ANIMATIONS
“Ants”
Recently, I was plagued by an army of carpenter ants that invaded my dorm room. They spawned in the Spring and started crawling into my room through a series of holes in my ceiling. After a long back-and-forth between me, public safety officers, and RISD maintenance, I was finally able to get this issue under control. However, before the exterminators came to rescue me, these ants stayed with me for weeks. They then became a source of unexpected inspiration, leading to this stop motion I very creatively named, "Ants." I aimed to capture the absolute insanity I felt while dealing with these creepy crawlies while exploring one of my favorite forms of animation: stop motion! (See more project development under the PROJECTS link at the top of my page!)
“Friends”
“Friends' is a short, stop-motion animation I created for my design final during my second semester as a freshman at RISD! The assignment was to create any sort of hand-made/non-digital animation, and since I discovered a love for stop motion from an animation course I took during my winter session, I chose paper puppets to portray my story. My subject matter is my original character, Dahlia, a witch who is just looking for some company. She decides to brew up a potion, cast a spell, and bam! Her broom is now her friend. I hope you enjoy and if you want to see more about Dahlia and her universe, please check out my Instagram: @brom.riot.illustrations! (See more project development under the PROJECTS link at the top of my page!)
“Coraline Chapter 9”
'Coraline Chapter 9' is my short animation inspired by a chapter from Neil Gaiman's 'Coraline.' This chapter is about how the main character, Coraline, goes down a trap door to find her hidden parents, but is instead met with the grotesque and deformed Other Father. She tries to convince him that he doesn't have to be evil in order to exist. However, he is confined by the bidding of the Other Mother. This chapter was chilling and inspiring, so I re-imagined how I thought the scene would play out for one of my RISD Assignments. I used paper puppets to experiment with how the two characters would speak with each other, and I focused on making the entire interaction unsettling! As one of my first films to use paper puppetry, I was and still am very proud of how this work turned out! (See more project development under the PROJECTS link at the top of my page!)
“Tricks or Treats”
In honor of the fresh fall season, I was inspired to create something that emulated a simple, cozy aura. “Tricks or Treats” is heavily influenced by my memories of Halloween during the early 2000s, and the nostalgia I get from thinking about that part of my childhood. And since I love magic and whimsy, I decided to include an enchanted treat basket! Happy Spooky Season! As an added bonus: This entire work was originally a flipbook that I decided to film! It’s 50 frames of paper, which I then went over with pencil, liners, gouache, and markers!
“Cat on MTV”
"Cat on MTV" is a short, traditional animation inspired by a challenge to create an animated loop. In this film, I also tested my ability to create transitions, fun movements, and, of course, an interesting and interpretable plot! The story is inspired by the intro to one of my favorite songs, "The Lovecats" by The Cure, and features a house cat left to his own devices after his music-loving owner falls asleep. The cat turns on some MTV and drifts into a world where he can become anything, even a tiger! The work is entirely hand-drawn, pencil on paper!
“Chomp!”
“Chomp!” is one of my early puppet animations that is inspired by my love for Venus flytraps. I see this short as a concept for a larger idea, an animated series about a greenhouse where all of the plants have different personalities. Of course, this Venus flytrap is extremely exaggerated in scale and expression, one of my favorite ways of exploring this medium where anything can be reality!
“Painting Session”
'Painting Session' is a piece that not only depicts the action of painting but is entirely made up of paintings as well! For this project in my first painting course as an illustration major, my assignment was to create a series of paintings. I decided that with a rubric so open, I might as well push past my limits and attempt to make a short animation with my series. The work is 40 frames in total, each hand-drawn on watercolor paper, then painted with gouache, and finally outlined with ink. It was a very tedious, laborious process, but I am extremely proud of how I handled myself under the pressure of an impending deadline as well as other assignments competing for my attention. Most importantly, I am so very proud of how the work itself turned out! It features my original character, Dahlia, painting her wife, Vilda, and of course, she adds a little magic! (See more project development under the PROJECTS link at the top of my page!)
“Give Them What They Want”
“Give Them What They Want” is my stop motion take on the bride of Frankenstein’s monster. In Marry Shelley’s Frankenstein, there is extensive detailing about the largeness of all of the monster’s appendages due to the way the monster’s nerves have to be attached together. In most depictions of Frankenstein, this is very thoughtfully portrayed. However, though I love the very iconic bride of Frankenstein, I do think that this woman would also be huge and abnormal in comparison to the standard petite woman which is often depicted. In coming up with this idea, I thought it would also be fun to animate to an already existing audio as practice for when I start working my way into the animation industry- and who better to use for this audio than the one and only Vincent Price? Horror icons for the win!
“Despina”
“Despina” is my modified base animation inspired by Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities. Within the work, Despina is depicted as a city that is perceived differently by each of its viewers. A sailor may see it as a camel in a desert, while a desert traveler might view the city as a ship. This work is more abstract, as I attempted to depict the infinite possibilities in which this city is composed. The medium I used for this work was gouache because it allowed me to go back and reconfigure each movement to create a straight-ahead animation.
“Dress Up?”
“Dress Up?” is a collaborative project I worked on in which my group members and I attempted to make a pixilation animation. We were inspired by the magic girl games/media we grew up with, so we decided that this would be a great opportunity to create our own game! In the short, our main dress-up girl decides to make her own choices and pick an outfit that best suits her, instead of accepting what the sassy cursor wants! I was responsible for creating the set design, making the cursor and title/closing cards, and compositing the sound effects to go with the music my group selected. I also acted as a director, and I was the behind-the-scenes animator for the cursor’s movements! Overall, this project was amazing to work on, and I was very lucky to have two group members who were as excited as I was to create this project!