The Clown and the Automaton
Fall 2020
Short shadow animation about a clown and a robot he stumbles upon unexpectedly. For this project, I was asked to explore the “lost films” of filmmaker Georges Méliès, choosing one to reinterpret and bring back to life through a form of shadow animation. With Méliès’ original vision lost, reimagining the narrative of “Gugusse and the Automaton (The Clown and the Automaton)” with nothing but a secondhand description was an interesting challenge.
I produced this film for the class Principles of Animation. With the support of our professor and ZAZ10TS, my classmates and I had the incredible opportunity to present some of our animated films, “The Clown and the Automaton” included, on a billboard in Times Square in December 2020. Seeing our work presented on such a large scale was a breathtaking and inspiring experience!
I produced this film using a lightbox pointed directly at the camera, resulting in high contrast between the paper characters and their background. The physicality of a lightbox encouraged me to play with different materials, including tea and coffee grounds, to achieve different layering and textural effects. The frames were composed in Dragonframe and the final film edited in Adobe Premiere Pro.
I produced this film for the class Principles of Animation. With the support of our professor and ZAZ10TS, my classmates and I had the incredible opportunity to present some of our animated films, “The Clown and the Automaton” included, on a billboard in Times Square in December 2020. Seeing our work presented on such a large scale was a breathtaking and inspiring experience!
I produced this film using a lightbox pointed directly at the camera, resulting in high contrast between the paper characters and their background. The physicality of a lightbox encouraged me to play with different materials, including tea and coffee grounds, to achieve different layering and textural effects. The frames were composed in Dragonframe and the final film edited in Adobe Premiere Pro.
