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Cowboys And Cosmonauts

This film was made for my Senior Capstone Project at Depaul University. At the height of the Cold War, Yuri and Olga, an old bitter soviet couple, take it upon themselves to beat America in in the Space Race to the Moon. Upon landing, things quickly go awry, and they find themselves forced to accept the help of an all-American singing cowboy Astronaut, in this goofy and irreverent comedy.

  • Max Aaron Tikhonov
    Director
  • Max Aaron Tikhonov
    Writer
  • Max Aaron Tikhonov
    Producer
  • Fischer Vickers
    Key Cast
    "Phil Footsrong"
  • David D. Jones
    Key Cast
    "Yuri"
  • Julia Tikhonov
    Key Cast
    "Olga"
  • James Syring
    Music recording/ Mixing
  • Hannah VrBancic
    Dialogue Recording Engineer
  • Megan Rau
    Modeling
  • Brandon Barocio
    Modeling
  • Harvey Jain
    Modeling
  • Project Type:
    Animation, Short, Student
  • Genres:
    Comedy, musical
  • Runtime:
    9 minutes 36 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    September 11, 2024
  • Production Budget:
    0 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States, United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    Yes - Depaul University
Director Biography - Max Aaron Tikhonov

Max Tikhonov is a recent graduate of Depaul University, specializing in 3D animation. He aims to lead a career in entertaining others with film, animation and music.

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Director Statement

Taking place during the cold war, this film is a love letter to the post Soviet animated films I grew up on. The main influences are films like Return to Treasure Island and the short films of Gary Bardin, combined with classic SpongeBob SquarePants and Looney Tunes style slapstick. I aimed to create something that felt hand-made and personal, while using every tool available to me. The film is primarily CGI, with sprinkles of hand-drawn and stop motion, as homage to the great soviet and post-soviet films of my parent's era. This film was made for my Senior Capstone Project at Depaul University.

I created this film from start to finish. Character designs, storyboards, modeling (with the help of the credited modelers and a couple royalty/ copyright free 3D assets), animation, original music, effects, rendering and everything else in the pipeline except for voice acting were done by me, all over the course of 9 months. I couldn't have done it without the help from my actors and music engineer, for which I'm forever grateful. I'm ecstatic to finally share the finished product with the world.