Ella is a woman with short dark hair. In the picture she is wearing a dark cardigan and a white tank top.

Ella Taplin

BA (Hons) Animation
2D Animation

Over the course of the year I was tasked with doing rough 2D animation for my peers' film projects. I mainly specialized in 2D character animation for the films Púca, by Gray Lawless, and Lala Lemur and Fozzy Foosa, directed by Kate Hamilton, as well as Ola Akintemi's Food For Thought.

Drawings of white dogs pulling on an invisible curtain.
Drawings of white dogs pulling on an invisible curtain.
Sketches for key poses for a scene in Púca. I worked closely with visual references to inform the personality and mechanics of the animation, trying to find the balance between the two.
Four drawings of a white dog pulling on a curtain on a grey background.
Four drawings of a white dog pulling on a curtain on a grey background.
Life drawing sketches of a female body in various poses on a beige-white background.
Life drawing sketches of a female body in various poses on a beige-white background.
An assortment of life drawings from the year. Life drawing is incredibly important as an animator; it trains the eye not only to capture form but movement as well.
a drawing of a character with red skin and firey hair in various angles
a drawing of a character with red skin and firey hair in various angles
A turnaround of a character I designed for a collaborative personal project. The challenge of a turnaround is preserving a character's life while also providing clear visuals.
A digital drawing of a gnome with a long beard on a beige canvas.
A digital drawing of a gnome with a long beard on a beige canvas.
Rough character design of my gnome character. I began work on this personal project late in the year, and found it a great break between tasks for my peers' films.
Various sketches of wizardy and gnome like characters on a yellow background.
Various sketches of wizardy and gnome like characters on a yellow background.
Gnome character concept sketches for a personal animation project.
Thesis: The Representation of Food in Delicious in Dungeon and Golden Kamuy

This thesis explores the depiction of food in the manga Delicious in Dungeon and
Golden Kamuy. Both feature food to different extents but with comparable
emphasis. Food is used to enrich story immersion, cultural expression, personality
and symbolism. The food a character is presented with or pictured consuming, and
how they consume it, are depicted very deliberately in both manga to convey
levels of trust, hierarchy, and their role in the story. This thesis will explore scenes
of food-sharing and the lack thereof, and their symbolic implications, the depiction
of meat, butchery and the consumption of meat, both that of animals and humans,
and how culture, role and identity manifest through a character’s food choice, as
well as how characters conform to typical roles within the gurume or gourmet
manga.

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Ella is a woman with short dark hair. In the picture she is wearing a dark cardigan and a white tank top.
Ella Taplin
BA (Hons) Animation

I am a 2D animator and artist from North Dublin. I love to create fun and compelling characters through rich character design and animation, and seeing what kind of stories I can tell with them.

BA (Hons) Animation