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3. The Thomas Beale Cipher

by Andrew S Allen

1 year ago

2. Anchorage Int'l Film Festival 2010 Opener

by Andrew S Allen

1 year ago

1. The Thomas Beale Cipher: Official Trailer

by Andrew S Allen

1 year ago

Based on a true legend of the famous unsolved code.

The film contains 16 hidden messages that hold clues to the characters' secrets. Eight are fairly easy requiring only a close eye. Six are moderately difficult using various encryption methods. Two are extremely difficult requiring a genius mind to decrypt.

Follow the film
facebook.com/thomasbealecipher

More about the film,
thomasbealecipher.com

Distributed by Short of the Week,
shortoftheweek.com

Credits

Andrew S Allen
Director/Writer/Producer
Eric Goetz
Composer
Short of the Week
Distributor
Jason Sondhi
Producer

4,061 Likes

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Tags

langustart 1 year ago

It is amazing
Max_Carsel 1 year ago

Wow !
vimeo.com/8366628
Wray Bowling 1 year ago

Great film! I see it hasn't even been shared around much. I'll be sure to link my friends! :D
Yura Boguslavsky 1 year ago

Wow! just great! Now I'm your fan:)
What is that texture you used for Professor's profile in train window? Is it the same for light on the station? Is it sand?
I'd love to watch making of this film!
Andrew S Allen 1 year ago

The textures are all from found sources—second-hand stores, fabric shops, etc. I looked for old vintage patterns with colors that evoked the era and palettes we had designed for the film and scanned them in digitally.
Benoit MILLOT 1 year ago

amazing stuff!
Sam Morrill 1 year ago

Absolutely amazing. No other way to describe it.
Short of the Week 1 year ago

Thanks for the kind words. Wow you guys really stay on top of new stuff that goes on the site huh?
Sam Morrill 1 year ago

We try! If you ever see any new and awesome videos, please don't hesitate to shoot me a private message.
mpared 1 year ago

stunning !! its up at thecuriousbrain.com/ well done :-)
Short of the Week 1 year ago

Thanks for the post. Love your site.
Mateo Vega 1 year ago

This is just awesome! Love the story and your animation style. Amazing!
The New Pop 1 year ago

This is great. The narration, the way you use patterns and shadows. Great work.
Anthony Elliott 8 months ago

...and the light glare and other lens effects, some fantastic ideas there.
fotinos 1 year ago

I cant believe it! VerY NicE!
-
Mentioned here: illustratedmemories.blogspot.com/2011/01/thomas-beale-cipher-animation-by-andrew.html
Roberto Serrini 1 year ago

My favorite animation so far. Beautiful.
Roberto Serrini 1 year ago

Up at zenfaster.com
Short of the Week 1 year ago

Thanks! Getting a Wordpress error when I try to check out the site though...
Roberto Serrini 1 year ago

ahso... two secs... Wordpress... love it till ya hate it.
Roberto Serrini 1 year ago

Works gemlike now. Funny how much a "?" and a ">" mean to the interwebs ;)

here's a direct link as well zenfaster.com/2011/01/24/the-thomas-beale-cipher-animation-that-raises-the-bar/
David Coogan 1 year ago

Nicely animated! Great atmosphere! Wonderful visual style!
//NEUE//FILMS// 1 year ago

Great work.
Siobhan Hurley 1 year ago

One of the best short animation films I've seen. Amazing
Ben Symonds 1 year ago

amazing!!! vimeo.com/19135665
Ayhan Cebe 1 year ago

this is brilliant!.. great film.
Lurival Jones 1 year ago

Fantástico!
Eric Goetz 1 year ago

It was an absolute privilege to work on this film. Congratulations on your well-deserved success.
Short of the Week 1 year ago

Your score was the best part! No joke, I've got your themes in iTunes and put them on sometimes to write. Wouldn't be nearly as good a film without your efforts.
Anthony Elliott 8 months ago

The score adds so much to the feel. It wouldn't have the same espionage/hunter-and-hunted/cloak-and-dagger effect without it! Fabulous work.
William DeSena 1 year ago

how is this even done? Brilliant!
Andrew S Allen 1 year ago

For the animation, we shot live actors to get the motion down. Then used our own form of rotoscoping and composited the scenes in AE.
thebiz 1 year ago

Excellent work. Really loved the visuals and the voice work.
John Gottschalk 1 year ago

Cool stuff, although the lines and voice work of some of the extras could have used some work, just a bit too much "I'm a dimwitted cronie, can't you tell" in the voice.

