Disfigurement Man originally started out as a writing warm-up from The Ministry of Playwriting, but come Spring of 2009 when I was tasked with creating an animation project I decided it was time to adapt the warm-up into a short film.  The process for the stylistic creation of this piece was in itself a bit involved (like every animation piece I’ve done this was created by hand-drawing each character and background and putting the looping animations through After Effects), and you can find out all about in VATAS Ethisode 11.  But if you’re not in the mood to watch a longish and rather quiet rant about animation, you can instead just watch the final piece:

Disfigurement Man: The Fear Wake from Vvinni Gagnepain on Vimeo.

I still very much enjoy Disfigurement Man, and although in terms of scriptwriting it very much shows its beginnings as a writing warm-up I think the stylistic flourishes make up for it. A little bit, anyways.   The soundtrack composed by William Culbert (who also helped me out with the score to Into the Mainframe), helps set the mood as a Blade Runner/Hill Street Blues dystopia where only the ugly remain (although none as ugly as Disfigurement Man). The animation style, with its roughly composited frames and constant movement,  also helps bring out this feeling of noirish ugliness and evokes a gritty punk sense as well (both which greatly add to the feeling and mood of the piece).  The vocal performances are fine, although I think I’m still trying to figure out how to coax good vocal performance out of people like I can (at least part of the time) with live-action performances.

Also, as far “superhero” origin stories go, getting “Shot by some bullets” is a fantastic one.