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I spent the bulk of 2023 working on this music video and it is officially OUT!

It was a really fun and intense process with like 2-3 different animation styles I was messing around with. The music is also AMAZING and I'm glad I got to capture the essence of the audio in a visual format.

Anyway pls check it out this was very fun and cool!!!

Process journal: Part 1 | Part 2

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HEARTBREAK IN HAWAII - PROCESS PT2

Second part to my process journal bc the photos were big in the previous one lol (PT 1 here)

It was really fun to watch this project come together and transform over the course of ideation to critique. SOOO much rapid prototyping and fabricating... Its the first I've ever worked with a compositing-heavy thing and my first real, intentional brush with After Effects and I think I'll be exploring it more and trying to make it feel more organic. I super enjoyed leaning in to the glitchiness and fuzz that comes from green screening and imperfect keying. Definitely a really fascinating experience, even though it did crap out my laptop for the time I worked on it and exporting it was AWFUL. If anyone has any advice for working in aftereffects/premiere in tandem without making exporting impossible I would LOVE to hear it.

below is me on the last day of school pulling an all nighter and regretting my every life choice. The still on my screen is very much the emotion for that moment.

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HEARTBREAK IN HAWAII - PROCESS PT1

thought I'd make a little post with my process images from this project since it was such a fun experience. Thanks to lemontech for being so patient with me and letting me work on their mv!!

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I was even able to export it as a apple pro-res like. Why did this take months.

The music video finally exported!!!!!

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The music video finally exported!!!!!

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I think I’m just spending my days chasing the high of scorching summer noons when the sun was vertical & time halted to a stop. My grandma used to sing to me a verse of a poem called Hạt gạo làng ta (The rice grain of our village), that goes “…những trưa tháng sáu chết cả cá cờ//cua ngoi lên bờ//mẹ em xuống cấy…” (Noon time in June when the sailfish die//the crabs wash up to shore//my mother went to sow rice)

I was a city kid.  I never knew how the fields felt like, how the crabs made holes in the bank, nor how the sailfish die from the heat. I guess I never will.

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Thesis Process Journal - 7.22.23 - Experimentation

So this past year I got very into custom doll making. I’ve gotten obsessed over Dollightful’s channel over on youtube, specifically her heavily modded doll stuff - I love seeing her engineer points of articulation and make these beautiful custom dolls out of it (My favorite is her Aquarian dragon doll). So… at the beginning of this summer I asked my aunt to take me thrifting to buy some cheap dolls to cut apart. I had the sneaking suspicion I could use the techniques to make a stop-motion friendly doll.

I found these Barbies (and one old disney Belle doll I think?) with very little existing articulation. I beheaded them, cleaned up the paint, took off the hair, and then tried to figure out where I wanted articulation. I wanted to try a more ball-jointed approach with a lot of rotational capacity - so I cut one of the dolls at the hips, under the breast, at the upper arm and elbow and at the knee. 

The legs have been proving difficult because they're jointed within the doll rather than in a more easy to access/ workshop way. They’re rubbery and hard to get epoxy putty to cling to because they’re flexible :( They’re also really lacking in hip mobility so I honestly might just end up breaking them off and making them wireframe because by god can I make a good wireframe puppet and they’ll most likely be covered by pants..

I tried making a cup for a ball joint in the midsection between the hips and breast, forming it out of epoxy. However making the ball waist has been impossible? I initially tried making one out of epoxy and now I’m gonna try a wooden bead wrapped in polyurethane foam and see if that flexibility helps anything. All these mods have honestly been doing so far though is fucking up the proportions in a fun and insane way… so I’m treating this as just a functional test so I know what I’m doing with my final, properly proportioned piece. 

I added a coat hanger wire to hook the elastic around to create the ball joint. We'll see how this goes.

I also started thinking about the head - I want moveable eyes and replacement faces to accommodate lip syncing (because I really really love to lip sync). To make the moveable eyes  took the wax on the outside of babybel cheese and spread it over a piece of thick glossy paper, cut a quarter circle out and wrapped it around my eye bead. It moves pretty smoothly but I think the wax will melt under the light (the red also kinda stains the eye bead but eyes do have red on them so I don’t find that to be bad).

