Private Project

Good Dog

A short story about a dog and its unconditional love for its owner.

  • Tim Cant
    Director
  • Tim Cant
    Writer
  • Tim Cant
    Producer
  • Tim Cant
    Animation
  • Maddie Watts
    Key Cast
  • Patrick Campbell
    Key Cast
  • Maree Lowes
    Key Cast
  • Clint Topic
    Dialogue Editor
  • Anthony Marsh
    Sound Designer
  • Project Type:
    Animation, Short
  • Genres:
    Action, Comedy, Crime, Cel Animation
  • Runtime:
    3 minutes 33 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    November 6, 2016
  • Production Budget:
    1,800 AUD
  • Country of Origin:
    Australia
  • Country of Filming:
    Australia
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Frame by frame animation, 15fps
  • Aspect Ratio:
    2.35:1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Sydney World Film Festival
    Sydney, New South Wales
    Australia
    December 22, 2016
  • Short to the Point

    Romania
    January 9, 2017
  • FreshFlix Film Festival
    Sydney, New South Wales
    Australia
    February 4, 2017
    Best Sound, Audience Choice Award
  • Short + Sweet Film Festival
    Sydney, New South Wales
    Australia
    February 13, 2017
  • Drawtastic 2D or Not 2D Festival of Animation
    Seattle, Washington
    United States
    February 25, 2017
  • Omaha Film Festival
    Omaha, Nebraska
    United States
    March 9, 2017
  • Tokyo Lift Off - Online
    Tokyo
    Japan
    May 8, 2017
  • In The Bin Film Festival
    Currumbin, Queensland
    Australia
    May 13, 2017
  • Vivid x Freshflix - Ecstatic Cinematic
    Sydney, New South Wales
    Australia
    June 3, 2017
  • Melbourne International Animation Festival
    Melbourne, Victoria
    Australia
    June 22, 2017
  • British Animation Film Festival
    London, England
    United Kingdom
    June 23, 2017
  • Canine Film Festival
    Miami, Florida
    United States
    July 15, 2017
  • Mosaic World Film Festival
    Rockford, Illinois
    United States
    August 25, 2017
  • Newcastle International Animation Festival
    Newcastle, New South Wales
    Australia
    August 26, 2017
  • Regal Animation Showcase

    September 9, 2017
Director Biography - Tim Cant

Animator Tim Cant - born Maitland, Australia 1990 - always wanted to make cartoons, and as a kid would often be found sitting quietly, drawing and creating stories. In fact, the only times he got into trouble in school was when he would finish his work early and draw in the empty space.

Always reading about different techniques, watching tutorials on better workflow and studying a wide variety of personal influences, Tim is largely self taught, a firm believer in the saying practice makes perfect and that your skill set should speak loudly for what you know.

Turning his passion into a career, he found work in a design firm- illustrating and animating in a small team in Newcastle, Australia.

Recently, Tim wrote, produced and animated his first film, Good Dog, in 2016.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

There is a large part of myself poured into Good Dog- I took on the role of everything, mostly as a challenge to myself, secondly as an exercise in animation.

Initially, Good Dog was just meant to be a 10 second Instagram video I started one sick day I had off work. But the more I played around with the Dog, the more emotion I found I could convey through it.

That's kind of the heart behind Good Dog, it was always just a test to see how much emotion I can convey through a character who can't speak. The dog can't say anything to let us as the viewer know what it's feeling, so it relied heavily on my skills as an animator to convey what we are meant to feel through the dog.

The only animation software I had access to was Adobe Photoshop- which isn't an animation program. But because I was determined to do this, I kind of just made it work. I definitely pushed the thresholds of what it can do, and when people find out that it was created through Photoshop they are genuinely amazed.

Everything you see in Good Dog I personally created. I would start a particular discipline - like the black and white line art - and see it through to completion. Then start again from the beginning, this time colouring etc. until I came to the final product. In this way, the animation was meticulously created by one person, assuming all roles in a team. Working this way let me find areas I liked, that I excelled at, and as well as areas I needed improvement in.

Good Dog was a project I loved from inception to completion. Having said that, there were definitely times when I hated it, and thought it was the worst thing in the world. But I think that's what the art of film making is about. You have to love your project; you've gotta love it when it's going well, and you've especially gotta love it when it sucks.

And in the end, even if it just makes a handful of people laugh or feel nice inside, then I'll proudly take that as a job well done.