Project Details
A 2D traditionally animated short film adapted from a Japanese folktale, reframed from self-sacrifice into self-care.
- My role
- Title design · Background painting
- Date
- Sep 2022
- Tools
- Adobe Animate (Flash) Adobe After Effects Procreate
Credits
Team credits
Director
Akira Maynard
Title Design
Amber Guo, Rose Holloway, Wenxin Yan
3D Artists
Sebastien Abou-Chakra, Ju-Linne Koh
Lead Animator
Andrew Mottola, Sammy Liu
Music Design
Paul Zhao
Sound Design + Mix
Klaire Zhang, Megumi Sakamoto, Ken Yakura
Background Artists
Alexa Morales, Brenna Tracy, Brittney Dunams, Cait Jayme, Dasom Choi, Emily Gelinas-Darrall, Jennifer Beam, Mae Honark, Marta Rocholl Hernández, Nina Mallery, Patricia Guerrero, Pavida Changkaew, Rika (Yiwen) Wu, Wenxin Yan, Jennifer Garcia
Character Artists
Anami Hayes, Cait Jayme, Cecilia Mendoza, Grace Zhang, Kory Griggs, Pavida Changkaew, Qingchuan Zhu, Raquel Hetherington, Rielle Vap Ong, Mae Honark, Megumi Takebayashi, Sam Johnson, Sarah Van Ess, Sonika Bagwe, Allison Witzmann, Alvin Chan
Backgrounds I Painted
A selection of the backgrounds I worked on for the film.
Final Backgrounds
Flip through the finished background paintings across the film.
How it was made
Process
Story
Bunny to the Moon adapts a Japanese folktale of self-sacrifice into a story of self-care, told across three acts.
ACT 01: Aurora tends her plum-tree garden as a meteor shower passes. A stray meteor knocks a moon bunny to Earth, and it crashes near her garden. She finds Bunny weak and faintly glowing, takes him home, and feeds him plums; his glow grows.
ACT 02: Healthier, Bunny longs for the moon and asks Aurora for help. His glow spreads to her and they leap together, but not high enough. She feeds Bunny the largest plum from her withering garden, his glow blazes, and she breaks through the atmosphere to land them softly on the moon.
ACT 03: The moon is barren. Bunny wants Aurora to stay, but she chooses to go home. They part in tears; Bunny's kiss makes her glow once more and she leaps back to her garden. Years later, calm and grown, she looks up, sees a bunny-shaped mark on the moon, and smiles.
Storyboard
Boarding the three acts across their scenes.
Color Script
Mapping the film's mood and lighting from scene to scene.
Visual Development
Comps and animation tests exploring the film's look and motion.
Background Music
We collaborated with students from Berklee College of Music, forming a small band to create an original score tailored to the film.
