As a motion designer in SMASH!, I was approached to create a short character animation for the Japan Film Festival, to be screened at the end of their animated film showing, The Imaginary. The brief required a 30-35 second animation featuring characters illustrated by four different artists. My role included communicating with the artists and the JFF committee, and developing, designing, and animating the characters into a cohesive story.

To complement the film’s tone, I proposed a storybook-inspired concept, with each character appearing in distinct worlds brought to life through warm colours and whimsical scenery. I composed the visuals with a mix of simple graphic assets, royalty-free textures and photography using Photoshop and illustrator. The lighting and colour grading was achieved through Bullet Looks and Optical Flares in After Effects. Some transitions used outsourced film overlays. For character animation, I used a mixture of After Effects with Duik Angela for character rigging.