Brick-a-Brac is the story of Gidgeon and Smidgeon, two feral urban pigeons caught in the wake of modern technology. Following two timeless themes of traditional animation, Brick-a-Brac subtly blends humor with self-inflicted injury in a way sure to appeal to pigeon-lovers and pigeon-loathers alike.

The hand-drawn style is not typical for computer animation. Derived from the usual three-dimensional models, each frame is turned into a pen-and-ink drawing using a customized but completely automatic process. Nothing is actually drawn by hand -- all the liveliness of the lines is encoded in the machine.

Here are a few stages in the animation process:

Cassidy Curtis made the piece in 1995 as an exercise in showing personality through the gesture of an animated line. The scratches and ink-blots are what gives the birds their character, and their emotions (which range from boredom to confusion) are depicted through changes in the way they are drawn.