Ten Years in the Making, E.D. Films' Return to Hairy Hill Created in PSD to 3D Workflow
Brie Clayton May 15, 2023
0 Comments
Original Animated Short Uses Hand-Drawn Illustrations, Game Engines and Puppets to Create Heartbreaking Tale; PSD to 3D Tutorials Available Now, Art of Book Coming This Summer
After nearly a decade in development, E.D. Films' ambitious, experimental animated short film Return to Hairy Hill (aka Retour Hairy Hill) will make its eagerly anticipated debut this week at Montreal's prestigious Sommets du cin ma d'animation (Animation Film Summit). Featuring several first-of-their-kind techniques - including the studio's proprietary 2D to 3D pipeline - the short will be featured in the official competition alongside the best animated films originating from Canada. The festival will be held in Montreal at the famed Cin math que Qu b coise on May 9-14.
Some contents or functionalities here are not available due to your cookie preferences!
This happens because the functionality/content marked as Google Youtube uses cookies that you choosed to keep disabled. In order to view this content or use this functionality, please enable cookies: click here to open your cookie preferences.
Following the completion of the project, E.D. Films created a full behind-the-scenes tutorial offering artists a look at how they can take advantage of the studio's PSD to 3D plugins.
The Making of Return to Hairy Hill
Written and directed by E.D. Films co-founder, Daniel Gies,Return to Hairy Hill utilizes several experimental techniques developed in-house by the multidisciplinary studio, beginning with its industry-leading PSD to 3D plugin that converts 2D Photoshop drawings into stylized 3D content. The film also relied on a new VR puppet system, a new animation export tool for game engines and more. Those tools were combined with hand-drawn ink illustrations, digital paintings, paper puppet models, hand-drawn animation, traditional keyframe animation and more. The result is a unique animated short that leverages CG creation tools while creating the unique impression of stop-motion animation for the character performances.
When we originally started planning out Return to Hairy Hill more than ten years ago, we intended to make a film that was essentially 2.5D puppet animation, but we found that the format wasn't able to convey the level of emotion we wanted, said Gies. We decided to utilize a more traditional 3D approach. Being a small team with very little 3D production experience, we knew that if we were going to utilize our strengths as 2D storytellers we would need to develop new tools and techniques to pull off such an ambitious project. The effort was very much worth it, and our small team was able to create a new type of 3D world that has a unique beauty and feel.
Inspired by Gies' own family history, Return to Hairy Hill is loosely based on a tragic true story passed down by his grandmother. Growing up in an isolated region of Canada known as Hairy Hill, she and her siblings were abandoned by their parents at a young age. Determined to keep the family together, she attempted to care for the others but eventually local authorities discovered their plight. Before the children were split up, to be placed with other families in distant towns, his grandmother promised her siblings that she would find a way to reunite the family. Sadly, the circumstances of her life had other plans and they would never all be together again. Gies was determined to capture the emotional essence of that story, highlighting a profound sense of loss and isolation while holding onto a glimmer of hope and eventual acceptance.
To find the right balance between aesthetic and emotion, the team began experimenting with several looks in Unreal Engine. Using Unreal's pre-visualization and real-time rendering tools, E.D. Films - one of the first animation studios ever to win an Epic MegaGrant - was able to define the look of the project. The film's fabrication needs also led to the creation of Scene Track by E.D. Films, an open source tool that allows users to record and export animation data within game engines. From there, the team pivoted to Autodesk's Maya, where they could import hand-drawn illustrations to create the background environments and try out different camera angles.
May 17, 2023KitBash3D Launches Cargo: Powering the Future of 3D ContentNew Cargo Software Redefines 3D Asset Ecosystem for Creators KitBash3D, widely recognized as the
May 17, 2023The Adam Carolla Show Goes Live with End to End Blackmagic Design WorkflowBlackmagic Design today announced that the world's top daily downloaded podcast, The
Gies experimented with several looks for the characters, creating both physical paper puppets and CG counterparts for each iteration. For the siblings, he elected to remove the faces entirely, both in reference to indigenous doll-making practices in the area, and the fact that the protagonist can no longer recollect what they look like. Instead, she remembers their personalities, which are reflected by animalistic touches like the timidness of the youngest sister embodied by a rabbit, the independence of the brother translated as a fox and the cautious trepidation of another sister, presented as a deer. The design of the bird-like mother, however, was meant to show that she was a creature trapped between two worlds.
With memory playing a major role in the film, Gies and the team at Montreal's Audio Coara decided to use tape machines and old tape recordings to convey the feeling of a memory degrading over time. Sound designer Tyler Fitzmaurice traveled to six different remote cabins and recorded the sounds of nature, including animals in the wild, water flowing, trees creaking in the wind and more. The audio team then expe
Most recent headlines
01/04/2026
January 4 2026, 18:00 (PST) DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION
Douyin Users Can Now Create And Share Videos With Stun...
