Red Kite - Original Animated Short Film

Red Kite is the story of an ambitious young kite who gets more than he wanted on a day of flying at the park.

I worked on this student short film over the past two years mainly on my own as the major project of my undergraduate IT degree. I spent approximately 1500 hours working on everything from modelling and texturing through to animation and dynamic effects programming. The images were rendered using Pixar's Renderman software across 4 render nodes for a combined total of ~1500 hours. The longest frame took just over 2 hours to render. Software used was Autodesk Maya, Adobe After Effects, Pixars Renderman, Adobe Audition and Adobe Premiere.

I programmed the grass simulation tool developed specifically for this project in Maya's Embedded Language (MEL). Some procedural audio was programmed using Pure Data. Other supporting programs were written in Java and C++.

Special thanks to Pixar Animation Studios for their kind generosity in supplying me with additional free Renderman licenses without which I couldn't have finished the film.

[AnkribDMusic]

Awesome Concept, Creative Team Work, Very nicely done. Keep it up.

[Cassidy-Rae]

OH MY WOW!!! This is amazing! Love the detail and the sound effects! And you put so much effort into it - it's turned out fantastically!!! Well done -as good as a Pixar film!!

[IgorPikalov]

That was AWESOME! You will have a great future!

[geooot]

You can say those kites were being kinda... SQUARE!

[LifesAmazingJourney]

Amazing! I really loved this! The story was fascinating and that conclusion was superb! :D

[SplimeStudios]

Incredible! Absolutely first-class professional. I dare say Pixar will employ you at some point. Really well done. :)

[lindsaylight]

The Red Kite is a great short film to show your students when they are studying literary essay. It"s a great tool to use because the kids love it and it teaches an important life lesson. The kids love it so they are motivated to think deeply about it. This kind of thinking about a digital text allows them to write an essay about their big idea and use evidence to support it. Not only do kids love it, the film also teaches an important lesson. You'll have to watch the film to find out the important lesson that it teaches.

[BreadPixel]

You are an absolute master, in whatever topic related to cg animation!

[RushingTGaming]

Well that was pretty freaking awesome! You'd really well on this animation

[AbrahamAnimations]

Those 2 people who disliked it must have had a bad memories with kites :\

[Modslover]

Came out perfect... i was waiting so long and here it is... Keep up the great work :D

[CallousSonnallous]

Now I know what AC Pilot stands for! The closure. Freaking beautiful animation though; glad I saw it on Christmas too :)

[Elselle]

Such a beautiful animation :) I really like it! Great work, Dude!

[trashbridge]

Glad you got it out, looks amazing :D

[barbaragreenway]

Thanks so very much for sharing this creative short film with the world! I was just looking for a short, cute kite video to show my third graders. Little do I know that I would find such a treasure of animation! Thanks too for sharing the number of hours it took to create such a meaningful animation for kids & adults to learn important life lessons! Bravo. I look forward to seeing your future projects!

[AncientYaky]

Wonderful anamation. It was extremely well made!

[colleenhester]

My Kindergarten class loved this video!

[akikogooden]

Hey MrAcPilot - Your video was recommended to view for a discussion/activity on the Baby Literary Essay unit. First of all, congratulations on your hard work. The video definitely left a positive impression on all of us. The theme of perseverance is something that can definitely inspire my students and us, adults/teachers in our real lives. You must feel a connection with the main character as well, since you spent so much time ("approximately 1500 hours"!) creating this piece. I'm sure there were highs and lows during your journey to reach your goal, just like the Red Kite. The conclusion we came away is that if you want something, keep trying and don't give up, no matter who or what gets in your way. Good luck with your future projects!

[emilymakar]

Beautiful as always. You have a great future ahead of you, especially with this amount of talent and dedication! Thanks for sharing this :)

[HerobrixProductions]

Wow it's beautiful ! Congratulation :D !