Martin
Grace
'Wasted Space'
'Wasted Space' is a story by Grace Hawley about intergalactic adventures and exploration of mental health. It follows Beatrice, a troubled dropout from cosmic school, and her alien friends as they bar hop across the galaxy, confronting their inner demons with each new alien culture they encounter. 'Wasted Space' capitalizes on character driven narrative and is designed to be a 3D mini series to highlight the otherworldly colors and textures. While it is primarily intended for comedy, this story explores themes of grief and the complexities of recovery on the characters' journey for healthier coping mechanisms. Grace Hawley and I divided the visual development to create on cohesive pitch packet- below is my portion of the work.
Animatic
As a part of our pitch packet, I boarded a proposed scene for the series in which the character Charb dies. He confides in his friend Dennis that he intends to quit drugs and alcohol in an attempt to clean up his act for his girlfriend Beatrice. After seeking her out on the dance floor, he finds Beatrice cheating on him with their friend Xeran. In a jealous rage, he begins to devolve.
'Fairy Play'
'Fairy Play' is a 3D short film by Freddy Bendekgey that explores queer coding, and how lighting and cinematography can reshape how we relate to queer characters onscreen. In a series of animated vignettes, a wooden toy soldier struggles to dance with the princes and princesses of a porcelain world that was not built for him. As the film progresses, the dollhouse is forgotten until the owner, now older and more realized, gives the soldier a new coat of paint, and places him on a desk where he can dance to his heart’s content. As concept lead for this project, I helped Freddy with costume, prop, and environment design and the subsequent refining of 3D assets. My first sketches of the dollhouse, inspired by Freddy's graduate thesis and collection of visual references, were used for the initial 3D models. In later stages of production I was asked to design dresses for the toy soldier, and give drawovers of 3D assets to help simplify them to be more toy like.
Dollhouse 'Mural' Stickers
As a nod to the stickers that decorate the walls and mirrors of Barbie Dreamhouses, Freddy decided his dollhouse, too, would benefit from such set decoration. These sticker murals both sell the artificial nature of the space, and add add a royal charm to the design without an excess of 3D assets. Inspired by the art of Mary Blair, I painted a castle landscape to be placed on the second level of the courtyard garden and a knight to be placed in the ballroom.
Courtyard Garden
One of the first concept pieces I did was for the garden (the blue watercolor painting pictured above). As the film progressed, the 3D model built using my artwork as inspiration called for some adjustments. To help simplify the space while retaining a certain amount of filigree, I drew this isometric demonstrating how we might find balance between "ornate" and "toy-like"
'Undercamp'
'Undercamp' is a story inspired my old summer camp- with fun, spooky twist. This waterlogged epic follows a group of counselors and campers as the dive below Camp Shadow Nook into Lake Pall in search of missing campers. Unbeknownst to them, the sunken cabins and terrifying creatures they encounter are closely linked to Camp Shadow Nook's tragic past... the lake dwellers, themselves, were once campers until they went down with the camp in a terrible storm and were transformed into the haunting figures they are today.
The lake dwellers built this subaqueous version of Camp Shadow Nook in the depths of Lake Pall from the wreckage of the storm of '72. They now live among the algae, water moccasins, and sunken canoes beneath the cheery camp, never to return to land. Their bodies have adapted to this environment- gills and all.
Cabins far from the banks of the lake were spared by the storm of '73, but everything else was rebuilt. As a result, Camp Shadow Nook is a hodge-podge of old and new wood. Campers are divided into two teams for the summer- Dentro and Limni. They compete in everything from swimming to horseback riding to win points for their teams to hopefully win the cup.
'Little Duck'
"Little Duck" is a personal project about me and my brother. In this project I tried to capture what it means to be a sibling through ducks... in space. This ethereal depiction of family dynamics is accompanied by a recording of a conversation between me and my brother about our relationship. As an environment focused artist, I wanted to challenge myself with the simplicity of this setting. My goal was to keep environmental elements minimal and focus on the emotional qualities of line and color to communicate a feeling rather than a physical space
Animatic
As it is a personal story, my brother and I recorded the voiceover and I boarded along with the audio. This animatic was a challenge due to the lack of action- I had to ensure the stillness was energized while keeping the focus on the dialogue.
'Strahd'
'Stranger Things' is one of my favorite TV shows, so I was eager to use it as inspiration for creature design. 'Strahd' references a Dungeons and Dragons character of the same name. Said DnD character, Strahd Von Zarovich, is a powerful, ancient vampire and master necromancer. Originally introduced in 1983, Strahd is a popular villain described as alluring, attractive, cunning, chilling, and manipulative. His powers include necromancy, charm, and shapeshifting, among others, which all influenced my development of this creature. This creature's primary function is to kill, but without the advantage of brute force, his predatory strategy mirrors aggressive mimicry tactics seen in creatures like Angler Fish. The lure on Strahd’s head triggers something akin to “programmed illusion” in DnD. When prey spots it within a 500ft range victims will see and hear Strahd wants them to, enticing them to approach. These visual and auditory hallucinations are often of loved ones, and are projected onto corpses that Strahd reanimates. Whilst victims are busy interacting with these undead puppets, Strahd strikes with his tail and drains them of their blood through the mosquito-like pricker on the end.