The Weather and Nature in My Animated Piece

A complex task given the time constraints, but a beautiful challenge I took upon my shoulders. Incorporating weather and atmospheric changes—and making them move—elevated my work, giving it a strong sense of depth in natural settings.

I tried to truly capture the feeling of an autumn morning: a gusty sunrise, urban landscapes battling the wind, and a misty, cold forest. Here, the grasses bend. The cold apartment buildings appear even colder under the early morning light, their windows catching the first rays of the sun. Birds struggle against the wind. Overhead, an overcast sky lingers—a remnant of night clouds, as I call them. Golden leaves detach from a tree and are caught mid-air.

The closer we move to the forest, away from town, the hues shift—from the pinks and greys of concrete and steel to warmer tones. The muted lavender sky deepens into warm orange, and the temperature seems to rise, if only slightly. The girl's breath is visible in the air, her nose reddened from the cold. The forest floor is scattered with mushrooms, berries, and fallen leaves. Mist rises, dampening the surroundings. The forest is quiet—almost no gusts of wind—yet you can imagine the earthy scent of decay.

Here, I play with environmental flux, shaping mood and movement by utilizing as many elements as possible. Once again, artistic references helped me refine this approach. I use a strong textural quality, blending painterly illustration with a moody, folklore-like aesthetic.

The mist is a nod to Yuri Norstein; I aimed for a dreamlike quality with delicate textures and an almost imperceptible floating effect. Jean-Jacques Sempé inspired my urban landscapes—his soft washes and melancholic tone helped me shape the ambiance, though mine balances between melancholy and something far more grounded. Of course, as mentioned before, Ivan Bilibin influenced my approach to the forest—rich, decorative, with a storybook-like atmosphere and a folk sensibility. The strong contrasts between light and darkness draw from Romanticism and Symbolism, influences I’ve explored before.

All of this is wrapped in the aesthetics of Eastern European animation—films from Poland, the Czech Republic, and Russia from the 1970s to the 1990s—with their handmade, moody, and slightly surreal feel.