Otherwise good tension building and use of textures, also the primary voice was very well done.
Steven Bailey 1 year ago

Intriguing. Your handling of suspense was so perfect.
Angelica Baini 1 year ago

great rotoscope work!!
Joshua Ryan 1 year ago

Saw this at the Austin Film Festival and got to meet the director. Good job all around man! Still love it as much as I did in the theater, just the screen size difference is a little dissapointing :(
Shahzeb K 1 year ago

How long did it take you to create this?
What editor was used?
Andrew S Allen 1 year ago

The full process stretched over 18 months with a crew of 4 animators. Editing was handled in Final Cut Pro.
Thrillpill Films 1 year ago

I don't think anyone NEEDS to tell you what an amazing looking film you've made but congratulations, this is beautiful!

And it is my sincere hope that you go on to bigger, better and more successful things.

This filled my day with inspiration.
Gotham River 1 year ago

Seconded.
Andrew S Allen 1 year ago

I appreciate the kind words, Elvis.
Joe Moya 1 year ago

Very nice work... I like your style of animation
Todd Smith 1 year ago

Great work!
Gotham River 1 year ago

Damn good.
Ludovic Leleu 1 year ago

absolutely great!!!
MINE // Jon Yeo 1 year ago

Really impressive work, well done.
Creativelydunn 1 year ago

Compelling!!!
Samuel de Ceccatty 1 year ago

Nice man, this is like 'intro-to-catch-me-if-you-can' meets Julian Opie
arto nieminen 1 year ago

Too short
I'd love to see it longer and the same quality, you know there is space in vimeo for hole movie.
Thank you anyway
Andre 1 year ago

Not only visually stunning but also great direction and edit.
Nicole Sawyer 1 year ago

Inspirational, love it.
Henrique Neumann 1 year ago

Realy amazing textures! I am very impressive with the style!
Antonin Herveet 1 year ago

really cool, great soundtrack as well !
Eric Goetz 1 year ago

Thanks, Antonin!
panic embryo 1 year ago

This is so freshly imagined and wonderfully told. Congrats. That's a lot of work right there.
Aaron Farris 1 year ago

Purely genius my friend Love your work
Pavel Pavlov 1 year ago

enjoyed every minute:)
Desrumaux Celine 1 year ago

Genial!!
super graphisme :)
Hans Wurst 1 year ago

Great movie and great ideas. I like your style.
Boat Safety Films 1 year ago

lovin' it!
Stephane CARCOPINO-TUSOLI 1 year ago

absolutely great! thanks a lot!
So simple and so full of life, this is magic.
The audiance can see things that are note in the picture thanks to this simplicity within the effect and color gradings. :)
Steve Heuring 1 year ago

great work! love the visual style, story, characters, and the score is awesome. Leaves you wanting more...
Drew Eckse 1 year ago

Beautiful.
ira 1 year ago

rendered speechless watching this. texture-gasm but not overly done.
RUFFMERCY 1 year ago

..superb style and animation, very original ...great work!
Andrzej Rudz 1 year ago

great story and awsome design - congratulations :)
misterwonderloo 1 year ago

respect
Alex Kelaru 1 year ago

absolutely great. you should try to get some finances in place for a feature. the style and story work together perfectly. good job.
Torgo 1 year ago

Very impressive.

I used to work for a company that did a lot of work by hand (including a lot of rotoscoping, hand coloring / scanned textures, etc. in AE) and I know only too well how much work goes into something like this - which makes me appreciate this concept even more.

Cheers.

