Attack of the 3D felines

Animation director Rok Predin has collaborated with music composer Ivan Arnold several times in the past, such as on his short films Winter Poem and Curiosity Killed the Cat.

Each time Arnold has produced music in response to Predin's visuals. However in their latest short, the initiative for a dynamic travelling rhythm came from the composer. The Chase sees a toy-like cartoon car being menaced by a pride of flying, multi-coloured demon cats.

"Ivan and I speak the same artistic language, so it really wasn't so hard at all," says Slovenian-born animator Rok Predin. "You always strive for a synergy of sound and vision, I guess, so the basic rule was that whatever you show on screen has to feel right."

The short was also a chance for Predin to sharpen his Cinama 4D skills, which he used to create the dream-like sequence to chime with Arnold's haunting, melancholy syncopation. The entire short is a single shot and as the cats chase the car it gradually begins to disintegrate like comet entering Earth's atmosphere.

"I used a bit of Xpresso - the internal programming language in Cinema 4D - to rig the cats' heads, and then took advantage of its great cloth engine and some CS Tools," he adds.

Rok Predin is a director at Trunk Animation, and The Chase was produced by Richard Barnett. You can read more about Rok Predin's work here, or see page 15 of issue 211 of Computer Arts, out on Thursday 7 February 2013.