Paint dramatic keyframe art

Kan Muftic shares his expert process for successfully capturing a single image to encapsulate an animated feature’s entire story

Capture an animated film’s story in one image, with Kan Muftic.

As a director working in the animation industry, keyframe illustration is the single most powerful tool to express my ideas to the team. The ability to sketch enables me to use visual language where my verbal expression fails.

I adjust the style depending on the type of animation, but I always serve the story first. I begin by asking the key question: what is this moment really about? As artists, we’re often seduced by the picture-making, but it’s crucial to understand that keyframe illustration serves to capture a moment in the story.

This keyframe depicts a dramatic hunting scene from my project based around a clan of hyenas. A longlasting drought brought hunger and despair. Led by a dominant female (Mother), the hyena clan drives a wildebeest herd into a deadly crevice.

The hunt is savage and merciless. They try to separate a single specimen from the herd, but the beast is defending itself fiercely, kicking, ramming and stabbing. The sheer force of the stampede seems unstoppable as the herd heads towards the river, hoping to find rescue in the water. But there’s no river left there; mostly mud and dust.

In a state of absolute chaos, wildebeest race across the river bank. One by one, they start falling into crevices of the shore and become stuck in the mud, getting trampled by others who desperately try to reach the other side of the bank.