Graduation film 'Grown Up'

About the project

In youth, we want nothing more than to grow up - and as an adult, we often long to regain our youth. The appreciation for wonder and imagination comes to us the moment we think we have lost it. However, losing our imagination does not have to be a condition of growing up. With ‘Grown Up’ we wanted to depict a situation in which a child makes childish assumptions of what it takes to grow up, trying to lose things that he ultimately does not want to lose.

With this project we (Brent, Dirk and Maarten) Created a joint animation project in which both our individual specialisations and our close cooperation would be prevalent. In recent years we have developed our own style and workflow during our many joint projects and the results of these years of cooperation are embedded in this film.

Teaser for 'Grown up'

After having his birthday, a boy decides he is finally grown up. Toys and imagination, those are for little kids. He puts away his toys and goes to bed, pleased with this important milestone. However, much to his frustration he awakes in his dream world that same night. Irritated, he embarks on his journey home.

Artist Statement

As an animator with a focus on design I create worlds in which the viewer feels invited to explore them further in his or her own fantasy. As a child I would fantasize for hours about the imaginary worlds I had seen in series and movies and what could happen in them. Much of my inspiration therefore comes from the naive imagination of children and how they can see the world from a fresh perspective every day. I also want to evoke the same magical feeling in the viewer through my work, I want the adult viewer to be amazed again. I mainly try to evoke this amazement through my design choices, because I combine 3D software with hand drawn 2D elements, playful images are created with which I want to show the adult audience that a non-realistic world can also present itself as believable.

Visual development

A selection of pre-production designs

Texturing and Shading

In collaboration with:

Dirk Lemmers
Maarten Houweling