This Wonderful Life is a tale of a young woman who, while mourning the death of her husband, takes a walk into the countryside, feeling alone and withdrawn from life. Her sense of isolation is lifted when she discovers beneath a bridge an abandoned baby, still alive. As the woman and the baby begin to develop a natural bond, so her perception of what it means to be alive changes forever.

The idea was triggered by seeing a young mother and her baby sitting across from me on a train I was travelling on. I observed the way they were communicating with each other by just looking into each other’s eyes and “reading” the facial expression. I wanted to recreate this unique bond and understanding they had, but within the framework of a movie, and so set about placing the characters in an environment that would be complementary to this. The story fell into place quite naturally.

The software I used for the movie was 3DS Max (including plug-ins for hair, cloth and sea), World Builder, Photoshop, Premiere and AfterEffects. The whole movie took 23 months to complete. Rendering the movie was done in multiple layers (hair, characters, near environment and far environment). Counting the time spent on all the different layers, each frame would take around 20 minutes to render.

Liam Kemp (UK). After studying Illustration and Graphic Design at university he pursued a career in freelance illustration. It wasn’t until he discovered computer animation three years later that he decided that this was the medium he felt most suited to. He made a couple of animated short films within two years, before deciding to put his own money into making This Wonderful Life.