The LGBT+ love story was created by David and Bravo for their senior thesis project at Ringling. It started, as all films do, with an idea: a boy's heart pops out his chest and chases down a schoolyard crush. They started pre-production their junior year in January 2016, and at the time, the boy's crush was originally conceived as a girl, but a decision was made very early in development to make the object of his heart's desire a male classmate. David and Bravo both felt a deeply personal connection to the idea."It was very important for both of us," David said. "It resonated with us very personally. We always say to each other that it's the kind of thing we wish we had when we were kids, something positive we wish we could have seen on screen.""The moment that it turned into two boys, I completely changed my emotional response to the film," Bravo added. "When we were trying to write the story of the film, I would hear myself get emotional."From there, the characters of Sherwin and Jonathan were born. Throughout the year-and-a-half-long production on In a Heartbeat, David and Bravo split the work evenly, each taking the lead on animating individual sequences. When it came time to create their character rigs Beth David took control of redheaded Sherwin, while Esteban Bravo focused on Jonathan. "We worked alongside each other all the way, from beginning to end," Bravo said. "It was as collaborative as it could be."
I think they do too, at least a little bit.
Yeah, that's the first thing I noticed, Esteban's hair.
It's interesting, how many people were inspired by this 4 minute 'toon.