Production Focus : A Night at the Cathedral by Studio Lampion

The animated short film A Night at the Cathedral was produced by Studio Lampion, an animation studio founded in 2007 in Berlin, Germany, by computer graphic artists Stefan Minning and Matthias Koenig. Shortly after founding the studio, they decided to produce this short as a showcase for prospective clients and to make their first mark on the CG industry. This film would also be used as a case study to implement an efficient production pipeline in order to tackle future challenges for their clients.

Having come up with half a dozen story ideas in just as many different settings, the founders opted for the medieval cathedral theme because they felt a strong connection with the characters and had a good visual image in their minds of what the final result should look like one day.

To prepare for the production of the film the team conducted research on medieval art and history. Unfortunately, only few medieval churches remain in modern day Berlin, so they took a few days off to travel to historic places such as the Cologne Cathedral, Notre Dame de Paris, Lyon and to visit castles on the Rhine River.

"The production of A Night at the Cathedral was 100% self-financed so we had to make sure we'd be working as efficiently as possible to stay within our means"

"For this production, we were aiming for a very painterly, stylized look and wanted to stray away from the sterile, rendered look of many modern 3D productions," says Minning and adds "Basically, we wanted to combine the look of classical 2D animation with the technological advantages of 3D animation."

At the same time, the team had to ensure the project would be viable from an economical perspective. "We're a small production team with just two core artists and limited time. After all, the studio has to get 'real work' done for our clients in order to pay the bills while working on the short film and various side projects," says Koenig. He adds "The production of A Night at the Cathedral was 100% self-financed so we had to make sure we'd be working as efficiently as possible to stay within our means."