Lakshika Udakandage
MFA Digital Animation and Interactive Media, 2017

Project Description:
As humans we have lived with the nature form the earliest times. We have seen and experienced nature and natural phenomenon in in many different ways. In cinema however, the use of natural phenomenon in its natural form is limited in the context of characters. This paper attempts to address that issue of how to use natural phenomenon and their inherent properties to create understandable and distinct characters. The design method introduced in this research includes a development structure that can be generalized for any natural phenomenon character. This paper also contains the documentation of production, results and analysis of the short film ‘SentiencE’ which was made as a proof of concept for the approach proposed in this research.

Festival Screenings & Awards
Los Angeles Independent Film Festival Awards (LAIFA)  |  Best Animation Short, February 2018
Los Angeles Independent Film Festival Awards (LAIFA)  |  Best Original Music Score, February 2018
Top Shorts |  Best Visual Effects, April 2018
Top Shorts |  Best Score,  April 2018
Global Shorts  |  Honorable Mention, March 2018
Athens ANIMFEST (Athens, Greece)  |  Official Selection, 2018
Los Angeles Film Awards  |  Official Selection, 2018
NewFilmmakers  |  New York 2018
Columbus Moving Image Art Review  |  2018
Ohio Shorts  |  2018

Committee Members: 
Maria Palazzi, Alan Price, Vita Berezina-Blackburn