Samantha is a Linehan Artist Scholar. See her animated film, "Goop!" at URCAD Online starting this Wednesday!  URCAD.umbc.edu

Samantha Papastephanou
Mentor: Corrie Parks, Visual Arts

Abstract:

 Goop! is a fun thirty-second looping exploration of beats, shapes, and colors. The objective of this piece was to capture everything I thought made animation fun to watch: bright and deliberate color palettes, fluid movement, and visual rhythm. I’ve always found pieces of animation paired with music to be incredibly satisfying to watch when done right, and I wanted to try making one myself in the limited amount of time that I had. By creating a looping piece, I’ve made it easier for me to enjoy those key moments where the animation and the music match up perfectly. Not having a theme gave me the freedom to work intuitively and spontaneously with the music, which was chosen before starting the animation so I could carefully plan the visuals. I chose and edited a song titled “Cute Monsters” by Hani Koi because I thought it best complimented my vision of what I wanted my piece to look and sound like. Each frame was drawn by hand in Photoshop, and the limited color palettes were chosen with creating a specific visual effect in mind. Each palette had two “transition” colors that allowed it to connect with the palettes before and after.