Also - I found this film via BoingBoing:

boingboing.net/2011/01/26/beautiful-rotoscoped.html
wik 1 year ago

i've seen some mike mignola here, great!
Julien Cloutier Labbe 1 year ago

Fantastic work.
Amazing technique and sound, really.
Lou Wagram 1 year ago

I can't say more than WAW WAW WAW Thank you this is pure art, fantastic !!!
Maximilian Appel 1 year ago

great
Elliott Conor Pearson 1 year ago

Wow
Jim Lee 1 year ago

This is a really cool short film. Great job on this project!
Jason Leung 1 year ago

super cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thomas Allen 1 year ago

A meticulous work of true passion. Congrats bro and the rest of the crew, great things are upon you all.
Julien-Pierre 1 year ago

Awesome! Art direction is so well controlled!
Elliot A.M. 1 year ago

This reminds me a lot of the old point and click adventure game "The Last Express", one of the best games i've ever played, and this is one of the best shorts i've ever seen.
Nick Rubenstein 1 year ago

Wow. This is fantastic.

I work as an AE animator myself, and am BLOWN AWAY by the amount of work and finesse this piece exhibits, but it's the writing that sets this apart from the rest of the pack. Bravo, masterful.

You guys are rock stars. I want more from this team!

Q: What's the imbedded cipher in the background mean? anyone???

PS: my grandfather used to work for the OSS during WWII solving ciphers - I wish I had 1/10th his brain for this stuff.
Krystal Weber 1 year ago

This is so fantastic. Everything from the use of patterns and textures to the very unique collage technique you used to give the paper cutouts a much more human detailing to them. At first I found the eyes off-putting but the effect gradually grew on me and I finally decided it was just brilliant. The story itself is great too, I love things that involve cryptography, government secrets and clever people. It's just great, I have to show my animation professor.
Sabrina Bangladesh 1 year ago

This was one of the articles in my RSS reader at work - so glad I saved it! I've put it on my blog too, really hope this goes viral and more people see it! thescienceofstyle.com/blog/2011/01/28/the-thomas-beale-cipher/
Short of the Week 1 year ago

Thank you Sabrina for the post! We've gotten a greater response than we could have possibly expected.
Jason Barnes 1 year ago

spectacular.
Edi Aguirre 1 year ago

It's cool to find something that challenges for your actual atention
YLLW 1 year ago

A stunning piece of work. The art direction is unlike anything I've seen in a while in an animation. Congrats.
The New Pop 1 year ago

Very well done, I posted a short review on my blog.

"Not since the groundbreaking feature film “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow” have I seen such a refreshing take on an old genre."

snipurl.com/1xeed0
Short of the Week 1 year ago

Wow, nice complement, thanks. Sky Captain started out as a short too.
Ben Machado 1 year ago

cannot watch this enough
Tim Cain 1 year ago

clean!
Alberta Torres 1 year ago

It's amazing! One of the best animation I have ever seen! Doing stuff like this is my dream... Congrats!
ezequiel gutierrez 1 year ago

this is outstanding. exactly what i needed today!! featured in our sunday shorts column tomorrow! so awesome!!
Short of the Week 1 year ago

Thanks, I'll look out for it
mctoom 1 year ago

Worth the 18 months of working!

I'm really stunned by the style, music and the idea.
Color Lounge - Cedric Riveau 1 year ago

It is an absolute beauty! WOW! Thank you so much.
I wish I could put 3 likes to this one. ^^

Regarding textures and fabrics, your work reminded me two beautiful Japanese animations :
- "Gankutsuou", an adaptation of "Monte Cristo"
- "Mononoke" made by Kenji Nakamura
Highly recommended.
Cheers
Short of the Week 1 year ago

I've see both, that's high praise, thank you
A24 CREATIVE STUDIO 1 year ago

I felt fresh　impact. It's very nice!!!!
simon 1 year ago

lovely jubbly!
Folk Finland 1 year ago

Beautiful!
Rafano 1 year ago

Beautiful textures research for an elegant result. My compliments >>l