MADE BY CREATORS · LIVE ON VEYRMADE BY CREATORS · LIVE ON VEYR
Film
Michael Berardini taught himself Blender and used 2D animation inside a 3D environment to turn the anxieties of early parenthood into a disturbing short film.
Michael Berardini's animated horror short Monitor was made without generative AI. Its striking illustrated look comes from hand-drawn 2D characters animated inside a three-dimensional environment built with Blender.
The arrival of a child can turn an ordinary sound in the night into something frightening.
A cough, a silence or an unexpected noise from the baby monitor becomes a reason to imagine the worst.
Animator and director Michael Berardini builds Monitor around that familiar anxiety.
The short combines illustrated 2D characters with dimensional camera movement and environments, giving its horror imagery the feeling of a moving drawing.
Berardini began the project as a storyboarding exercise. As he developed the house and camera setups, the project grew into a full animated short.
He taught himself Blender and used its Grease Pencil tools to draw characters directly into the environments.
Composer Batu Sener and sound designer Jérémy Ben Ammar helped shape the film's unsettling atmosphere.
Monitor opened the 2026 Annecy animation festival and qualified for Academy Award consideration through a theatrical screening initiative in Fort Worth.
At a time when generative video tools promise to shorten production schedules, Monitor offers a different creative story.
Berardini chose to learn a demanding process because the process itself mattered to the film he wanted to make.
The result combines hand-drawn expression with the depth and camera freedom of a 3D scene.
That doesn't make traditional animation better or AI animation worse. It shows how strongly a distinctive artistic result can depend on the choices and skills of its creator.
The anxieties of becoming a parent.
2D illustrated characters inside 3D environments.
Blender, Grease Pencil and conventional animation.
Annecy opening screening and Oscar qualification.
No generative AI used.
Berardini describes teaching himself Blender and finding a way to draw characters directly into his 3D sets.
Source excerpt
New AI tools are giving filmmakers more ways to tell stories.
Monitor is a reminder that learning a new craft is another way to expand what's possible.
A creator's vision remains the important part, whichever tools they choose.
None. Creator explicitly says Monitor was made without generative AI. Owner-approved one-off exception to VEYR's AI-only editorial scope.
