John Martinez

Mentor: Corrie Parks, Visual Arts
Location: Fine Arts Recital Hall | Time: 2:15 – 2:30 p.m.

What You Mean To Me, a 2:15 minute animated short film, is about a hulking, daisy creature that falls in love with a small, daisy flower and his attempt to help it in in order to gain the flower’s love. This piece is a self-portrait, based on my first love. I wanted the style of the film to come off as soft and heartwarming, so I used pastel colors and round shapes to achieve that tone. Animated in Photoshop, I was able to digitally draw everything and puppet the individual parts of the creature and flower so that I could move the parts frame by frame. By composing the music myself, I could match the timing of the visuals to the music, emphasizing the visuals and adding harmony to the whole piece. The decision to not include sound effects was to add more focus on the emotion that the body language of the creature and music create. In the end, the individual pieces of the short film come together to present a relatable, bitter sweet story of love that could not be.

URCAD is April 24th!