“Beyond” - A Short Film
Beyond is the story of a little hero as he makes a journey from loneliness to finding community. On this journey, he encounters an array of fascinating creatures and environments, always looking to experience the new opportunities in front of him but hindered by his inability to follow where they are heading. Ultimately, his journey leads him to a place of peace and resolve, within a community that he can fully be a part of. Following the archetypal story laid out in books such as Herman Hesse's Siddhartha and Homer's Odyssey, 'Beyond' shows the importance of determination and resolve in finding your own way, and pushing through challenges, darkness, and depression to find a place of peace. For a deeper history and a look behind the scenes at the process of making the short, you can find the full case study here.
I wrote an extensive case study over on the website for Ambient Press, so I will refrain from diving too much into detail here, although I would highly recommend reading about the creation of this short film here. This short was created as a joint creative journey between me and my good friend Jordan Ruiz, a music producer in Los Angeles. We worked closely together on the core ideas, story layout, and animatic before splitting off to tackle our respective tasks. I was in charge of creating everything visual and Jordan, everything sonic. I drew over 500 individual storyboards, created large amounts of concept art, modeled, rigged, lit, animated, composited, and edited the final film. This story is an abstraction of my life over the last five to ten years, a journey through loneliness and depression to find a community. This project is the reason I love the medium of animation so much - it offers a medium to communicate complex emotions in a simple and beautiful way.
On this project, I worked on all visual elements and story creation.
