June 27th, the biggest event for short films in North America, a designated awards-qualifying event for the Oscars, Baftas and Goyas, the 2021 Palm Springs International ShortFest announced its juried award winners. An animated short film, Step into the River (China/France), sponsored by Huion and directed by Weijia Ma, won the best animated short at the festival. Following the Silver Hugo Award of Chicago International Film Festival, this is another international award that Step into the River won. 

The film explores a specific period of China and tells a story from the perspective of girls from that time. In this 15-minute film, tens of thousands of drawings were produced and rendered, which means a massive workload for animators. To help the creators finish their works in a comfortable and efficient way, Huion offered some of its most powerful drawing devices to the animation team, among which Kamvas Pro 22(2019) and Kamvas Pro 16 Premium played important roles during the creation.

Kamvas Pro 16 Premium is a 15.6inch pen display that enables creators to carry around and Kamvas Pro 22(2019) is a 21.5inch pen display that enable users to render more detailed and natural drawings conveniently. Besides, the anti-glare screen, the pen-on-paper drawing experience, the tilt support, and high pressure sensitivity level are provided to facilitate the work of creators.

‘Rich details of drawings can be preserved and presented authentically on this pen display’, said Jihua Zhu, one of the background painters from the team, ‘we scan the pastel drawings to keep the rich details of the image. On this screen, with vibrant colors we can continue adding lines to make the image better’. 

With the help of Huion pen display, creators of this animated short film such as background painters and animators can not only enjoy comfortable and reliable drawing devices but also express their ideas efficiently and realistically, making their works more vivid and appealing.

Huion products have been widely applied in areas such as CG animation, digital film making, ID design, architectural design, etc. Moving forward, Huion will keep developing and introducing more great drawing devices to facilitate artists around the world.