Selected projects across teaching and research
ROLE: Project Lead, Creative/Art Director, Animation Supervisor & Mentor.
CREDITS: This Industry Belonging Project was conceived and professionally supported by RMIT Animation lecturers Rebecca Hayes, Laura Eldar and Helen Dickson. A full list of student artists/animators involved can be found here.
CLIENT: RMIT University
VIEW ONLINE: The GIF cards are publicly and freely available to use across social media platforms. Find on: gif-cards.net/isonotes/
GIF SHARING CAMPAIGN
Isonotes
Belonging Project: Notes to spread kindness during isolation
Isonotes is a belonging project I created and led while working as an Industry Fellow in the School of Design at RMIT University. It was made in response to face-to-face classes being put on hold during the Covid-19 lockdowns in Melbourne.
This was a voluntary project in which undergraduate students in the RMIT Animation Program collaborated remotely to create ‘GIF cards of positivity’. The goal was to maintain engagement with our students, provide practical animation and industry skills, as well as bringing some positivity and wholesome content to the wider community.
DETAILS
The collaboration involved 25 second and third-year animation students, who created more than 60 ‘GIF cards’ published on a self-contained website and verified GIPHY account. Current combined views on GIPHY surpass 200 million.
STUDIO DESIGN & TEACHING
Challenges Abroad Studio
Brief: In this studio, second-year undergraduate animation students collaborated with NGO partners to tackle important community and public messaging. This studio produced animations to support educational workshops for Primary School children in Battambang, Cambodia. Students worked in teams to create original animations covering topics of social, emotional and physical wellbeing for young children.
In this studio, students were guided through the entire client collaboration and production process, from research, concept, narrative and script development, to visual design, animation production & project management.
ROLE: Studio Lead / Lecturer / Client Liason (with Helen Dickson)
CLIENT: Challenges Abroad & FutureSense
VIEW ONLINE: rmitanimation.net/home/2022cambodia
This was a virtual studio, where the class remotely operated as a production studio developing and producing animation content for the NGO clients.
This studio was developed and delivered as part of the AIM Studio 4 course within the Bachelor of Design (Animation) at RMIT University.
ROLE: Studio co-Author and Lead / Lecturer (with Helen Dickson)
CLIENT: RMIT University
VIDEO CREDIT: Sample project above- Opening Title sequence for ‘Oh The Places You Go’ (fictional TV series adpaption) by Alice Jao, Karl Remo, Emma Mercieca. See a behind-the-scenes production blog here.
VIEW ONLINE: An archive of past studio outputs can be viewed here:
2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015
This studio was developed and is delivered as part of the AIM Studio 5 course within the Bachelor of Design (Animation) at RMIT University.
STUDIO DESIGN & TEACHING
Motion Title Design Studio
Brief: In this studio, third-year undergraduate animation students work in production teams to develop and craft an original opening or closing title sequence for film or TV.
As students are guided through the design process, particular focus is given to typography, design and sound, and its relationship with illustration, animation and motion graphics. Students are encouraged to develop critical and abstract thinking in considering wider themes, contexts and motifs that occur within the chosen narrative.
Previous students have successfully collaborated together using various motion techniques and styles of mutual interest to create unique, rich, and stand-out portfolio pieces.
RESEARCH PROJECT
The Show x VRoom
The Pathway Driven Narrative Machine by Helen Dickson & Rebecca Hayes
This research project was undertaken by Helen Dickson and Rebecca Hayes within the Animation and Games disciplines at RMIT University. With this research we were interested in how linear content, such as animation could be edited and repurposed to be viewed on the eight screens of the VR area.
ABSTRACT
In this project we investigated how animation could be fragmented with the aim to provide viewers with the opportunity to experience and reinterpret a storyline while navigating around a space. “The Show”, is a linear animation, depicting 1940’s circus life, characters and performances. It is set in a world that implies the past — something that speaks of nostalgia and charm. The VRoom (Virtual Room) is a cinema that is a series of eight screens positioned in a 360-degree octagon shape. The audience navigates the space created by the screens to view media.
IMAGE: 8-Channel Animation Installation. Presented at the Interactive Entertainment 2013 Conference, RMIT Design Hub
A demo of this research project was presented by Rebecca Hayes and Helen Dickson at the Interactive Entertainment 2013 Conference, RMIT Design Hub, Melbourne
VIEW ONLINE: View Project on ResearchGate