MIKE

This project was developed during my senior year (12th grade) for the Multimedia course and involved creating a stop-motion short film.

The challenge lay in physically constructing all the animation elements—characters, sets, and props—using real-world materials. We created two characters and a complete set, planning the entire sequence of events via a storyboard. The story follows a man watching television at home who sees a news report about an invading monster named MIKE. He turns off the TV and falls asleep on the sofa. He wakes up to the sound of a break-in: it is MIKE entering. They sit side by side, look at each other, and MIKE begins to devour the man's face—causing him to lose his eyes. MIKE changes seats; the man protests; MIKE takes offense and kicks him out of the house. Afterward, MIKE sits on the sofa as if nothing had happened, turns on the television, and the story ends. It is a short stop-motion comedy film. The animation process involved capturing photos pose by pose, moving the characters and objects by mere millimeters between each shot. In total, hundreds of images were compiled in Adobe Premiere Pro, where we adjusted the pacing and added sound effects, music, and dialogue.

This project allowed me to explore a traditional animation technique while developing skills in set construction, narrative planning, patience, and precision in frame-by-frame movement.