clown' had to tie these balloons at some point.

The sound and music (particularly the little balloon squeaks) make the project joyous to watch. How important is it to get these elements right? How did you achieve it?
 
Joe Muiccio at Penny Lane in New York is one of my all-time favorite people in the business.  I showed up at his studio after hours with a bag of balloons, a pump, a collection of sand and rocks and our rough cut. We basically spent the night re-enacting the scenes in the booth with real balloons. We realized pretty quickly that there was a balance to be found with the squeaks. Too many was absolutely maddening. It took about three mixing sessions to get right. Matt Nakoa and Michael Hewett killed it on the score. With no dialogue and no facial expressions, the music had to carry a lot of the emotional weight. Just like with an old silent film. 
 
Creatively, how important is it to produce personal projects like this?
 
It's absolutely essential to the creative health of a studio to encourage, enable, and execute these types of passion projects. It rekindles the passions of why we got into this business in the first place.  From a practical side, it also helps put the studio in a new light. We wanted to show that we are passionate about telling stories through character animation. We wanted to share that love of the medium.
 
The response to the film has been great, with a mention on the Huffington Post and a Vimeo Staff Pick. Did you expect the digital applause when you released it?
 
We had gotten a great response from our colleagues, friends and family.  So we knew there would be some audience for it, at least in animation geek circles. We were really surprised when it took off as fast as it did, though. The response has been really heartwarming. 
 

The company seeded a cute viral campaign around the streets of New York.

What's the plan with the film? Any festival hopes?
 
Yeah, it just won best CG Animation at the Brooklyn Animation Block Party, and will be playing the LA Shorts Festival in September. In the past week we've gotten requests from Canada, Hong Kong, and England… so I think it will be doing the festival rounds for a while. 
 
What's up next for you guys?

We're currently in pre-production on an original short film commissioned by a big camera manufacturer. That's going to be a blast. We've also got some episodic animation and live action ideas we're getting off the ground. As much we love and depend on traditional commercial spots, the ability to write, direct, and post longer-form content – branded or not – is hugely appealing to us.

I think brands have come around to the idea that consumers respect and appreciate companies that sponsor and commission good, unique content - that added good will they get from these efforts is totally worth it. There are so many talented, unique voices out there, working on projects out of  the sheer love of it – it's a win for both sides if those artists can get some support and marketing muscle from the brands. I'm excited where it's going. 

Published 15 August, 2013