The Thomas Beale Cipher

Posted January 28th, 2011 / By John Kostrzewski in Animation, Curated, Short Films

Cleverly written and masterfully animated, The Thomas Beale Cipher is a short film created by Andrew Allen that focuses on the true legend of history’s most challenging cipher.

Using beautiful textures, excellent rotoscoping techniques, and crafty lighting; this short film pulls the intrigue and suspense of a World War II era film noir thriller together with a complex and legendary puzzle. This is all, of course, layered on top of a well written and superbly acted story.

The detail doesn’t stop there, however. Woven into the animation are clues.

The film contains 16 hidden messages that hold clues to the characters’ secrets. Eight are fairly easy requiring only a close eye. Six are moderately difficult using various encryption methods. Two are extremely difficult requiring a genius mind to decrypt.

Can you solve the mystery of The Thomas Beale Cipher?

John Kostrzewski is the Editor of Fuel Your Motionography and a freelance motion graphics and visual effects artist, videographer and writer living in Minnesota. He is awesome. Follow him on Twitter at and .