The Nebula (2025)

This piece was created as my senior project in college at DePaul University. We were tasked with creating a short animated film over the course of the entire school year. 

Knowing that I’d need a story that I could enjoy working on for months on end, I decided to make my film a small segment of a much larger story I hope to tell someday. 

In order to make the film I used my starship bridge 3D model, which I have posted on my website under the 3D Models and Environments tab.

I did however download and use a preexisting 3D model for the newly added eames chairs. I could have modeled it myself, but I simply didn’t have enough time. That being said, I retextured the model, and modified the arm rests of one of them. The original model for the eames chair can be found here: https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/eames-lounge-chair-0167b0d095a74d6fbadb8720faf4d83a

Everything else in the film was created by me 100%. The story, the voices, the music, the drawings, the sound effects, the visual effects, etc. 

It was an incredibly large undertaking. I started by creating the sound track and voices. The voices were relatively easy, I just wrote a short script and then recorded each voice separately so I could adjust the pitch if necessary. 

I then started work on the music. Unlike others, I like to have the final audio in place before the visuals. For the experimental second half, that’s not much of an issue because it was atonal. It’s for the earlier half where it’s an issue because I needed the dialog and on screen action to mesh with the music, without the music being distracting. 

For the experimental section, I started with various percussion samples to get an underlying rhythm. Then, I played around with an analog synthesizer to get various hisses and screeches. I also brought in a layer of Mellotron 8-Voice Choir with the dry signal removed, so only the reverberations of the wet signal would be heard. Knowing that I’d want lens flares to fly past the screen, I added hisses at relatively consistent intervals but only in the left or right channels. If the sound was on the left, I put the lens flare on the left side of the screen. Then I would do the same for the right hand side. 

For the earlier half, there were two segments. The title screen, and the dialog segment. For the dialog segment I started by recording all the voices. I then used piano and Mellotron strings for the score. It was mostly just the same two chords repeated to avoid distracting from the dialog. For the title screen, I used a shortened version of a piece of music I had written earlier entitled “Compensatory Complexity” where I played around with some instruments in 3/4 time and others in 6/8 time. This track gave the overall film the 1970s vibe that I was hoping for. For that track I used Mellotron strings, Hammond Organ, Moog Synthesizer, Electric Bass Samples, and programmed Drums samples. 

Once I completed the audio I then timed it to my rough storyboards to make an animatic. 

Then I spent a good month animating the swirly title card blobs, and the second half of the film’s experimental vortex/nebula graphics. For these I was inspired by the original title cards for “Doctor Who”. I tried to replicate the howlaround effect used for those in Adobe After Effects. I came close in this project, but I didn’t end up perfecting the howlaround look until after I completed this film. That being said, I think the rougher approximation gives “The Nebula” its own unique feel. After all, this isn’t “Doctor Who”. 

Once that was complete, I started work on any scene that would need hand drawn animation. These took up the bulk of the production time, simply because they required the most amount of manual labor. For these shots I started with 3D static image renders of the bridge environment with the imported chair model. I then drew the characters' rough poses in “TV-Paint”. I then added inbetweens, cleaned up the line art, and then added color. 

Once these were completed, I worked on composite shots with a single character drawing and stars in the background. These shots were fast to create, but took ages to render. I did these in Adobe Photoshop and After Effects. 

Once everything was together, it was time for the finishing touches. I added film grain to the whole thing as well as a couple of extra sound effects. Mainly what I call the “organ whack”. Which was a sample of a Hammond Organ’s tonewheels shifting after being violently shaken around. This sound was historically used by both Keith Emerson and John Lord. I adjusted my sample by duplicating the audio wave, so I could have a version with just the lower harmonics. Turning the whack into a mechanical explosion. I also added heavy reverb and delay to accentuate the pulsating sound of the initial whack. I then took this altered sound effect and used it at two points where titles appear. Once at the very beginning of the film, and once at the very end.

In total, this was the largest project I’ve ever worked on single handedly. I’m incredibly proud of the end result.