Quest

Quest is a 1996 German animated short film directed by Tyron Montgomery, written (story) and produced by Thomas Stellmach at the University of Kassel - Art College. After four years of production it won several awards including the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. Supported by the German Federal Film Board and the Cultural Film Fund of the State of Hessian the puppet animation film was shot frame by frame with an ARRI II BV and a self constructed single frame motor. The character was made of brass skeleton, latex foam and sand. Together with the flying paper, the falling stones and the rotating machines the puppet was manipulated and photographed 19,000 times and reviewed only by video control. No digital compositing software was used. Quest is distributed by Thomas Stellmach. It is part of the Animation Show of Shows as well. Story In quest of water, a sand puppet leaves the sand world in which it lives. It wanders through other worlds made of paper, stone and iron, following the sound of dripping water. In the end the sand puppet manages to reach the water... in a very tragic way.