The experimental short combines animation with live action. Slightly longer than four minutes in length, Doll Face features a robotic head that develops its identity based on what it is exposed to on television. Chris Buck, director of Surf's Up and Tarzan, and Adriana Jaroszewicz, animation trainer at Sony Pictures Imageworks served as judges for Wet Paint.
"Doll Face shows Huang's skills as a
new emerging talent in animation - and the clean and simple layout
directs focus to the emotional performance of the character, a very
well integrated mix of live action and computer graphics," says
Jaroszewicz. "Crackle's contests are a fantastic way to discover
storytellers, who already live online, and offer these artists the
means to achieve their vision."
Huang created Doll Face using
Autodesk Maya. Adobe After Effects was used for compositing and to
create the television elements. A non-profit television broadcasting
company lent him the necessary production equipment and he filmed the
shots in one day using a Canon XL1.
As a result of winning the Wet Paint contest,
Huang will be given the opportunity to meet with Sony Pictures
Animation executives to pitch his ideas for an original animated short
that could be released theatrically. He will also have the opportunity
to attend a technical training class at ImageWorks and will attend the
SIGGRAPH 2008 computer graphics conference.