The bio on the Facebook page for the animator Alexander Unger, who calls himself Guldies, reads: “It all started with clay. It will end with clay.” This seems to be the exploration of his short, “DISTORTION.” From the beginning of the piece, even geometric cubes of clay have some personality, that quality only continues to ramp up as the clay morphs into hands and a face with a very hungry mouth.

The sculptor and animator spoke with us from his home in Sweden. “I was in school while animating this, so everything happened in short bursts,” said Unger. “I didn’t have time to flesh out a story or to build a nice-looking set so I focused more on movements and general design of things. Colorful clay and nice transitions.

“I had to move location(s) in the middle of shooting. I still didn’t feel finished so I choose to take everything with me. It was super hard to try to line up everything exactly as it was before. A lot of masking and planning and color correcting, but it worked!”

Looking to his future, Unger plans to keep testing and working towards a project with more character development. He will also intern in London this spring for “a big stop motion studio!” We wish him luck and think this “Big Studio” is lucky to have him.