Tim Hope’s classic animated short from 1999, The Wolfman, defined a new animation aesthetic and captured a freedom and energy that’s rarely seen even today.

The film began as a short story called Chateau de Death by British comedian, Waen Shepherd, who wrote and recorded the story with Tim in 1994. It then became a live piece of performance art called The Wolfman before Tim finally brought it to video in this piece for the BBC.

I am the wolf man! I have a spaceship made of pure carbon! It can smash through planets!

Aesthetically, The Wolfman, was groundbreaking for it’s time. This was just 3 years after Toy Story and few animators even had the thought of delving into 3D. Yet Tim’s seemingly irreverence for the tools and their limitations brought new life and fluidity to 3D animation just when it desperately needed it. No longer did 3D have to be simple, well-rendered forms—it could be rough, messy, chaotic, and experimental. He combined hand-drawn elements with flat 3D objects to create virtual paper dolls (a precursor to 2.5D animation). Yet most impressive is what he did with movement. He plunged his camera into the action with reckless abandon and threw his characters around like a dog shaking a toy. Suddenly a world that felt fake, static, and stifling seemed real, playful, and within reach. It inspired a new generation of animators (like myself 😉

The Wolfman won a British Animation Award in 2000 and was seen by millions more as a Sony Playstation commercial in 2002 and later on the BBC. Tim has since gone on to do commercial and music video work for Passion Pictures including Coldplay, REM, and even the title sequence for the short-lived Jerry Seinfeld side project, The Marriage Ref.