03/01/2026
A still from OBEX by Albert Birney, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance...
02/01/2026
Freezing Florida: NHL's EVP, Entertainment Bob Chesterman on Taking the Wint...
02/01/2026
NHL Winter Classic 2026: TNT Sports Prepares for First NHL Outdoor Game in Sunsh...
02/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
02/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
02/01/2026
Any Given Day: Cork University Hospital premieres Wednesday 7 January on RT One and RT Player at 9:35pm
RT will debut a powerful new six-part documentary se...
02/01/2026
Friday 2 January 2026
All episodes of Heated Rivalry will be landing on Sky and...
02/01/2026
Sequins, chat shows, live sporting action, ground-breaking docuseries and brand-new Irish drama to kick off 2026
New Year, New Content Coming Soon across RT
...
01/01/2026
Latin Grammy Cultural Foundation Announces 2026 Noel Schajris Scholarship The scholarship will cover tuition and housing for one Berklee College of Music stud...
01/01/2026
New year, new games, all with RTX 5080-powered cloud energy. GeForce NOW is kicking off 2026 by looking back at an unforgettable year of wins and wildly high fr...
31/12/2025
Back to All News
NFL Christmas Gameday on Netflix Scores Again With the Lions-V...
30/12/2025
As the College Football Playoff Enters the Quarterfinals, ESPN Blows Out Its Meg...
30/12/2025
SVG's Best of 2025: Original ArticlesTake a look back at all our coverage of big-time productions, game-changing technologies, and state-of-the-art new faci...
30/12/2025
MELBOURNE, Fla., Dec. 30, 2025 - L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) will release its fourth quarter 2025 financial results before the market opens on Thursday, J...
30/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
30/12/2025
Your live countdown to 2026 with Inhaler, David Gray, Lyra, Garron Noone, Sharon...
30/12/2025
It marked the first civilian operational authorization for a HAPS flight in Europe, led by Space42's subsidiary, Mira Aerospace
The flight demonstrated HAP...
29/12/2025
San Francisco 49ers Strike Gold With Halftime Laser SpectacularStunning display caps $200 million renovation of Levi's Stadium techBy Dan Daley, Audio Edito...
29/12/2025
The Cup's Around the Corner: An Inside Look at Broadcast Preparations for th...
29/12/2025
SVG's Best of 2025: Longform VideoWatch the standout keynote conversations, deep dives, and panel discussions from the year for free on SVG PLAY!By Brandon ...
29/12/2025
From crisper Lossless audio and immersive music videos in beta to new Audiobooks+ plans, custom transitions between tracks, and in-app Messages, we keep levelin...
29/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
27/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
26/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
26/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
25/12/2025
Holiday lights are twinkling, hot cocoa's on the stove and gamers are settling in for a well-earned break.
Whether staying in or heading on a winter getawa...
24/12/2025
What is AI good for? Posted by MTI Film on December 24, 2025
What is AI good for?
What is AI good for?
It's been three years since ChatGPT first cap...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
RT has unveiled an exclusive first look at the new Dancing with the Stars promo...
24/12/2025
Back to All News
The Boyfriend' Season 2 Unveils Heartwarming Trailer, Key...
24/12/2025
Back to All News
Love, Fights, and Everything in Between: Badly in Love' Returns for Season 2
Entertainment
24 December 2025
GlobalJapan
Link copied t...
24/12/2025
Scripps Research study links sleep variability with sleep apnea and hypertension How consumers' digital activity trackers could enable personalized health s...
23/12/2025
How guilas Cibae as Dominican Winter League Games Are Locally Produced for Glob...
23/12/2025
BitFire's Jim Akimchuk on Supplying Scalability and Customization in the Clo...
23/12/2025
CAMB.AI Enables European Athletics to Offer Multi-Language SupportPlan is to eventually offer translation into all languages spoken in EuropeBy Ken Kerschbaumer...
23/12/2025
Analysis: As sports media values trend negative, scarcity and quality are king By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Monday, December 22, 2025 - 14:08
Print ...
23/12/2025
ESPN, Disney, and NBA Return to the Animated Altcast Fray With Second Edition of...
23/12/2025
End the Year on a High Note and Donate to the Sports Broadcasting Fund Today!By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Tuesday, December 23, 2025 - 12:25 pm
P...
23/12/2025
The year is winding down, the weather outside is frightful, and it's the perfect time to escape into a story that warms the heart. For listeners looking for...
23/12/2025
A Zeus motor is hot fire tested at L3Harris' Camden, Arkansas, solid rocket ...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Lightware will exhibit several major product innovations at ISE 2026, including the new USB-C BOOSTER-V1, Google Meet. integration for various Taurus UCX models...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
Ten Years in the Making, E.D. Films' Return to Hairy Hill Created in PSD to 3D Workflow 
