Drawing Hands

On the animation process behind 'I Lost My Body.'

Grease Pencil animation for I Lost My Body

Happy Thursday! And welcome to our new members since last time. Today’s issue of the Animation Obsessive newsletter focuses on the French film I Lost My Body (2019). Specifically, on the way its creators animated it with free software: Blender.

You might recognize this one. I Lost My Body made waves a few years ago — it got an Oscar nomination and won top awards at Annecy and the Césars. It’s about a severed hand that travels across Paris to find its body. There’s a lot of grit and grime to the way it unfolds: it’s adult animation, with no apologies. The film keeps you invested in its story, though, with its real emotional core.

All of that got people talking when I Lost My Body came out. But, for animation insiders, something else about it was just as exciting: its groundbreaking process.

Using Blender, the film’s team animated in 3D — and then drew over that 3D animation in 2D with the Grease Pencil tool. The final look of I Lost My Body is a hybrid, and it works really well. We aren’t the first to mention this. Still, we wanted to take a bit of a unique trip into the specifics of what the team did and why.

The appeal here isn’t just technical: it’s about how artists solve problems, and how they can use creativity to overcome huge limitations — with fantastic results.

Here we go!