Fungus Among Us: A Collaborative Production

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Fungus Among Us was the project that my Stop Motion II class at MassArt designed together during the spring semester of 2020. Due to COVID-19 complications, the project never made

it past the pre-production phase, but we worked together as a small studio to put together

a cohesive and precisely-timed animatic.  

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Drawing upon the aesthetics of retro-futurism and mid-twentieth-century science fiction films, our class fabricated the tale of intrepid space pirate Captain Scarlett Andromeda. Abandoned by her mutinous crew, Captain Andromeda is marooned on the remote and rotting planet of Amonita. There, she meets the outcast scientist Professor Vulpecula, and

the unlikely duo combines their strengths to outsmart the professor's rogue fungal experiments and escape the planet's toxic surface.  

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Fungus Among Us, our beloved but incomplete faux film trailer, was designed to integrate both analog film techniques as well as the newest technology that our department had to offer. While unable to shoot any final footage, we were able to do multiple camera move

tests using MassArt Animation's Volo motion control system, as well as test the automated

3D capturing feature of Dragonframe.  

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As the head of the pre-production and editing team, I was able to facilitate the synthesizing

of everyone's initial ideas and lead critiques of each iteration of our class animatic. Adapting the goals of our class to remote learning, our team focused on designing shots that took the best advantage of the motion control and the 3D capabilities of the Volo. 

 

I have compiled my strongest contributions to the class animatic in the reel above, and below are some of my favorite design explorations and rough layouts.