Melted

A macabre girl laments about the inevitability of death after seeing a melting cartoon character popsicle.

"Melted" is my senior thesis film completed at Ringling College of Art and Design. I’ve described “Melted” as the film I have wanted to make since I was a kid. It shows that even an adorable, innocent little girl might have secret anxieties she’s dealing with inside. It is a love letter to everything I’m a fan of- horror movies, stop motion, trippy animation, the color pink, ice cream, poetry, and more. 

Before I started the film, I’d never used After Effects or simulated a girl’s face melting off in Maya. I was warned about how difficult the effects would be, but I believed in my ability to problem solve. Solving those creative problems was actually one of my favorite parts of working on the film. I wasn’t sure if the faculty would approve some of my stranger decisions, like adding a stop motion animated shot or making a giant mascot head out of plaster then shooting live action footage of me wearing it outside my sister’s house. However, they have been so supportive and I am so grateful to my amazing professors.

I completed the designs and animatic of the film during my junior year at Ringling.

The various effects were a fun challenge. These liquid simulations were made with bifrost and nparticles in Maya.

This shot was done by colliding the rigs with the ground in Maya to squish them. Then I took the renders into After Effects and used the liquify tool to add the extra goopiness I was looking for.

The melting popsicle face was done by creating an animated texture in After Effects, exporting it into a series of JPEGs, then connecting an animated texture to a slider. That way, I could control how much and how fast the face melted in Maya.

I created the background of this shot using a macro lense to film real ice cream melting. I changed the colors in After Effects then used Nuke to composite the footage into the background. 

I had a lot of fun making this film and I hope you enjoy it!