Horizon

Animator: Nicola Perring | Audio design: Chris Gardiner & Rory Campbell

Nicola Perring

A mermaid swims to meet her girlfriend by the beach to go on a date. Heavily inspired by the old trope of “opposites attract” I wanted to put a new spin on it by having a mermaid, someone who spends most of their life under the sea, falls in love with an angel, someone who spends their whole life in the sky.

Horizon is a story about when the sea meets the sky, something magical happens.

FINAL ANIMATION

PERRING_nicola_ANC230_Horizon.mp4

PROCESS

CONCEPT ART

I wanted to start with a clear divide between above and below the ocean, and the best way was to do a completely different animation style. Using the programs Maya and Mudbox I sculpted a 3D mermaid to animated under the water with the help of some After effects editing. Above the water was 2D animation using Adobe Animate with a mix of puppet animation and hand-drawn. Then it was back into After Effects with a few more editing tricks. The first half of the process began smoothly, and of course, with everything happening and our world turned upside down. There was a hiccup for a few weeks in between the process of Horizon but near the end the passion for this project kept me going, finding smart shortcuts and effective workflows.