Virtual Exhibition

I took some of the visual research, setting inspiration and portfolio guidance from Fall 2023 and Spring 2024 classwork to start developing my revised capstone idea. At first, I developed ideation and sketches for a proposed three-to-four-minute animated short film. The story being adapted was focused on the blossoming friendship between two teenage girls in their Southeastern hometown. However, I did not have much experience with creating longer animations or using the frame-by-frame animation software that would have achieved my preferred visual style. I decided that a series pitch packet proposing the visual style for a longer story would tell my idea better and lay the groundwork for adapting it to a pilot episode in the future as a personal project to tackle. For my pitch packet I planned to develop 10 spec episodes, create four-to-five-character turnaround sheets for my cast, design two interior and two exterior background environments, design incidental props and additional elements and package all of the artwork in multi-page layout software like InDesign. I did research on locations and natural environments of Southeast Georgia such as the Altamaha River, Lewis Island and the Okefenokee Swamp to craft my setting in the Deep South.

For this film I was a co-director, alongside fellow animator Adam Jonshon, and hired by fellow KSU student, Nya Roden (who also served as the director for the short). This film was an experience on learning to work with a team and all the responsibilities that came with it. I had never led a team of animators before, so adapting to the creation of meeting days, assigning work, and scheduling deadlines was a new but welcoming experience. The director, Nya, had written a poem celebrating the creation of Rashida's Law and wanted to spread the joy she felt into an animated format. My main mission was to convey the message that our director wanted to share with the world. That all Moroccan kids, no matter the parent or heritage, are Moroccan and should feel comfortable within themselves. We wanted to portray that love and confidence into a blanket/flag the main characters would receive from their mothers and wear to signify their growing spirit and determination. Afterall, what's more comforting to a child than feeling their mothers love wrapping around them like a blanket.

My experience in the Kennesaw State University MAAD in digital animation program of 2023-2024 has been an unforgettable experience. Through my different classes, I was able to experiment with character animation, cinematic angles, FX animation, and many more elements that ultimately led to the development of my final Capstone project, Precious Fallacies (2024). In this project, I used a 2D frame-by-frame improvisational way of animation to develop my animated music video, which featured my own original song, sang by Maurice Clermont Jr., and an original music composition created by myself as well. The full film is part of a personal project that I am still currently developing, so make sure to check out my social media accounts for more updates on Precious Fallacies! Here, I also provide the demo reel of many works completed throughout my time with KSU. I am very thankful for the guidance and support from Sandee Chamberlain and Craig Brasco, my two greatest mentors throughout this program. Thank you, KSU! 

Little Mouse and the Mysterious Gift is a Christmas themed rock opera animated in paper cut-out silhouette stop-motion animation. The work draws on historical traditions of silhouette and chiyogami animation as well as shadow puppetry and children’s literature. The images were shot in Dragon Frame using canon DSLR cameras, vintage Nikon prime lenses and a variety of commercial and improvised filters. Editing was done in Adobe Premiere Pro. The ten-song series will be available on YouTube in November of this year and the companion picture book is available on Amazon.