Role: Art Direction, Motion Design, Animation, Projection Mapping, Music Composition
Tools: After Effects, Modul8, Ableton Live, Maya, Toon Boom Harmony
Location: Querétaro, Mexico – Bloque Building, June 2024
At the end of each semester, students from the Animation and Digital Art program present three original short films developed throughout the full production pipeline — from concept to final render — using Harmony, Maya, and After Effects.
For the 2024 edition, I wanted the premiere to feel immersive and special, not just a simple QuickTime playback. I designed and animated a complete ident system and projection setup using Modul8, turning the screening into a curated audiovisual experience.
Context
The event took place at Bloque, the new creative hub in Querétaro.
It features:
An L-shaped outdoor LED screen wrapping around the façade, and
A panoramic interior screen spanning the lobby and connecting to the main auditorium.
I created custom looping visuals and idents for these spaces, aligning them with the tone of the students’ films.
Concept
The showcase featured three student shorts, each with its own distinct narrative:
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“Avándaro” — a road-trip through the 1960s hippie movement in Mexico.
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“Sisters” — a story of rivalry and affection between two siblings.
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“Clouds in shape of Clouds” — a poetic father-and-son story set by the sea.
Rather than designing three separate idents, I decided to intertwine all three story worlds — creating short motion vignettes where their visual elements coexisted and interacted symbolically.
Visual Narrative
Ident 1 – The Road Trip
A van drives toward the camera along a desert road. The hippie and the boy from Avándaro ride up front, while the sisters and the fisherman’s son appear in the back seat — all sharing the same frame.
Ident 2 – The Bathroom
Inside the sisters’ bathroom, the bathtub water reflects a floating toy boat from The Fisherman’s Son. Groovy, 60s-style light waves leak through the door as playful music notes drift in.
Ident 3 – The Open Sea
A small boat sails across calm water; clouds form a peace & love symbol referencing Avándaro, while a rubber duck nods back to Sisters.
Process
All animations were produced in After Effects, using:
Puppet-pin rigs for light character motion
Layered parallax and stylized lighting effects
Procedural shape-layer animation for waves, clouds, and textures
While the original artwork and characters were entirely created by the students, I adapted and re-rigged their assets for motion. I designed complementary graphic elements — such as the groovy waves, floors, and clouds — to unify the visual tone across the idents.
The final compositions were rendered as loop-ready sequences and integrated into Modul8 for projection during the event.
I also composed the original music for each ident using Ableton Live and my hardware instruments (Pocket Operator, TR-6S, Arturia MiniFreak), ensuring that sound and motion felt cohesive.
Assets
Rigging
Animated Background
Outcome
The screening became a true celebration — students, families, and faculty experienced their films in an environment that felt professional, immersive, and emotionally resonant.
Even though it wasn’t part of my formal assignment, this project elevated the event’s atmosphere and set a new visual benchmark for future screenings.
Reflections
This project reaffirmed how motion design can transform a simple projection into a shared emotional experience.
It also bridged my dual roles as educator and creative practitioner, celebrating the students’ art while shaping the collective experience around it.