The Wingfeather Saga

The background

Our connection with animation pioneer Keith Lango, the producer of Wingfeather, goes back almost 10 years. In 2014, we invited Keith to mentor at ANOMALIA, our training hub for professional 3D animators in Litomyšl. 

At a time when there were hardly any opportunities for 3D animators in Europe, Keith came over to share his expertise and help our first generation of 3D animators take a foothold in the industry.  

In just two weeks, Keith guided a team of 22 animators to create almost 11 minutes of footage for an original short film called Poutník (Pilgrim). And that’s where this great relationship – based on a shared passion for 3D animation – first began.

The challenge

In 2020, Keith received a commission from Shining Isle Productions in Nashville to bring The Wingfeather Saga fantasy novels to life as an animated series. Despite a limited budget, he took on the ambitious task of creating a 200-minute first season. 

The goal was to produce a visually competitive series that would meet the expectations of audiences used to big-budget Hollywood productions. But with only 18 months to complete the task, Keith was under pressure to deliver.

The task

Although Keith had a guarantee to produce the show, he had yet to assemble a creative team. Despite Keith’s extensive connections, he had no time to recruit. Keith first approached David to see if he’d like to be one of the animators on the project. It was at this point that David suggested he might help Keith to cast the net wider. Keith jumped at the opportunity.

Keith had already a production pipeline in place and had assembled supervisors and senior artists, some of whom work for major studios like Pixar, Dreamworks and Blue Sky (Disney). But the real challenge was to put together a creative team of artists, including 3D modellers and animators. Enter 3Bohemians!

• What Keith wanted
  Keith wanted to be in charge of both the creative and technical sides. He was determined to put all his 30 years’ experience into shaping how the final product would look. He knew working with an external studio would have been a big mistake and burned a hole in his pocket.
  And this is where we enter the frame. We offered Keith a top-notch team of skilled animation professionals at a fraction of the cost, while allowing the good folks at Shining Isle to make sure all production elements ran smoothly. A win-win for everyone. 
  In short, we wanted Keith to have free rein. Why? Because we believed in the project. We knew that giving Keith the flexibility to realise his vision was the key to success.
• What Keith didn’t want
  The one thing Keith didn’t want was to work with a studio that insisted on creative control and saw Wingfeather as just another project. Funding had been secured for the first season, but Keith wanted it to run for seven seasons altogether. So he needed an independent team he could rely on.

The art gallery

In 2020, Keith received a commission from Shining Isle Productions in Nashville to bring The Wingfeather Saga fantasy novels to life as an animated series. Despite a limited budget, he took on the ambitious task of creating a 200-minute first season.

• All
• Sketches
• Artworks
• Renders
• Videos

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The result

We shot the first season of Wingfeather between September 2021 and January 2023. In November 2022, we had the honour of attending the world premiere in Nashville along with 2,000 specially invited guests, including investors and fans of the books.

We took on a unique project that went beyond the professional—this was a personal commitment. We went the extra mile for the client, driven by the shared goal of making the project a resounding success.