Project · Design, Direction, Modeling, Compositing · Documentary · 3D · Houdini, Maya, After Effects

Lincoln's Dilemma

Four animated sequences for Lincoln's Dilemma, an Apple TV+ documentary series about Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War.

Archival photographs of a house, a soldier before a flag, and a military camp on white.
Archive photograph reference.

Studio AKA created illustrations and animated sequences for Lincoln's Dilemma, a four-part documentary series from Kunhardt Films for Apple TV+, based on David S. Reynolds' book Abe. The segments appear in each hour-long episode and retell moments from Lincoln's Civil War years, rooted in the available photographic evidence and kept in a stylized, memory-like look.

I was one of three animation directors, alongside Steve Small and Marcus Armitage, and designed and directed four of the dozen animated films.

Montage

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Stills

  • A steam locomotive with a glowing headlamp bears down on the camera beneath a huge plume of smoke.
  • Lincoln stands on a draped platform above a vast crowd, with a Union flag overhead.
  • Close-up of a soldier sighting along a rifle barrel, the muzzle blurred in the foreground.
  • A lone rider gallops across a flat shoreline toward a glowing horizon.
  • Lincoln, in profile at right, faces a group of men standing in pale mist.
  • A boat carrying figures crosses a misty lake while a man crouches at the water's edge.
  • Lincoln stands on the rear platform of a train as a crowd gathers at a brick station.
  • A soldier with a bayoneted rifle crouches behind a tree on a smoky hillside.
  • Lincoln sits beside a train window with his reflection ghosted in the glass.
  • Lincoln stands in silhouette reading a paper by a bright window in a lamp-lit study.
  • A steam train and carriage travel beside a still lake, smoke drifting overhead.
  • Lincoln in a top hat walks toward the steps of a draped platform as onlookers watch.

Design

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  • Four Union soldiers stand in a row, layered into a dark backlit photographic study.
  • A hand holds a revolver over handwriting dated 1863 in a negative-style photographic collage.
  • A steam locomotive hung with flags looms out of mist, its headlamp glaring.
  • A steam train crosses a tall wooden trestle bridge in mist.
  • A bearded soldier with a pack stands before houses and horses on a snowy street, layered into a backlit collage.
  • Title design reading Abe, Part I, Abe's People: Love and Dark Forces, beside a Lincoln portrait.

Early design investigations drew on archive photography, with a backlit lightbox look meant to feel inky. The style did not quite suit the final films, but it set the first direction.

More Stills

  • A rider in a hat gallops past silhouetted trees in dappled light.
  • A Confederate battle flag rises above soldiers advancing through a cornfield.
  • Striped flags on tall poles wave above soldiers among corn stalks.
  • A soldier seen from behind steps forward, a rifle slung across his back, in a smoky forest.
  • Fallen soldiers lie in tall grass across a hazy battlefield.
  • Lincoln in a top hat stands on a rise among men in a misty clearing.
  • A bearded soldier in a kepi looks down, half in shadow, with a rifle at his side.
  • Two soldiers in kepis are glimpsed through dark cornstalks.
  • Lincoln stands alone in a top hat, almost lost in bright mist.

More Design

  • Lincoln stands on a train carriage platform before a silhouetted crowd at a station.
  • Blurred figures and reflections in a train window, with a man in a bow tie at left.
  • A contact sheet of nine film frames showing soldiers, a rider, and cornfield scenes.

More on Studio AKA's website.

Credits

Client
Apple TV+ • Kunhardt Foundation
Production Company
Kunhardt Films
Series Directors
Barak Goodman • Jacqueline Olive
Based on the Book By
David S. Reynolds
Animation Production
Studio AKA
Animation Directors
Marcus Armitage • Steve Small • Gergely Wootsch
Animation Producer
Nikki Kefford-White
Production Assistant
Lara Salam
Editor
Nic Gill
3D CGI Team Lead
James Gaillard
Production Coordinator
Ren Pesci
Lead Animation/Artwork Coordinators
Janina Putzker • Matthew Armitage
3D Animators
Kim Leow • Ivan Del Rio
Artworkers
Justine Waldie • Martin Oliver • Manshen Lo • Diana Gradinaru
CG Artists & Compositors
Joshua Crew • Will Eagar • Jerome Ferra • Daniel Garnerone • Vincent Husset • Ignatz Johnson-Higham • Adam O'Sullivan Avery

Screenings and awards

Nominee 2023
44th News & Documentary Emmy Awards ↗Outstanding Graphic Design and Art Direction: Documentary

Making Of

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The films follow a straightforward CG workflow. Each segment began as an animatic, laid out in 3D in Maya. Much of the set and effects work was built in Houdini, then brought back into Maya for lighting and rendering, and the images were composited in After Effects.

Without the resources to animate characters, the team made a library of poses that could be applied to different puppets. This carried the battle scenes, and dynamic camera staging balanced the lack of character animation. I did substantial hands-on 3D work in Houdini and Maya across my four segments. I also composited some shots in After Effects, while other artists handled most of the compositing.