Wading through the world of online animation and character design, it's easy to find decadent cuteness and stream-of-consciousness mayhem, but sometimes difficult to pinpoint a distinctive directorial voice. This past weekend, the best of the best could be found all in one place - at the Pictoplasma NYC 2008 conference, giving insight into their creative process.

One of the most talked about presentations was courtesy of Berlin-based David OReilly, who revealed himself as the director behind YouTube phenomenon Octocat, a series of crudely-animated clips about an eight-legged cat searching for its parents.

In March, the 23-year-old began posting clips on YouTube under the name Randy Peters, a 14-year-old boy from Chicago. The first episode went viral, racking up more than 100,000 views and attracting a devoted fan base that set about creating Octocat artwork and merchandise. Director Dougal Wilson even got in on the action by penning an episode and American cable network G4 profiled the series on its Attack of the Show.

OReilly, who is repped by Colonel Blimp and created the animated sequences for Garth Jennings' film Son of Rambow, says the series is meant to push the boundaries of animation into an unexpected direction. "It was a purely a test and I didn't expect the kind of response it got," he says. "[Octocat] gets way more fan mail than my own website. In a way, I really think it proves that audiences can find the most basic, primitive animation engaging. It doesn't have to be the most polished, slick thing for people to get involved."

Octocat certainly feels like the work of a child. The first four episodes are like a first grader's messy refrigerator artwork come to life, complete with chaotic and sometimes indecipherable sound design. In the fifth episode, OReilly reveals Octocat to be the work of a professional when the animation unexpectedly shifts to 3D for an epic final battle and an unsettled, ambivalent ending that plays like something out of a European art house flick.

"There aren't many people trying out different styles in 3D right now," he continues. "You'd expect that animated student films would be more experimental but they're all really pushing this polished Pixar thing. That's all great, but I just think there's so much variation and so much beauty that you can get from software by doing other things. There's so much room to explore. It would be a disservice to animation to not try to push it a little bit into another direction."

To view Octocat, click here.