Imagination to the Rescue: ‘Cardboard’ Director J.P. Vine on the Making of His Locksmith Animation Short (Exclusive Featurette)

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An overwhelmed single dad finds renewed hope in life through his kids’ imaginations in Cardboard, Locksmith Animation’s first original short, directed by J.P. Vine. Best known for helming the feature Ron’s Gone Wrong (2021) and working as story artist on features such as Locksmith’s That Christmas and Pixar’s Inside Out, Vine used his own childhood as inspiration for the project.

“I was driving my family, loaded down with travel gear, along a particularly empty stretch of the I-80 across Nevada,” he recalls. “I kept passing abandoned trailer parks out in the scrub. They got me wondering who had made their lives there and why. The widescreen landscape and skyscape all added to the atmosphere, so I began percolating on setting a story there. But I didn’t have the heart of the story until I combined it with a memory from my own family history — when we were without a home for a time when I was a kid. I tinkered with a family arriving at a place like those trailer parks, how they would react, and built from there.”

He adds, “As a wannabe cartoonist, I was always getting lost in comic books for days, or roaming with the dog in the woods outside. I wanted to celebrate that — the weird magic of the way a kid experiences the world.”

After working on several studio features, Vine welcomed the freedom and possibilities of the short format. “A feature project feels like an unwieldy tanker ship, with so many stakeholders and monumental goals to hit,” he explains. “For the short, I was free to build a lean team with tons of talent, who were doing it for the love of getting an original short done. Production was post-feature therapy for me!”

Watercolor Wonderland

Cardboard was made in a traditional CG pipeline. “It took a lot of care to build the illustrative look, brilliantly executed with Andy Baggarley, our VFX supervisor — watercolor textures, hand-painted elements everywhere, 2D effects,” says Vine. “I wanted to channel the ink work of the concept art and kids’ drawings, but place it all in a world that had scale and atmosphere.”

While the short went very smoothly on the creative side, getting it up and running in production was quite a challenge. “I’d been trying to make the short independently while at Pixar before shelving it to make Ron’s Gone Wrong [at Locksmith],” Vine recalls. “I tried again with numerous potential partners, always with promise, but plans kept falling apart. It became a bit of a cycle of hope and failure, and I just had to be patient for the right window. I’m so grateful to Locksmith, who finally championed the project, brought in partners like Ritzy Animation and DNEG, and gave me the backing of a major studio while still letting it feel personal.”

Vine loves the fact that the short hits audiences in two ways: Young audiences giggle along and invest themselves in the piglets’ adventures, while adults are affected differently. “I’m glad we pulled off that duality, and hopefully we leave the audience delighted by the end,” says the director. “I also loved the making of it. Having Locksmith and so many talented people surround and transform a personal story like this was an unforgettable experience.”

Looking back at his animation career beginnings, Vine says, “Even though I always loved to draw, I had been struggling along working in theater for a while. I somehow finagled my way into Aardman Animation as a set dresser. After going to my first dailies, I decided the animators were definitely having the most fun and something just clicked. I was 27 and a bit of a latecomer, but folks at Aardman were a great support and gave me feedback on my horrendous first attempts. I even got some rabbit animation in the movie!”

The director has great advice for industry newcomers: “My career has not been straightforward,” he admits. “I discovered a love of animation almost by accident. I mostly focused on one question: How do I get to the heart of the action? That’s why I wanted to move to London, or get to Pixar, or direct a film — I always wanted to be around talented people doing great work. So if I had advice, in the early stages, try to get experience with people you respect, whether they are friends or studios. It may take a while to build the credibility. That’s OK! It’s a marathon. I started late and failed to get into Pixar the first time. Build your network through being helpful, driven and inquisitive. Get passionate about your craft. Trust your instincts — and if there’s any doubt, story is king!”

 

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Cardboard had its world premiere at the Annecy Festival in June, and will soon screen at the London Film Festival in the Animated Shorts for Younger Audiences program (Sunday, Oct. 19, 12 p.m. at BFI Southbank) and Animation Is Film in L.A. in the Shorts 1 program (Sunday, Oct. 19 at 1:45 p.m. at TCL Chinese 6 Theatres).  

Writer/director J.P. Vine and VFX supervisor Andy Baggarley share more insights in the new featurette “Sketch to Screen: Designing the Look of Cardboard” featurette, which you can watch below: