Character-driven storytelling for animation and games
Concept Art | Storyboarding | Illustration
Savannah College of Art and Design Capstone Film
Role
Art Director & Producer
Year
2023 - 2024
Responsibilities: Visual development, character & prop design, color scripts, style guides, team leadership
Led the visual development and art direction for Kirilo, a narrative-driven animated short film produced as my SCAD capstone. I collaborated closely with the director and production team to design characters, environments, props, and color scripts that supported the emotional arc of the story while maintaining visual consistency across the production pipeline.
Kirilo tells the story of a curious, little blue crab named Kirilo, who prevails over his overwhelming fear of being hunted by a crab hunter, as humans have tortured and captured his family for generations. The film was developed fully in a hybrid format, mixing 3D and 2D animated characters within a three-dimensional space. As a leader in production, it was important to provide a clear direction through the visual design of a style guide and production guidelines.
The first style frame designed by Karla Medina for the film would define the vibrant color palette, paint textures, shape language, and interaction between the background, props, and characters in the film.
Props: What would a crab use to decorate their home? Small trinkets: popular beer caps, conches and seashells, coconuts and leaves.
Carlitos is an infamous Puerto Rican crab hunter from the 1950s. He is determined to acquire the last of the blue crabs against any cost. His designed is highly inspired by Puerto Rican fisherman photographed in the 1950s/1940s, the Hellboy comics and Cory Loftis. To interpret his villanous intentions, his design is highly angular, based on triangular, square and organic shapes.
Style Guide
The Key to success for any creative endeavor is a solid style guide. Our style guide includes everything from character measurements, brush styles, color palettes, visual effects, environment references, and painting processes.
Check out our final film Kirilo!