spacemates
A hybrid animated short depicting the struggles one faces when a new “spacemate” joins the galaxy
role: story development, set design, 2D animation, video editing
timeline: February – June 2020
teammates: July Aung, Ethan Olree, Alex Yoo
project purpose: Capstone project
software: Adobe Animate, Premiere Pro, Autodesk Maya
a spacemate?
Spacemates introduces main character Oliver, and his cousin Enoch as new roommates (or is they say in space, “spacemates”). While living with someone new can work out for some, this alien spacemate situation proves otherwise. Oliver has to deal with the struggle of sharing his space in this short animation.
design process
draft 1. animatic
The original story was a bit more complex as it followed Oliver’s journey of finding the perfect “spacemate”. Oliver has high expectations and ends up meeting 4 different aliens during his search only to find that his spacemates aren’t necessarily the problem.
character design + color
planet design
revised storyboard
Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and abrupt shift to an online work environment, the team was unable to incorporate all of the original characters into the plot. Rather than simply getting rid of them, the team and I created a revised script with one character (Enoch) that embodied the traits of all of the original characters.
color script
expressing anger
angry oliver
final anger scene
I chose the anger scene as the 2D scene I would primarily focus on for the final animation. Oliver has a bit of an explosive anger episode after he reaches his breaking point with new spacemate Enoch. Below you will find the final animated scene and a series of angry Olivers (our main character) in a variety of styles.
takeaways
This project was an extremely rewarding experience and was one of the highlights of my time in school. I have always had a passion for animation and storytelling, and this project allowed me to combine my passion for those along with my great team of friends. There were challenges we had to face in order to execute the project on time, but I am still very proud of how it turned out. If I had more time, and if times were more normal during the time of completion, I would work on fine tuning my 2D animation skills (as it was quite fun to learn!).