«Collapse”—a short animated film about creative burnout and the fight against fear.

Main Information About the Cartoon

Logline

A prolonged creative block prevents the artist from finishing a poster commission for a festival. In search of inspiration, she attends an upcoming fair and finds herself in a tent of fear, where she must confront the nightmares that have long plagued her.

Target Audience: 16+
Format: Short animated film
Preliminary Runtime: 4 minutes
Genre: Drama with thriller elements
Execution Technique: 3D graphics

Moodboards

Animatic

Characters

Main character

Joy is a talented but insecure artist who is accustomed to being too critical of her own work.

Secondary characters

The Boss is the host and organizer of the festival, who commissioned the poster. He wants as many people as possible to come see his project, making him perpetually dissatisfied and demanding.

The Distorted Boss is the embodiment of all of Joy’s fears in one figure.

Minions are small workers, busy all day setting up festival tents and hauling props. They are frantic, slightly comical, but very responsible.

Locations

In the dollhouse-styled world of «Collapse, ” the space serves as a reflection of the protagonist’s inner state. Joy’s story begins inside her workshop, which resembles a cramped coffin. The festival grounds function as a junction between the character’s inner and outer worlds. By entering one of the tents, Joy finds herself in an abstract environment that embodies all the fears she must overcome.

Team

Anya Kirina — the lead and heart of the project; a 3D Character Artist capable of bringing any hero to life.

Polina Kuznetsova — Concept Artist and Screenwriter, a master of visual imagery and narrative, thanks to whom the world gained form and color.

Anya Konchits — VFX Artist and Procedural Modeling Specialist; the master of magic, smoke, particles, and everything that makes a scene exponentially more spectacular.

Masha Statsenko — Concept Artist and Modeler, the team’s versatile powerhouse, capable of taking an idea from initial sketches to a fully realized 3D object.

Sasha Golovach — Screenwriter and Modeler, a bridge between story and visuals, who constructs a world both in terms of ideas and narrative, and in three-dimensional space.

PERSONAL CONTRIBUTION

Character Sculpting