I think I’d maybe try a harder thing in placement of the paper since it still kinda squishes around (though my test with an aluminum can material has pretty much failed bc I can't bend it into a cone shape well enough). Or I’ll just wrap it in epoxy and call it a day. I’ll then embed that into a skull backing and build the replacements up front like I did for Dressmaker.

Aesthetically I want to maintain a papery/fibery visual image. I’ve been considering the idea of animation on paper/cell for little cutaways/memory overlays to incorporate that 2D sensibility and maybe make everything a little more collagey? I ended up finding and looking through a bunch of old ass family photos and want to recapture that sort of hazy energy I got while looking at those. I’m not sure though - I kind of desperately wish I was around my peers so I could get some conceptual critiques before the school year started and maybe more ideas with regards to aesthetic and focus. Oh well, It’s a little under a month left before I’m back in Bmore.

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Thesis Process Journal - 7.12.23 - Character designing, concept thoughts

Ok, so I’m back in the States. Hitting that motivation wall I always hit when I’m back in Texas but I will Be Okay. While I’ve been travelling the scrambling for my senior year I’ve been doing little character design sketches to help me visualize what the situation is.

My girl Elia is easily the most developed here and I love her 2D paper concept so far - I’m a little worried about translating her into a 3D puppet so I’m still playing with the visual language a bit. I know I want her to be slumped over and disheveled but I’m scared that I’ll lose a lot of the stylization when I make her real. She wouldn’t be all that different from prior puppets though, and I’m considering going a route that allows for more replaceable parts (ie the arms and legs detached) rather than just going 3D paper puppets. We’ll see though - I don’t have near enough materials or money at the moment to experiment with the things I’d like to experiment with and my current cashflow situation is. A tad bit dire but its fine.

I also started designing the other characters (which I think will be standing paper puppets as opposed to the 3D puppet I want Elia to lean into) I’ll likely use paper fasteners as the joints and lean into the multi-media style that I’ve worked in previously, as well as to just make explicit the isolation and difference Elia feels from her family. 

I’ll definitely be refining these designs as time goes on - maybe make them more busy? Anyway I’ve also been struggling to just get working on things - I think I’ve started to get intimidated by this project as time goes on. I know I tend to over do it in the conceptual stage and then struggle to make it come together so I have to make decisions (ugh) to make this a doable project that I can still be proud of and says something that I actually want to say.

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Yesterday was like portfolio day and I wasn't able to post but I did wanna share some work I've done in the past year that I'm pretty proud of!!

ILLUSTRATION

And my Animation Reel :000

(Sorry I know its long!! It's all the mediums I work in!!)

uhhh check out my portfolio website marissavazhappilly.art for more! or scroll through my blog it has more stuff! I'm a wannabe animator, game designer and writer if you're interested in that sort of thing

Ko-fi - that Disco Jaanu poster is available for print there too if you are interested

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animation practice！

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THE WAY MY JAW HIT THE FUCKING FLOOR

MA’AM? HELLO? SHE IS SO FINE I CANNOT

Rekha for Vogue Arabia July/August 2023 cover

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Someone brought up the lack of scope people have in regards to the 'Animation is Cinema' sentiment. Or, how people who make those tweets or posts always point out the same four American CGI movies.

So, with that in mind, let me offer:

Millennium Actress (2001)

WolfWalkers (2020)

Persepolis (2007)

When the Wind Blows (1986)

Please feel free to add any other strong pieces! Remember, try to aim for animated films that are either traditionally animated or a from foreign (specifically not Disney/Disney-affiliated) studios.

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Devin Kelly, All that wanting, right?

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debra wierenga chiller pansies

kofi

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Certain words can change your brain forever and ever so you do have to be very careful about it.

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constantly thinking about how, as a child, harry wanted to be an entroponaut and a poet. my beautiful man, my babygirl.......

tangentially related, some of the things he says/does in the game make me think he has some college education? stuff like him editing the student communists' essay, and some of the art cop stuff. perhaps he's taken some community college classes, or whatever the french/european equivalent? i wonder if at some point he wanted to be a language arts teacher, but without the proper education, gym was the next best thing....