Institute of Art Design + Technology Dún Laoghaire
Ireland’s campus for the Creative Industries
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Chris McConnon Espinola 

BA [Hons] Animation

Chris enjoys designing environments and seeing how the characters interact with or exist in the world around them. Developing an environment or a world through researching real-life landscapes is what lead to most of the imagery in his film, as it was based on the symbiotic relationship between termites and their mound. With this project He tried to steer more toward a visual collective of images and create some kind of narrative with those, rather than make up a story for the images to exist with, which was a bit of a challenge, but kept the film flexible and developing all the time.

The opening shot to the film which was one of the harder shots to decide on composition and style because of its simplicity, but informed the overall design of the film because I wanted to keep it true to the original sketches the film was based on.
A shot of the 2.5D tunnel sequence I made that I wanted to have in the film since the beginning, it was a struggle to achieve because they are 2D layers in a 3D space, so I had to make sure it wasn't flat or that the layers would be too obvious.
Another shot based on one of the original sketches for the film, I kept this shot because of the perspective of the termites marching down into the mound with the streaks of light flashing over them.
This was also based on my first sketches and is another main shot in the film, since it kept the style of the film and I could apply it to the rest of the shots without getting too caught up in the details.
I also wanted to experiment with lighting in this film because of how dark everything is, I needed focal points that would be highlighted through light sources coming from outside the mound. The way the light interacted with characters added to the visuals.
Scale was another factor I wanted to play around with to contrast smaller and cramped spaces within the environment, it also gave the opportunity to have multiple parallax shots in the film.
Closeup of one of the termites that live in the mound, showing the mound as a living and breathing organism.
Exploring how the mound would become more alive as the film went on, introducing veins and more fleshy aspects.
One of the shots that helped figure out the style of compositing that I needed for the film, and helped to get the painted/textured alien look of the environment as the scenes progressed.
A closeup of the fleshy sequences in the film, trying to create something recognisable as organic within the mound to add to the unease.
Another image of the ending sequence, using vibrant red and colour contrast to create more tension and discomfort.
Final Year Film

My final year film was inspired by termites and the symbiotic relationship they have with their environment, specifically the mounds they build. The mounds function almost like organs themselves, acting as a pair of lungs powered by temperature changes that move air in and out of its chambers to provide the termites with air. The way termites interact with each other and work together to support the colony and build their environment implies that the mound relies on them, just as they rely on the mound. These thoughts developed into my film, exploring what a living environment dependant on its inhabitants.


An Analysis of the use of Lighting as an Emotional and Narrative Tool in 2D Animated Film

My thesis is about the use of lighting in 2D animated films, and the development of digital technology that allowed lighting to be used in different ways. Lighting in animation has many fundamental uses and enhances emotive as well as narrative qualities because of its flexibility to be crafted and designed for any scene. The thesis explores scenes of emotional and narrative importance in films and analysis how the lighting heightened the emotion and narrative storytelling in its delivery to the audience through the use of design principals such as colour, framing, shape, contrast and exaggeration. Lighting in 2D animation is specifically interesting because it’s not bound to physics as it only exists in a 2D space, and can be manipulated by the animator in any way. As well, the leap from pre-digital to digital technology allowed for lighting to be taken to new extremes for storytelling within animation.

Animation
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