Moriah Gurevich 2025

Transient Echoes is a 4.5-minute stop motion animated installation piece that demonstrates and dissects how monsters can be used for a better understanding of the human experience, and how monsters can be used as a vessel to represent humanistic qualities, such as hunger, growth, fear, and curiosity. It is an embodiment of my own fears and anxieties, specifically in relation to dreams, nightmares, fears of the unknown, death, and sickness. Invasiveness additionally plays a huge part of the film's narrative functions. Inspired by the natural world, it also ties into environmental harm and destruction. Additionally, although there is death represented in this project which is often viewed as a sad thing, it is represented in a way that is beautiful and peaceful through the fabrication skills and the sound design

Raylee Heiden 2025

Beyond Appearances is an exploration of two subjects, Alie and Stan and the realm of personalities and stories beyond their appearances. This project takes on the appearance of two life size portrait paintings

Yvette Kinyon 2025

Disappearing Stories refers to the unseen impact we have when we lose individuals in our lives and nature. When an animal loses a loved one it impacts them in similar ways we are impacted

Alexandra Lawson Mangum 2025

Pory Roku My main inspiration for my thesis in general is mythology and folklore, more specifically Slavic and Eastern European folklore. I created a 12 month calendar inspired by Slavic myths and folklore as well as Slavic culture and their associations with the seasons rooted in paganism. Each image in the calendar draws influences from different folktales as well as characters like gods, goddesses, mythical creatures, and deities. My family on my mothers side is Ukrainian, Russian, and generally Eastern European, so my personal family history has also informed the subject of my project. I have created 5 copies of the calendar as well as twelve larger posters to display the illustrations. It is an illustration project first, and a design project second, and is a deeply personal project showcasing my interests and love for mythology as well as the pride I feel for my family history and where I come from

Robin Winwood 2025

My project, titled “Philip’s Monster,” is a 40 page separate ended picture book about Philip the mouse, and the monster that follows him throughout his everyday life. The book explores themes of platonic intimacy and the comfort of home, as well as trauma, emotional sensitivity and mental illness. The book is memoir-esque in that Philip’s experience is a direct parallel to my own. The book is largely a reflection of my complicated and difficult feelings around the friendships and losses I experienced as a homeschooled, autistic adolescent growing up in the Pacific Northwest. Philip’s Monster is a retrospective project for me, which gave me space to look back on my childhood, while also serving as a stepping stone into my adult life. Going forward, I plan to pitch this book dummy to publishers and agencies, while using it as a portfolio piece in the meantime

Piper Haswell 2025

Blind Dragonfly is a 2-minute stop-motion animated silent short film. It adapts the story of ‘The Gift of the Magi’ by O Henry, featuring two anthropomorphic bug characters, Scarlett and Iris. Its primary focus was to experiment with non-verbal communication, using the techniques of silent era film and early stop-motion animation to convey this to an audience. The animation follows Scarlett, a crimson marsh glider, as she realizes she forgot about her anniversary. This results in a scramble in order to get her partner, Iris, something memorable to show her care. The film includes 4 stop-motion sets and 2 fully articulated wire puppets. It was animated entirely in the program Dragonframe, using 24fps on 2s. It has animation shot on both down shooters and 3D sets, and all shots are composed based on 4:3 ratio, calling back to silent film. It uses both replacement animation and erasure animation techniques for facial expressions. The film was edited using both Adobe After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro. A score of music was chosen after animation was complete, to emulate an aspect of old silent films. Blind Dragonfly takes inspiration from several places, but primarily early stop-motion animation and silent film. The characters were directly influenced by the film The Cameraman’s Revenge, reflecting in their bug origins, as well as the general imperfectness of early animation, the implied hand of the artist. Its composition also takes a lot from silent films, including the aforementioned aspect ratio and music choices, as well as the use of intertitles. Blind Dragonfly was primarily created as a way to build experience in a variety of stop-motion animation techniques, as well as to become a portfolio piece for character animation

Laura Livingston 2025

Picture a world beyond our own, where the differences between us is what makes us strong- Welcome to the Galaxii! This line of unique and vibrant dolls are ready to accompany children across the farthest reaches their minds can imagine, teaching them that we don’t have to look, sound, or even think alike to form lifelong connections. Each Galaxii member has their own unique build and special characteristics that help them to conquer the unique challenges of their environment and make them special in their own way, and every child can learn to embrace what makes them special alongside their new intergalactic friends in this new journey of friendship! This presentation will explore the creation and ethos behind six unique characters , and how they’ve each been modeled into compelling and interesting doll designs

Albany Case 2025

Through creating a pitch bible for an animated feature film including character designs, backgrounds, and supplemental illustrations, I used the characters of anthropomorphized racehorses to explore themes of male relationships, their nuances, the dynamic shift that defines a romantic or platonic relationship, and to make an authentic and accessible narrative of male-male love. Targeted at general audiences, Off the Bit seeks to bring queer stories to a broader demographic and to remove the stigma of queer stories being only for adults. Following the story of the characters Sterling Silver, Lord Desmond, and Little Red, this work’s focus themes are self-acceptance, finding your own peace, found family, and adjusting to major life changes and how those changes affect the relationships a person has

Blitz the Bearcat on Field

Photograph of Blitz the Bearcat sitting on the football field

Tessa Ernsperger 2025

A 4 minute 2D animated short film about a little ghost with agoraphobia who gets locked out of the house he haunts, and then goes on an amazing adventure all over town when he finds a rainbow umbrella. Music by Matthew J Webster and has been used with his permission. The film opens with a little ghost staring out a window with disinterest. He then begins to fly around his house, dancing with loops and twirls. Until he accidently flies out the door, which closes behind him with a slam. He's locked outside! Soon it begins to rain, and so he decides to find shelter elsewhere. After a while, the rain begins to go away, and that's when he spots a rainbow umbrella sitting on the sidewalk near him. He flies over to investigate, and when he lifts it up to inspect the object, the wind suddenly picks up! And off he goes! He begins to fly all over town, over the trees, buildings, and fountains! He is so scared, and all he wants is to go back home. Suddenly he shoots high up into the clouds and opens his eyes to see a marvelous sunset just before him. His eyes widen, and he smiles, knowing finally that he is right where he needs to be