Don't be sour about Joe Lebreux-Désilets' thesis film, Anette

In the short film Anette, a young woman rides a convertible along the coast of California. She enjoys the wind in her hair when she turns and realizes she’s accompanied by a green man who resembles a pickle. The film reveals that Anette is dreaming as she eats a pickle straight from the jar.

From planning and design to animation and compositing, every aspect of Anette’s production was completed by Joe Lebreux-Désilets. Joe created Anette for her thesis film, the final assignment of her three year animation program at Cégep du Vieux Montréal. This animation program is one of the most accessible in North America, and it covers every aspect of the animation production pipeline. We caught up with Joe to learn about her experience in the program, the inspiration for her film, and the process of making Anette.

Anette is the thesis film for your animation program at Cégep du Vieux Montréal. What prompted you to join the program, and what has your experience in it been like? 

I was always into visual art. I liked to draw and paint. So when I came across Cégep du Vieux Montréal’s program I was curious about it. When I was young, I’d always thought the people who worked on the cartoons I loved were geniuses. I never thought that I could do that kind of work. But when I found the animation program I thought: "Why not me?" 

I went into it knowing nothing about animation. I had no clue about how to make a drawing move. It was definitely a challenge, especially at the start, but our teachers were so supportive and encouraging. Animation is now my passion, and I’m excited to make it my career too. 

What inspired the story for your film, Anette? 

Anette was basically inspired by things that I like. It started with pickles. They’re my favourite food, so I knew I wanted my film to include them in some way. I also like to travel. And I wanted to find a way to combine both these passions. I actually worked through a couple different ideas before eventually coming up with the idea for the character, the pickle man. 

Once I knew she would be dreaming about him, I decided the setting would be California, because it’s a place that I love. It was once I’d landed on all these elements — the dreaming woman, the pickle man, and California — that the story really came together.

The script writing process for Anette was challenging because the film had to be short: just 30 seconds. I started out with a 10-minute long script, which I then had to rewrite several times to trim it down. The finished film is quite different from that original 10-minute script, but I’m really happy with it.

What were the most exciting parts of the filmmaking process for Anette? 

The most exciting and rewarding part for me was imagining and then writing the story for the film. I learned from making Anette that I really enjoy story development. Aside from that, moments that stood out from the filmmaking process were finishing up rough animation, because that’s when the film started to feel really real. The VFX stage was fun too because I got to make the film look so beautiful.

Once the film was done, I showed it at the school’s graduation gala. Hearing the audience laugh while watching Anette was really rewarding.

Anette’s two main characters are super fun. How did you approach their design?

For the pickle man I wanted to reference Johnny Bravo, a character who helped me envision the pickle man’s personality. And for Anette, the girl in the film — to be honest I channeled a lot of myself. She likes the same things that I do: pickles and California. I like it when my boyfriend drives me around, so of course, so does Anette. She even ended up looking like me.

What was your process for compositing the film? 

To composite, I took all the finished scenes and exported them as PNGs. I then put them into Adobe Premier to work on the transitions. The camera views had already all been done in Harmony, so in Adobe Premiere I really just worked on the final touches. 

What was the most helpful feature in Toon Boom Harmony on this project? 

One of my favourite features is definitely the node view. It’s super easy to use and practical. I like the fact that it enables you to place your rough animation on a first layer, and create new layers to animate on top of the rough. And, I love that with Harmony you can mix animation styles. The characters in the film were animated frame by frame, but I did the palm trees with cut out animation. 

Overall, Harmony just makes the animation process more streamlined. For example: if I noticed a mistake in coloration, I could make the adjustments in Harmony.

Do you have any advice for up-and-coming animators working on their student films?

I know it’s cliche to say, but never give up. At the start of an animation program, everything seems really overwhelming. You don’t always get tons of explanation about what’s being taught to you because it’s about laying the groundwork, and so the animation process seems very complicated.

It’s important to not give up, because there’s so much to learn that it can go slow. Just trust that over time things will start to click and it will become much easier.

What’s next for you in animation? 

Now that I’ve graduated, I am looking for work in the industry! I like every part of the animation process and so I’m going with the flow and just looking for a job in any part of the pipeline that will help me learn and grow. Eventually I’d like to specialize in working on story, maybe as a story creator.

Anette is going to be shown at Fantasia Festival in July, which will be awesome. I’m super excited to attend the festival and to see how people react to Anette. I also heard that there will be three other films about pickles at the festival, which I think is pretty funny.

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• Did you enjoy Anette? Be sure to watch all of Cégep du Vieux Montréal's 2022 thesis films through the school's official gallery.
• Planning your thesis film? Toon Boom Animation offers discounted licenses for Harmony and Storyboard Pro to students.