Introduction

When I was in 3rd grade, I made my first stop-motion Play-Doh animation about a fairy. Since then, I’ve developed a love for film and experimenting with different visual styles and video techniques. I love old-fashioned animations that use puppets and hand-made elements because of the physical human presence that digital animations lack. For the creation of my films, I was inspired by childhood imagination, storybook dreamscapes, and my desire to bring those childhood fairytales into the real adult world.

I am inspired by Franz Kafka, David Cronenberg, OK Go Music Videos, Jan Švankmajer, David Lynch, Akira Kurosawa, Tim Burton, Tame Impala Music Videos, Run Wrake, Hyper reality, and Peter Doig

Dragonfly is a hand-painted watercolor animation about a dragonfly who gets captured and packaged in a factory. The end product of the dragonfly is a supplement that enhances the vibrancy of the looks of humans. By showing the inner workings of how products are created, I hope to reveal to us the how nature and labor is exploited by modern consumption and the human touch.

Credits: All aspects of the animation done by me. Music by Tyler Stoner

Method: I hand painted all the watercolors and scanned them and animated them on After Effects. Some of the characters were animated with Character Animator. I did final compositing and color work in Premiere

A mouse is placed in a a sequence of promotion similar to how human workers travel through the corporate ladder. In the mouse’s journey into becoming a manager, he starts out at the lowest position - as a factory worker doing physical labor. After working the most hours, the mouse gets promoted into a control worker where he must surveillance other working mice and spot the slackers. As he gets promoted to the manager, a newer, shinier mouse trap replaces him and becomes his downfall.

Credits: All aspects of the animation done by me. Music by Gabe Whitney

Method: I created my puppet by covering a doll with paper mache clay and sculpting it so it would look like a mouse. I animated everything using stop-motion in front of a green screen and handmade all the props and backgrounds using paper and cardboard. I collaged all the animation elements in After Effects and composited everything in Premiere