HouseCleaning is a 11 minute animated short, using a mix of digital and analog techniques. The story is about a married couple having big troubles with the ghost in the closet of their relationship. The film is freely based on a short story by french absurdist Eugene Ionesco.

First the characters has been modelled in clay and paper mache and then painted. They are then photographed from all sides, and the resulting texture photos are then used, first as reference for a 3D digital modeling, and secondly to supply a texture map.

The wife in the story crochets looong blankets to add to their income. The blanket was first made for real (by MY wife), then photographed and finally transfer to a bendable 3D model for use in the scene.

When I animate I am using an old fashioned technique of moving the puppet a small step, then register a keyframe, then move it a little bit more, etc etc. Even if computer animation normally is automated to a great degree and thus offers time savings, I prefer the slower hands on method, as it gives me more control, and adds a special life to the final animation.

The mix of digital and analog has great benefits also when it comes to effects. Here the paper mache body has been added a nice digital glow to his eyes.

Staging and animation is very straightforward, when using 3D in a good animation software.