Completed in the fall of 2023 over the course of 17 weeks.

Responsible for all modeling, rigging, animation, and rendering shown.

Software used: Autodesk Maya, Substance Painter, Redshift,
Adobe After Effects, and Adobe Premiere

Voices provided by Pip Manymasques

Artist Statement

Misplaced is a 3D animated short film that deals with themes of fear, the building of trust, and hope. The characters present are from a larger story I’ve been working on for several years, and they’ve helped me with strides of personal growth and acceptance. Stories and metaphors are my main methodology of communication and expression, in a way that emphasizes experiences of empathy and unique individualized perception. This animation spotlights on a specifically impactful chapter.

I chose to stick to a slow pace with moments of subtlety and restriction utilized in my work to bring out highlighted details and the thoughtfulness of the characters. Small quirks, habits, or motions are valuable as indicators of internal dialog and subconscious expression. In an extension of my personal tendencies of over-analyzation, the child in my thesis presents very anxious body language, like folding arms, turning his knees away from the center console, and looking out the window to avoid eye contact. These poses also keep to a specific dynamism with the line of action between him and the detective character, who exhibits reliability and safety. 

A love of mysteries and stylization is influenced by the nostalgia of paint-brush textures juxtaposed against a grim, dreary color palette. Video games like Psychonauts (DoubleFine, 2005) and The Wolf Among Us (Telltale, 2013) inspired my work, with heavily stylized visuals combining aspects of painted textures on 3D characters and moody, abstracted environments. These games also influenced the decision to paint the backgrounds entirely. I chose to mix the illustrative painterly grit seen in these works with other noir undertones that juxtapose softer themes of emotional vulnerability and kindness. My character models are stylized in a combination of the influences mentioned above, allowing for sharp abstraction in specific areas like the hair and expressive facial features, but with more subdued cartoon proportions to keep these aspects grounded. An important consideration I took was to balance everything with its opposite, avoiding any one overwhelming majority so that the small details are not overpowered. 

The color palette is limited to neutral browns and cool-toned colors, with pops of red interspersed. The design of the characters revolve around symbols that emphasize the roles they play. Arkady’s design centralizes the iconic detective trench coat, very broad and square shape language, and includes a focal point of red. Marsden’s design is loose and baggy, with worn denim, and green clothing. Aspects of his design were chosen as a connection to the rain outside as an extension of his emotions and to purposefully contrast the structured forms and red points of interest. In this case, Marsden lacks someone to look up to and rely on and finds this in Arkady.