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Art Station Challenge submsission

Mood Board

Treasure Planet (2003): Disney

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Dark Souls 3 (2016): From Software

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Jouney (2012): Thatgamecomany,Inc./Santa Monica Studios

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Halo 4 (2012): 343 Industries

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Full Submission on ArtStation

Senior Thesis project

Project Title:

The End of What Used to Be

My thesis project,"The End of What Used to Be," is a short story of two elemental spirits in love but forever doomed to remain apart. The story is structured in the vein of creation myths providing the origins of natural phenomena. Much of mythology would usually anthropomorphize natural forces and involve them in very human conflicts causing said phenomena. The two spirits involved in my story are the Moon and the Earth. At one time in the distant past, these spirits were one, but a catastrophic event (Impact theory: a dwarf planet colliding with Earth causing the formation of our moon) breaks them apart. As a result, the Earth and Moon are caught in a desperate struggle to return to one another. In response, the Earth lashes out using violent volcanic eruptions to bridge the divide between them.Unfortunately, they are doomed to be apart as the distance separating them is too far to cross. While not explicitly accurate to the real forces behind the natural phenomena, like myths of old, the story incidentally describes very accurately a facet of the human condition.

This story is a deeply personal one. The story involves a love not compromised by incompatibility but rather circumstance, a love that could've been but was condemned by unseen forces. It's a story tied inextricably to the personal story of the first person I ever came to love romantically. I use this piece not only as a therapeutic outlet to describe these intangible feelings using allegory, but also as an outlet for anyone sharing these feelings to know that unlike these spirits, they are not alone.

Exhibition Proposal

Pre-Production

This project uses several different animation techniques including hand drawn animation and keyframing in After Effects. In order to realize the story I had in mind, I went about doing research on similar topics and media

Mood Board

Disney

Fantasia (1940): Night on Bald Mountain

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Fantasia 2000: The Firebird

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Any 2d animator worth their salt has at one point studied Disney animation. Even if they haven't studied it consciously, virtually everyone from my generation all the way back to my grandparent's generation have grown up with Disney films. Out of their massive catalog of films, I was most drawn to the shorts from Disney's more experimental films: Fantasia and Fantasia 2000. Both pair interpreted animation with classical music to create beautiful imagery ranging from the comical to the dramatic. Two of the best shorts featured are the closing pieces to each film. Night on Bald Mountain + Ave Maria complement each other illustrating the struggle between the profane and the sacred. The Fire Bird was inspired by nature's response to the eruption of Mount St. Helens. Both anthropomorphize nature in a way that seemed optimal to be used as inspiration, but also distinct enough that I wasn't directly copying them. However, the aspect of using imagery to complement music became a part of my piece due to the inspiration I gained from these works.

Paintings of Pele the Volcano Goddess by Herb Kawainui Kāne

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Growing up as Half Pacific-Islander (or as my islander mother affectionately called me a mutt) , I was inundated with media relating this culture. One of the most prolific artists from this world was Herb Kawainui Kāne. I had always grown up with these images, but only after researching him did I realize how much of the paintings I grew up with were ascribed to him. His portrayal of the Volcano Goddess Pele, along with several other deities, had such a profound impact on my childhood without me realizing they all came from one artist. His surreal style has deeply influenced both my style as well as my artistic taste.

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In response to all this inspiration, I created a style frame that I would use as reference for the tone, the color palette, and the intended aesthetic of the piece.

Backgrounds

I set about creating backgrounds for my piece using Photoshop.

I then went about doing any scenes I could accomplish without using hand drawn animation as the would take a little more time to plan and execute.

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