Animation

These animations are sorted by date.

I have animation experience in Adobe Animate, Adobe After Effects, and Blender.

Antarctica Proxima

For my final project in ART179: Experiments in Digital Worldbuilding (Spring 2025), I compared the geography/climate of Antarctica today, and of Antarctica 250 million years in the future. Based on Scotese projection, continental drift will guide the continents back together, into Pangea Proxima, or “the next Pangea”. In the project I explore the vast differences between the frozen continent today, and the diverse landscape of tomorrow.

This video still needs improving, I intend to add subtitles and properly cite Christopher Scotese’s geological work.

A large part of ART179 was learning Blender, which I had never used before. I chose to do the work in “low poly” (the term for using less shapes/geometry) due to my laptops limitations, and my preference for 2D animation. Still, I created 3D assets such as the South Pole and the ferns. The clicking/mouse animation was done in Adobe After Effects, and I narrated the piece myself.

(Un)filter – Senior Thesis

This is the final product of MS190: Senior Seminar in fall of 2024. I originally set out to animate the pilot of Self Destruct, a mini series I had halfway written over summer of 2024. However, the project became unmanageable for the time period. This forced me to pivot, but made me rethink core aspects of my series which will be useful in the long run. This piece is an adaptation of the final scene of the pilot, in which a mother tries to get her daughter to take her medications. The barrier around the daughter distorts the mother’s words, displaying the unreliable narration of mental illness.

The accompanying paper can be found in:

Academic Writing

Backpack – Shot-by-Shot

An experiment with shot-by-shot animation for #inktober 2024

Drawn and animated in Adobe Animate.

Ardenia Jumping

An experiment with the puppeteer tool in Adobe Animate.

The character is Ardenia, the antagonist in my mini series, Self Destruct. Self Destruct is still in progress.

“CLASS REGISTRATION”

This piece was made for the Studio 47 Challenge, in which filmmakers are given prompts to create a short film in 47 hours. I later recycled my work for my MS170 “Digital Cinema: Experimental Animation” final, in late November 2023. The subject matter was inspired by a conversation I had with a professor about student stressors. I mentioned it was a particularly stressful week because the course schedule dropped. “What’s stressful about registration?”

Special thanks to Clara Desmond for providing the prompts and always supporting my art.

Drawn in Adobe Photoshop. Animated in Adobe After Effects. Audio recorded in Adobe Audition. Edited and assembled in Adobe Premiere. Sound effects downloaded from pixabay.com.

“MEDIUM”

This piece was made for MS170 “Digital Cinema: Experimental Animation” on November 9, 2023. When I heard the prompt, “animated documentary”, I winced. As I explore in the piece, I don’t know my medium, but I know I’ve never had any interest in documentary. Unsure what topic to explore, I remembered that the pieces from “Introduction to Video Art” that were best received, were the ones in which I explored a facet of myself. I often find myself toggling between art forms, and that internal struggle finds form here.

Special thanks to Tristan Phipps for audio assistance and for believing wholeheartedly that I have the right to call myself an “artist”.

Drawn in Adobe Photoshop. Animated in Adobe After Effects. Audio recorded in Adobe Audition. Edited and assembled in Adobe Premiere. Sound effects downloaded from pixabay.com.

“A DAY AT THE BEACH”

This piece was made for MS170 “Digital Cinema: Experimental Animation” on October 9, 2023. The prompt for this assignment was “walk cycle”, and rather than a humanoid figure, I opted for evolution’s greatest achievement. As for the plot: the Greeks wish they wrote a story this tragic.

Drawn in Adobe Photoshop. Animated in Adobe After Effects.

“WORM”

This piece was made for MS170 “Digital Cinema: Experimental Animation” on October 3, 2023.

What appears to be a simple 20 second animation, is actually the product of 5 hours of me swearing at my computer.

Plus side: I now know how to morph shapes in Adobe After Effects.