curio shop

 

2023 | Personal Short Film

Retired adventurer Arte Fact welcomes guests to his famous Curio Shop. With eccentric items at unbeatable prices, discover this rare gem from another time!

A short film/lost commercial inspired by the game Webkinz, 

seen through the lens of 1980s animation! 

To capture the warmth of classic animation like The Secret of Nimh and  The Rescuers, each background in Arte's Curio Shop was handpainted in gouache for an old-school, analog look.

Color Script

Originally created by Karl Borst, Arte is a rugged adventurer with a laid back attitude. When redesigning him for the short, I leaned into the goofy, has-been aspect of his personality. 

With the help of fellow artist Kosperry, we translated his design into the language of 80's animation - tired eyes, poofy jackets, and deceptively complex hair tufts!

Early explorations

Here's a page of my Arte Fact designs I pitched to Kosperry, the short's character designer.

And here's the final design for Arte by Kosperry! (Art Direction: Daniel Haycox)

Additional character art by Kosperry. (Art Direction: Daniel Haycox)

Arte's Curio Shop was hand-drawn/animated using Blender's Greasepencil function. To track the complex patterns on the Ming Panda Vase, it was animated in 3D alongside the drawings, and traced.

Early thumbnails for dialog phrasing and to plan line of action

Rough Poses

Shot Process

"safe products. quality goods. rare items."

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