Mother
Animation, Art Direction and Storytelling
A tender, atmospheric short animation created in late 2021, Mother tells the quietly emotional story of a woman navigating the ache of distance—missing her sons who live abroad and may not make it home in time for the festive season.
I led the animation, concept development, and art direction—building a visual language that would evoke both warmth and longing. From the outset, I wanted the environments to feel tactile and lived-in, so the audience could almost feel the textures of the world. I explored mood boards, colour scripts, and compositional sketches to set the tone—leaning on warm, golden lighting and soft diffusion to convey comfort, contrasted by subtle, cooler undertones hinting at absence and distance.
Production Process
The visual world began as a set of key art pieces created in 2022, which laid the foundation for the planet’s mood and tone — a mix of hostile beauty and uneasy calm. From there, I designed and animated the robotic avatars in Cinema 4D, using Octane Render to bring out metallic textures, subtle weathering, and cinematic lighting. Environmental assets were crafted to evoke scale and depth, with layered atmospheric effects that immerse the viewer in a sense of distance and danger.
The animation’s pacing and camera work were built to mirror the characters’ disorientation — slow, deliberate reveals that let the environment loom over them before quick bursts of motion when danger strikes. Every element, from the robots’ design language to the color grading, was developed to serve both the narrative stakes and the storytelling style I aim to bring to future projects.