Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis facts for kids

Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis are a talented Canadian animation team. They are famous for creating amazing animated short films. They have even been nominated for an Oscar multiple times!

For example, their film Wild Life (2011) earned them an Oscar nomination. More recently, their film The Flying Sailor (2022) received many awards. It was named Best Canadian Film at the Ottawa International Animation Festival. On January 24, 2023, The Flying Sailor was nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Short Film.

About Wendy and Amanda

Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis both grew up in Alberta, Canada. They first met at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver. In 2003, they moved to Calgary, Alberta, which is where Amanda grew up.

Besides their work with the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), they have also created animations for other projects. For instance, their advertisement for United Airlines, called Interview, was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2004. In 2007, they started a small film festival in their neighborhood called the Bleak Midwinter Film Festival. In 2018, they received the Winsor McCay Award from ASIFA. This award honors people who have made amazing contributions to animation.

Their Animated Films

Wendy and Amanda have directed several short films together and separately. Here are some of their most well-known works:

Films Directed by Wendy Tilby

• Tables of Content (1986)
• Strings (1991)
• When the Day Breaks (1999)
• Wild Life (2011)
• The Flying Sailor (2022)

Films Directed by Amanda Forbis

• When the Day Breaks (1999)
• Wild Life (2011)
• The Flying Sailor (2022)

Awards and Recognition

Wendy and Amanda have won many awards for their films.

They were nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Short Film for their 1999 NFB film When the Day Breaks. This film also won Best Short Film at the Cannes Film Festival. It also received the Canadian Screen Award for Best Animated Short and the Grand Prix at the World Festival of Animated Film – Animafest Zagreb. Wendy Tilby was also nominated individually for her 1991 NFB short film Strings.

Their latest film, The Flying Sailor (2022), first showed at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. It has won several awards, including Best Canadian Film at the Ottawa International Animation Festival. It also won Best Animation at the New York City Short Film Festival. At the Los Angeles Animation Festival, it won both Best Character-Based and Experimental awards. The film was also shown in The New Yorker Screening Room. It was chosen for the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. On December 21, 2022, it was shortlisted for the 95th Academy Awards in the Best Animated Short Film category.

Meet the Artists

Wendy Tilby's Journey

Wendy Tilby was born in 1960 in Edmonton, Alberta. She studied visual arts and literature at the University of Victoria. Later, she went to the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design to study film and animation. Her student film, Tables of Content, was very successful. This led to an invitation to join the National Film Board of Canada in Montreal.

Her first film, Strings (1991), won many international awards. These included an Oscar nomination, a Genie Award (from the Academy of Canadian Cinema), and first prize at the Hiroshima International Animation Festival. Wendy has also taught animation at Concordia University and Harvard. From 2007 to 2009, she was an examiner for animation at the Royal College of Art in London.

Amanda Forbis's Journey

Amanda Forbis was born in Calgary, Alberta, in 1963. She studied theater and fine art at the University of Lethbridge. Then, she attended the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, focusing on film, video, and animation. In 1990, she joined the National Film Board of Canada (Vancouver). There, she worked as an animation director on an educational film called The Reluctant Deckhand. Amanda has also taught at the Arts Umbrella Children's Art Centre in Vancouver. She has led many animation workshops for children.

How They Make Their Animations

Wendy and Amanda use different and creative ways to make their films.

The Style of Strings

Strings was a film Wendy Tilby worked on by herself. For this film, she used a unique animation style. It was similar to how artist Caroline Leaf painted on frosted glass. However, Wendy used light from below the glass, not from above. She worked directly under an animation camera. She would apply, move, and remove colored paints on the glass for each frame. Once a frame was ready, she would take two pictures with the camera. Then, she would change the image for the next frame and repeat the process.

To add details like facial expressions or body language, Wendy used a stylus to scratch into the paint. She also used her fingers, Q-tips, and tissues to move the paint around. Wendy enjoys this method because it makes her focus on the present frame. She has to erase the previous work as she goes, which keeps her moving forward.

The Style of When the Day Breaks

For When the Day Breaks, Wendy and Amanda tried many different techniques. They found a special video printer that could print video frames onto thermal paper. Their method involved filming live action footage with a Hi-8 camera, using themselves and friends as actors. They would then print selected frames and photocopy them onto regular paper.

After that, they would draw directly onto the photocopies using pencils and oil sticks. This allowed them to create animal characters, add animation (like dogs chasing an ambulance), and remove unwanted details. Finally, all these images were filmed again using a 35mm rostrum camera. This technique was meant to save time, but the film still took about four years to finish!

The Style of Wild Life

When making Wild Life, Wendy and Amanda wanted a technique that didn't require hand-painting every single frame. They hoped to use computers to save time. However, they soon realized that computer drawing didn't give them the look they wanted. They found that only real paint could create the rough, folk-art style they imagined. They chose gouache paint because it's very flexible.

Even though they used real paint, they used computers a lot for animation, combining different elements, and editing. They could only work on Wild Life part-time because of other work. The film took them between six and seven years to complete, from the first idea to the final film. Besides directing and animating, Forbis and Tilby also wrote the lyrics for the film's final song.

The Style of The Flying Sailor

The Flying Sailor was co-directed by Wendy and Amanda. They used a mix of 2D hand-drawn animation, 3D computer-generated (CG) animation, and even live-action footage. They decided to use 3D animation to create the look of an exploding city. This was a new challenge for them, as they usually focus on traditional 2D animation.

They worked with a local artist named William Dyer, who used a program called Maya to build a virtual model of Halifax in 1917. Then, Forbis and Tilby created painted "skins" that covered everything in the 3D world. They wanted the film to look like a small model train set combined with an old, hand-tinted postcard. They put everything together in Adobe AfterEffects, mixing CG animation, stock footage, and hand-painted parts. The whole process was very experimental and more complex than they first thought!

See also

In Spanish: Wendy Tilby y Amanda Forbis para niños