The Pretty Horse and the Ant
A Stop Motion Animation | 2021
The Pretty Horse and the Ant was developed in my bedroom in Melbourne during the last two lockdown periods. My bed doubled as a cardboard station, my floor a cutting station, and my desk as a film set. I shared a small two-bedroom apartment with a roommate, so space was limited. I was working towards my BA Illustration graduate exhibition at the end of the year - without the promise of it going ahead - alongside my other works and assignments. Interestingly, if we hadn’t of experience such tight restrictions during this time, I may never have committed to this project.
The Pretty Horse & the Ant
The tale of an unlikely friendship between two wandering souls.
Stop Motion | 2021
Storyboarding
Developing a storyboard for the animation was essential to understanding the sequence of events. This changed multiple times and allowed me to map out the best visual narrative within my time frame.
I tried to make each frame an artwork within itself. This animation was made alongside a series of illustrations expanding on the tale of The Pretty Horse and I wanted the animation to be very stylised and reflective of these works.
I collaborated with another university student studying music to aid me in producing sound effects and music. At the time of asking for help, I hadn’t even begun animating, so I heavily relied on the storyboards as my way of explaining my vision to him.
Video Stills
In 2018 I enrolled in a BA Fine Art at Griffith University. During my one year of enrolment, I took a photography and animation class which spanned one semester. Our end of semester assignment was to create some sort of 30 second animated loop / stop motion to demonstrate the skills we had acquired. Of course I committed to making a narrative stop motion which required me to learn how to puppet build, design a set, know what desk lamps were the brightest and all the rest that comes with committing to a full scale production with only three weeks to spare . . .
The Pretty Horse & the Pretty Flowers
The original project | 2019
Not all those in search of friendship are met with kindness. . .
Alone and wandering, the Pretty Horse happens upon a bunch of Pretty Flowers. He desperately wishes to make friends and in his haste, plucks one of the flowers from her soil. Of course, the Pretty Horse does not understand that for her to bloom, the flower must forever stay in the ground. Is it the destiny of this skeletal creature to roam the earth unaccompanied?