Untold Studios Wins Two VES Awards for BMW “Heart of Joy”
March 4, 2026
London-based animation director Vitor Cervi, whose Carcass short film we featured in Stash 165, just dropped us his latest exploration of style and world-building, a darkly vibrant sci-fi adventure called Escape.
Vitor Cervi: “Escape is a short film about flight at the end of the world, following a lone figure, Mae, as she attempts to outrun an approaching catastrophe. Drawing on classic science-fiction motifs, the narrative evokes both the promises and the failures of our civilization.
“Drawing on classic science-fiction motifs, the narrative evokes both the promises and the failures of our civilization.”
“Self-funded and developed over several years, the film was created using a hybrid animation process that combines traditional frame-by-frame techniques with digital 2D and 3D workflows. From the outset, blurring the boundaries between these methods was central to defining the film’s visual language.
“A strict color palette shaped the entire production, influencing the shading of the 3D environments built in Cinema 4D. Character animation was refined in After Effects using vector-based shape layers, a clean graphic approach that proved fundamental in unifying the compositions and seamlessly blending the different techniques.
“The edit was structured early around a simple rhythmic beat composed by London studio Father, who developed the driving pulse of impending doom that sets the film’s pace, evolving it into a fully realised musical piece alongside the ambient sound design.”
Director/animator: Vitor Cervi
Sound: Father
