make an animated short that felt like Hedgehog in the Fog. I didn’t want to copy Yuri Norstein’s film, so we went with a new story.
It runs for 6.5 minutes. All 9363 frames are drawn by JavaScript code written by Opus. No video or image generation models, just canvas.
It follows a little mouse in a red scarf. Her grandfather, an old mole, is out fishing when fog rolls over the lake. She goes looking for him with a walnut-shell lantern and a sleeping firefly inside. They have a secret knock to help them find each other: short, short, long. It means "I’m here".
Norstein used paper cutouts on layers of glass, filmed frame by frame. I wanted some of that paper texture to come through in code. So the scenes use different styles: torn-paper collage, chalk on black paper, tissue paper underwater. There’s even sand on a light table and a pop-up book.
Opus wrote the music too. It found Steinway piano samples in my Logic library and used Python to compose the score around the rhythm of that knock.
中文译文
做一部感觉像《Hedgehog in the Fog》的动画短片。我不想照搬 Yuri Norstein 的影片，所以我们采用了一个新故事。
片长 6.5 分钟。全部 9363 帧都由 Opus 编写的 JavaScript 代码绘制。没有视频或图像生成模型，只有 canvas。
故事跟着一只戴红围巾的小老鼠。她的祖父，一只老鼹鼠，在外出钓鱼时，雾漫过了湖面。她提着一盏核桃壳灯笼，里面装着一只睡着的萤火虫，去找他。他们有一个秘密的敲门暗号来帮助彼此找到对方：短、短、长。它的意思是“我在这里”。
Norstein 使用剪纸在多层玻璃上逐帧拍摄。我想让那种纸张质感有一部分通过代码呈现出来。所以各个场景使用了不同风格：撕纸拼贴、黑纸上的粉笔、水中的薄纸。甚至还有灯箱上的沙子和一本立体书。
音乐也是 Opus 写的。它在我的 Logic 素材库里找到了 Steinway 钢琴采样，并用 Python 围绕那个敲门暗号的节奏谱了曲。
