From Paper to Pixels: Grace Herrmann's collaboration with Ancient Monkey

Grace Herrmann has wrapped up her six-month residency at our Caloundra-based Sub Tropic Studio, Grace experimented within her practice, ultimately creating a captivating short animation with the talented team at Ancient Monkey.

This creative partnership, sparked during our Refinery 5.0 creative business incubator program, is a testament to the powerful connections and collaborations that flourish through our annual creative business incubator program.

Read on as Grace discusses the highs and lows of the creative process and how refreshing it can be to collaborate when you're so used to working in solitude.

See the teaser animation here.

Reflections on R|Artist Residency: Sub Tropic
Words and images by Grace Herrman

I met Rachel Kimberly and Andrew Kimberly, the sibling duo behind Ancient Monkey design studio, during R|5.0, a creative business incubator program delivered by SCCA, in 2023. Their whimsical product photography and animation works absolutely blew me away. When R|Artist Residency: Sub Tropic became available, it felt like the perfect catalyst for an ambitious project, and Ancient Monkey agreed to help animate my paper carvings.

I came into the collaboration with an open mind; I envisioned creating subtle moving landscapes, like shivering trees or a gently undulating ocean. However, as we researched different animation styles, the project evolved into something much, much more elaborate.

I have long admired Sean Pecknold's stop-motion animations, which use a multiplane camera technique first conceived by Lotte Reiniger and popularised by Disney. I built my own multiplane using industrial shelves and panes of glass. This setup revealed key elements crucial to the final animation: bright, spotlight-style lighting that casts dramatic shadows, and restricted depth to maintain a hand-crafted feel.

Rather than creating a traditional stop-motion film, Ancient Monkey emulated the style using the 3D software Maya. The animation process was a collaborative back-and-forth: I created shapes from paperboard, Rachel photographed them in 5K and digitally edited each one, and Andrew built the digital environment in Maya. He would then send additional shapes for me to carve, and we repeated the process.

Working with Andrew and Rachel was refreshing, as I’m used to working mostly in solitude. We often discussed the highs and lows of a creative practice and the precarious nature of dedicating oneself to something you love. Our animation became a metaphor for our struggles during that period. The creature navigating the stormy ocean, part fish and part butterfly, humorously represented a "fish out of water," a sentiment that deeply resonated with us. Working with Ancient Monkey was challenging but rewarding as we navigated uncharted territory together. This project has laid the groundwork for future collaborations, and we are already planning to extend the animation into a longer story.

Above Images: Creating depth and shadows by using a Multiplane.

From my first experiments cutting out shapes Andrew was able to create our first mockup animation:

Above images: Paper cut outs by Grace; Animation created by Andrew from above paper cut outs (still).

Then from my first batch of resolved paper carvings Andrew created this short animation:

After finishing my final carvings Rachel photographed them in 5K and digitally edited them ready for animation.

Above images:Rachel in her studio photographing the paper carvings; Digitally cutting out and editing files.

Making it rain, Andrew created the rain in the 3D software.

Above images: Placement of rain in the scene; Digitally painted rain pattern; Andrew used a cloth simulator to mimic sheets of rain falling across the scene (still).

Creating our Creature: