Collaborative Animation Production

Jurassic Joyride is a collaborative animated short developed through Clemson University’s Digital Production Arts program. The project brought students and faculty together across visual development, animation, modeling, environment design, and production to create a hybrid animated film combining 2D characters with 3D environments and assets.

My work on the project as Faculty Advisor centered on visual development and helping translate early ideas into production-ready designs while supporting students as those designs moved through a collaborative animation pipeline.

FROM CONCEPT TO PRODUCTION

Large collaborative projects give students the opportunity to experience how an idea changes as it moves from initial exploration into production. Rather than treating concept art as an isolated exercise, Jurassic Joyride required visual decisions to support modeling, animation, environment development, and the needs of the finished film.

Early drawings established the visual language of the world while providing other members of the production team with information they could interpret, refine, and carry forward.

DESIGNING THE RV

The RV began as a student-designed production asset that established the vehicle’s transformation from recreational vehicle to spacecraft. As the project developed, I revisited the design to better align it with the visual direction of the film. The original concept had a more industrial, military character, while the story called for something warmer and more approachable, a vehicle that still felt like a family vacation RV even after transforming for space travel. My redesign retained the core concept while softening the silhouette, adjusting the proportions, and introducing retro recreational details that better supported the tone of the film. The revised design was then modeled by David Miller and carried forward into the final production.

BUILDING THE WORLD

Jurassic Joyride required a visual world that could move from a prehistoric savannah to the far reaches of space while maintaining a cohesive visual language. I developed the layout drawings for key environments, establishing composition, depth, scale, and staging for the production team to build upon. For the panoramic savannah sequence shown here, Gabi Delo developed my layout into the final painted background, carrying the established structure into the finished environment.

The world-building extended beyond Earth as the story followed the RV into space. Stephanie Schulze designed and created the planets used throughout these sequences, expanding the project’s visual vocabulary into a larger stylized universe. Together, the layouts, painted environments, planetary assets, 2D characters, and 3D elements created the hybrid production world of Jurassic Joyride.

FROM ASSETS TO FINAL FRAMES

Jurassic Joyride brought together 2D character animation, painted environments, and 3D modeled assets within a unified visual world. The RV interior provided a fully dimensional environment for Caveboy’s performance, while the exterior sequences integrated the 3D vehicle with illustrated backgrounds and effects. As the story moves from the prehistoric landscape into increasingly unexpected environments, these different production approaches had to remain visually cohesive from shot to shot.

The completed film became an exercise in coordinating character animation, environment design, modeling, lighting, compositing, and effects across a collaborative production pipeline. I contributed throughout that process, including approximately one quarter of the film’s character animation, while helping guide the project from its early visual development through final production.

FROM CLASSROOM TO SCREEN

The finished project represents more than a collection of individual assignments. It demonstrates what can happen when students bring specialized skills into a shared production and learn to solve creative problems collaboratively.

For me, projects such as Jurassic Joyride extend the classroom into a working production environment. Students are not simply completing exercises; they are learning how their individual contributions become part of something larger.

Watch the complete film on Vimeo →

FESTIVAL RECOGNITION

The completed film went on to receive recognition through film festivals and showcases, extending the project beyond the classroom and providing students with an opportunity to see their collaborative work presented to outside audiences.

COLLABORATIVE PRODUCTION AS PEDAGOGY

Jurassic Joyride was structured as more than a class assignment. Students worked within a collaborative production environment in which individual contributions became part of a larger shared work. Character development, visual development, modeling, animation, environment design, and compositing required students to respond not only to faculty direction, but also to the work being produced by their peers.

My role shifted throughout the production, from instructor and mentor to art director, designer, animator, and production collaborator. When necessary, I worked directly alongside students, contributing designs, layouts, animation, and other production work while using those contributions to demonstrate how creative decisions move through a professional pipeline.

This approach allows students to experience something difficult to reproduce through isolated assignments: their creative decisions have consequences for everyone downstream. A design must be usable by the artist who models it. A background must support the animation placed over it. An animated performance must function within the edit. Students learn to communicate, revise, solve problems, accept direction, and take responsibility for work that other artists depend upon.

The finished film matters, but the larger objective is the experience of making it together.