The animations on this page are personal projects created in adobe animate.
American Dream Series: 1
American Dream Series: 1 – The animated short follows a mysterious skull-headed people, a vulture embodying the harbinger of conflict, and a cascade of eerie, war-like sequences that merge mystical imagery with real-world allusions. This allegorical journey critiques humanity’s pursuit of power and its destructive impact on both society and nature, culminating in a haunting reminder that the consequences of violence and greed linger far beyond the moments of impact in a cyclical nature. A visual feast layered with meaning, this short compels viewers to reflect on the true cost of the ‘American dream.’
I first got access to the Flash Animation program in 2004 and i ended up making several looping style shorts. consisting of scrolling backgrounds and random looped characters, these animations were a fun exploration of the program, but i never managed to make anything that I truly liked. just clunky images with no rhyme or reason, done for the sake of trying out a new medium. From here, these loops sat in my computer until recently when i revisited them for the purpose of giving them a fresh update.
American Dream Series: 1, comes from one of these loops which consisted of several scenes which in total, were a depiction of the chaos that dominated the news at the time; the iraq war. the loop showed several scenes which alluded to the war and other random looped instances. the main scene consisted of a blue background and a jesus-like figure surrounded by praying nuns. This motif-the nun-like figures-carried over into this current version of the animation but now fit the context in a way it hadn’t previously as they now more closely resembled iraqi women in traditional garb. I removed the jesus figure (that version of the animation then became its own animated short titled ‘conjuring of the Yeshua’) and changed the blue skies to a more muddied and dusty color. The addition of the vulture, a character i had added as a filler at first, to signify death, became now a vessel whose path we could follow and that in itself allowed me to introduce what would come in its wake. I didn’t want to delve into outright destruction, but wanted to evoke a feeling of impending doom or at least a sickly embroilment in which danger was all around. The skeleton characters act as the already-dead, at times oblivious to and participants of the destruction.
11/11/2024
-5:37
COMING 2025
FISH HEAD
Screenshot from the animated short: FISH HEAD – coming early 2025
The animated short follows a scavenger as he navigates the abandoned part of the city in search of a high-stakes item.
Screenshot from the original ‘Fish head.’ looks more like an ant-head but for some reason ‘fish’ stuck. 2004
this animation stems from a single 4 second loop of a spaceship as it hovered just inches above the dusty landscape i made back in 2004. this simple background scrolling loop sat in my computer for nearly 16 years until one day i decided to update it by removing the spaceship and replacing it with the hover-bike riding, helmeted character. from there it sat for another 4 years until i recently revisited the animation, extending the loop further by adding background elements the rider could interact with and dodge.
like 99% of the work found here, my approach to art leans heavily on freestyle. i prefer this method to a sketch or rough draft phase, and although it has it’s drawbacks, i find it fascinating to watch the process unfold in front of me in real time and this animation was no exception.
the character obviously had to do more than just float in space while the background scrolled behind him. so I started packing the background and foreground with details. the background palette demanded a toned down washed out feel and that, along with the rust details on the character’s bike, informed that the world itself was decayed or decaying. The speed of the hover bike insinuated urgency and his sparse location meant some sort of abandoned area. if the character was in a rush to get here, he was in a rush to get back, so this meant his world would be populated, but his current location would be abandoned. the story was beginning to write itself.
as a consequence of trial and error at animating his ride, the end result, much to my preference, came out jerky and erratic, almost as if the character was on the verge of losing control of his bike but expertly dodging debris at the last second. due to this, the character exhibited a sense of urgency. Where was he going? The rider swung hard into one of the tunnels and from there i thought about his journey.
The random objects I had placed in the back of his vehicle would now be retconned into tools for his scavenging. I envisioned this erratic ride through a precarious part of the city would hold some type of reward at the end. the reward had to be hard-fought but not life-threatening. I saw this as more of a job or routine for the character.
From here i imagined his ride back, bringing the found item along and the rest-as happens sometimes-wrote itself into a really touching story of human struggle and resilience and the lengths we go for survival. Stay tuned!
11/11/24
-5:37
FISH HEAD the animated short- coming 2025
SEÑOR ALINA
screenshot from the animated short ‘Señor Alina’
The adventures of a flying vagabond.
screenshot of original version of ‘Señor Alina’ – 2004-2008
This one comes from the batch of animations done in 2004. again, the original was a looped animation which consisted of two scenes which showed a cat holding a flying mouse’s children as hostages. in the first version, the mouse circled above the scene in distress, awaiting for the right time to make his rescue.
This version of the animation takes on the same theme, but has now undergone a total transformation. gone are the deep reds and golds of the original, now replaced by a black and white palette, accentuated by muted reds and splashes of neon accents. The style is my nod to old merrie melodie’s animations, complete with crackle and distress of old films.
As of now, the animation has no story behind it besides mr. alina coming to rescue his children. we shall see where this goes. Stay tuned!
11/11/2024
-5:37