LUKi & the Lights
an ALS Story
Short Film Case Study
LUKi and the Lights is an award winning film. It has been accepted into 14 Academy Qualifying film festivals, including the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival, Animayo Film Festival, HollyShorts, Florida Film Festival and 65+ festivals globally. The film has won awards in 20 of those, winning over the hearts of audiences around the world. Some notable wins include the Matthew Curtis Audience Award for Best Short Film at the Florida Film Festival; the Audience Choice Award at Siggraph; the Animated Audience Choice Award at Indy Shorts; and the Children’s Audience Award at Animayo.
Making a film with Impact
The film is inspired by the true life story of Sascha Groen and her husband Anjo Snijders when Anjo was diagnosed with ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis).
With few educational tools, Sascha and Anjo struggled to explain the disease to their children, who were under ten years old. That challenge served as the inspiration for creating LUKi the Robot.
By illustrating LUKi’s story, Sascha was able to help explain to their children what was happening to their dad, Anjo. Unbeknownst to Sascha, she quickly realized that others with ALS also struggled to explain the disease to their families and community. They knew that they wanted to shre LUKi with the world in a Big way!
In early 2021 BGP was introduced to Sascha and Anjo and their mission aligned with Big Grin’s mission. It took nearly 3 years later the film is complete and it is currently touring around the world.
People often ask BGP, why did we decide to make this film and there several reasons for that shares, director Toby Cochran.
“For the first time, kids and families get to see an animated character dealing with a motor neuron disease. I’m excited about the impact LUKi will have on viewers’ lives, along with the resources from Global Neuro YCare and the ALS Association. Many people remember the Ice Bucket challenge, but few people remember what it was actually for. My hope is for LUKi explains the disease to those that don’t understand it and become a symbol of hope and bring lasting change and comfort to those affected. My dream is that a child watching will feel understood and motivated to find a cure for ALS. This would fulfill our mission.”
Support from Global Neuro YCare
A non-profit focusing on youth in families with neurological disorders.
The film is co-produced with GNYC, a non-profit supporting children and youth with ALS/MND. The majority of disease-based organizations provide programming and support for adults, yet few address the children and youth in these families.
The foundation was created after many years of collaborative work across countries, with children and families living with neurological conditions. As a licensed clinical social worker, Dr. Melinda S. Kavanaugh has worked closely in identifying key areas of need and gaps in programming for advocacy, education, and support. The Global Neuro YCare Foundation focuses on children, youth, and family programming. © 2024 by Global Neuro YCare
For more info visit: www.globalneuroycare.org
For ALS support please visit: www.als.org
CHARACTER DESIGN
Creating a robot people care for
Sascha and Anjo had already created a fun looking robot, it was up to Big Grin to transform the character into an EXTRA charming design and make sure the character was design friendly for 3D and to ensure the performance wasn’t limited on the design. The director and Marie Thorhauge worked closely focusing efforts on locking down LUKi and built the world and characters around him.
Animation Process
Crafting emotion through animation.
Understanding that LUKi and the Lights would demand intricate and sensitive animation to portray LUKi’s journey as his disease progresses, we collaborated with top talent from around the globe. Animation was expertly guided by our outstanding Supervisors, Michelle Meeker and Alex Ferreira Simoes.
BTS and process videos will shared later in 2024.
Animation Process
Animation was supervised by Toby along with the talented Colin Brady from Animagic. Once Big Grin got into a routine for dailies the animation
took about 5 weeks to complete.
To the right is a nearly finished Overcut of the commercial.
We worked with a local rigger by extensive testing and made adjustments into production to assure a smooth and functional character
through the pipeline.
The Look & FEEL
A robot world has never looked so lovely
What do you do when you want to create a brand new robot world? How do you begin? What will be the influence? How does the world operate? These along with many other questions the Director had to figure out with his design team with a limited time. The Design Style needed to feel inviting and the team pushed the stylization with a wonky charm. The world would feel warm, organic and tactile. Taking heavy influences from the Netherlands and fairy tale illustration books.
UNREAL ENGINE
Big Grin received an Unreal Mega Grant
Adopting a real-time pipeline allowed the team to parallelize tasks that would have otherwise been performed sequentially in a traditional offline production pipeline. Layout, Tech-Art, Lighting, and VFX could all work concurrently within the same environment. By using a real-time game engine, changes could be viewed almost instantaneously and in context and not wait hours for renders as with a traditional pipeline.
Getting the lightbulbs to work correctly proved to be a technical challenge. Unreals Editor Utility and Blueprints allowed the leads the flexibility to write custom tools, which gave the lightbulbs a more realistic look throughout the show and many other technical tasks to be automated.
Lighting
Taking advantage of Unreal Engine
We got the ball rolling early on with interior and exterior lighting tests. Used mostly to help sell the client on direction, it also allowed us to
test internally on what was and wasn’t working. Our goal was for an easier hand off when finished.
FESTIVAL CIRCUIT
LUKi is currently touring around the world
This film is unique from other animated films. The main goal and intention behind the film is to help families and children affected by ALS/ MND. The second goal and wish from Anjo was to have this film make its way to the big stage at the Oscars! For the first time, families and more specifically children are seeing LUKi and understanding how ALS affects the body. LUKi is going to make an impact regardless and BGP is grateful to be along for the journey. Wish us luck!
Let's Have Some Fun!
