"What is he doing?" If animator Dony Permedi's intention was to get the audience to ask that question, he succeeded. For most of the director's animated short, "Kiwi!", Permedi leaves the audience just at the edge of understanding as the little tan blob of a character toils away on some incomprehensible cliffside project. But when the time is right, all is finally revealed. Like the titular character, the audience's perspective changes and the bird's dream of a lifetime takes flight.

Kiwi came about because of a school deadline. But when the time came to come up with an idea, I had trouble. I spent all summer pulling my hair out, trying to think of a thesis idea, and when the fall semester rolled around, I still didn't have anything that I was excited about. Finally my thesis advisor said we had to have rough storyboards in by a certain date, and sure enough, I came up with the story idea the night before it was due.

VISIT THE KIWI WEBSITE

It was just me on this project. I did have a bit of help throughout the year from classmates, and critiques. Also I had assistance with the clouds, which were painted by David Chontos, and the original music, which was composed by an old high school friend, Tim Cassell.

The whole film was completed from September 2005 to April 2006. September through October was dedicated to storyboarding and animatics. November through February I was modeling, texturing, and rigging. February through April I worked on animation, rendering and compositing.

Surprisingly, I deviated very little from the boards, but some of the animation quirks that the kiwi had, I added in while I was animating. One such example is at the beginning where he stumbles over trying to pull the rope.

Although the idea was hard to come up with, I quickly grew to see the main character as more than just a character in a thesis project. I cared about his story, and I wanted people to leave my film feeling happy that the kiwi got what he wanted. I wanted them to connect with him and feel his joy, and know that it was worth it, no matter what happens to him in the end.

     --Dony Permedi, DEC 2006

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