Role | Writer & Director
Silhouette City is an animated short I wrote and directed. It follows the tale of a shadow that accidentally detaches from the boy it belongs to and gets lost navigating the frenetic hustle and bustle of New York City.
To bring the story to life, I combined stop-motion, traditional cel animation, and live-action footage that I shot myself. I fabricated puppets, constructed and illuminated sets, and animated the short entirely on my own. It was an immense learning process, and I loved every minute of making it.
Awards & Screenings:
Winner: First Run Film Festival, Wasserman King Award Second Prize, Best Animation, Best Production Design
Nominee: The National Film Festival for Talented Youth (NFFTY), Jury Award for Best Animation
Nominee: Fusion Film Festival, Best Animation
Official Selection: Brooklyn Film Festival
Official Selection: Buenos Aires International Film Festival
Official Selection: Goa Short Film Festival
Finalist: Los Angeles Animation Festival
Finalist: Deep Focus Film Festival
Role | Creative Lead, Animation Director Client | Yale University
The Yale School of Medicine - Center for Emotional Intelligence invited me back to work with them, this time entrusting me with leading the creative direction for a seven-part animated series that would chronicle the myriad of experiences and emotions behind becoming a parent.
By working intimately with guardians and caretakers of all different backgrounds within the Hartford, CT region, we lovingly put together a set of stories delving into topics like generational trauma to developing an emotional vocabulary. While some pieces were playful and joyous, others were melancholic - dealing with loss and suffering. In the end, each story reflected the unwavering resilience of parents and guardians striving to provide the best for their children and foster growth and compassion in their community. I carry a lot of pride in the work I got to do for this initiative, and I’m so grateful for all the support I was given to bring all these stories to life.
In addition to the scripts and ideation of this series, I was also responsible for all visual components of these pieces — from storyboards through design, animation, and compositing. I hired a small crew of animators and editors; conducted the interviews with the parents; supervised all the voice-recordings and music compositions, and oversaw the entire production process to completion.
This project was under the Hartford Early SEL (Social and Emotional Learning) Initiative which aimed to support underserved communities and families in nurturing skills in emotional intelligence to create healthier learning environments and a greater sense of well-being. Each video was accompanied by an in-person workshop, workbook, and facilitator guide developed by Yale to teach more about the topics presented within each video.
Role | Director ; Narrator Client | Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence
Emotions can profoundly influence the classroom dynamic. I worked with the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence to create this video that unveils the often-overlooked factors that impact student evaluation by teachers.
Pressed by a tight deadline, I decided to embrace simplistic character and background designs to streamline the animation process. I added plenty of texture to create a more warm, hand-drawn look to match the playful tone of the piece.
Role | Creative Lead; Design Client | Rex Real Estate
Rex Real Estate tapped me to explore engaging and playful ways to consolidate their written content about the home-buying process, and gear it towards educating young millennials looking into purchasing their first home.
I led the content development team on the designs and UI of the project. Together we conjured up the eponymous realtor Rex, a charismatic tyrannosaurus tour guide ready to make the journey of home ownership feel less colossal. From there we created a vibrant interactive townscape populated by dino-denizens, each at a different stage of the home-buying process that users can then interact with to learn more about each step as well as the services provided by Rex Real Estate. Unfortunately, our dinosaur world went extinct as the project was shelved, but it was a delight to work on this whimsical project.
Role | Director; Narrator Client | Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence
I was contracted by Yale to create a series about the topic of Mindfulness. In this second part of the series, we follow the struggles of three different teachers and how implementing mindfulness can rectify their dilemmas and make for a better learning environment for their classrooms.
Role | Designer Client | Start Early
I had a wonderful time making these illustrations and visual designs for the Start Early organization and their app Reflectable, an online tool guiding educators through weekly reflective practices to enhance professional growth.
We embraced a whimsical yet restrained color palette to create a more universal look for the characters while setting a calming feel.
Role | Lead Storyboard Artist Agency | The Front
I was the lead storyboard artist for The Game Plan - a live-action series developed by Spotify that is meant to educate and inspire artists to enhance their music careers using Spotify’s platform and analytics tools.
Role | Designer & Animator Client | NBC Universal Kids
At my time at Universal Kids (formerly known as Sprout) I helped design the launch of the brand-new “Ollie and Moon Show” – a delightful children's series following the adventurous exploits of two feline best friends as they explored the world. I also illustrated and designed the social media content for various shows across the network.
Role | Costume Designer & Fabricator Studio | Stoopid Buddy Stoodios
While at Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, I got to create costumes for the 10th Season of Robot Chicken and various other shows developed at the studio.
Role | Director; Narrator Client | Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence
Mindfulness stands as a pivotal factor in developing emotional intelligence, yet conveying this rather abstract concept visually poses a considerable challenge. In close collaboration with researchers from the Yale School of Medicine, I crafted this video that strives to explain mindfulness to educators in an engaging manner. Translating intangible notions like dissociation, open-mindedness, and other concepts into visual metaphors was a challenging yet immensely rewarding task, and I learned so much along the way.
I proposed the incorporation of watercolor-inspired imagery to add a storybook-like quality to the narrative. As viewers followed the journey of the character along the path toward mindfulness, these fluid visuals aimed to mirror the flowing nature of mindfulness practices themselves.
Role | Designer Studio | Hornet Inc.
I cooked up these character designs for a pitch for the client Branston Pickle.
Role | Director ; Narrator Client | Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence
While emotions can seem unruly, the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence innovates methodologies to harness and nurture our emotional capacities. I got to direct this video for their online platform RULER- a social and emotional learning tool empowering K-12 students with invaluable emotional intelligence skills that enrich life within and beyond the classroom.
Crafting a universally appealing visual narrative that resonates across ages and backgrounds was a pivotal objective for this video. My idea was to showcase a series of brief, relatable interactions among diverse community members. By minimizing the backdrop, we directed the viewer's focus solely on the rich tapestry of characters, and stay within means of the tight production deadline.
Role | Story Artist Studio | Hornet Inc.
I was the story artist on this four-part series called Meet the Puffigans for the client Atrovent.
Role | Director; Narrator Client | Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence
It's common to view emotions as simply "good" or "bad" based on whether they feel pleasant or unpleasant. But the truth is, every emotion has its own purpose and helps contribute to our overall well-being. I directed this short video for the online RULER platform developed by Yale University to explore that idea
For the design, we went with a more abstract, minimalist approach. We used a simple 4-color palette inspired by Yale's Mood Meter concept. The pared-down visuals helped streamline the animation process and were intended to strip away preconceptions and present emotions in their purest forms.
A selection of various illustrations I’ve made over the years
Various stop-motion fabrication and live-action production design that I’ve done for my personal work and other independent filmmakers.
Various storyboards I’ve made for different clients and studios tests.
