Samsara

A personal exploration of animating cyclical narrative and rebirth.

2023
2D Animation

"Samsara", a personal project titled after the concept common to Dharmic religions and philosophies, is a looping journey through a cycle of creation, destruction, and renewal. This short, textural and visually striking 2D animation leverages the strengths of a variety of motion techniques to tell a cyclical narrative. The animation unfolds through a sequence of symbolic transitions - from a seedling, to a match, to an industrial smokestack, to a cigarette, to a skull, and finally back to the seedling, thus completing the cycle. The project posed an opportunity to experiment with heavy texturing and grain, pronounced and complex movements, and stylistic illustrations.