One of the most significant forms of disrespect toward our animal neighbors is how we exploit several species' submissive natures for involuntary animal testing. I am very passionate about animal rights and care, so I could not pass the opportunity to speak up for the little guys as my senior thesis.
"FREE BEAGLE" is a satirical detergent commercial.
Thank you Chris Felo for your assistance with the sound design, and thank you Professor Kelly Carlton for your insight throughout the making of "FREE BEAGLE"!
SOFTWARES
Adobe Photoshop ; Used for illustrating characters and cel animation.
Adobe After Effects ; Used for keyframe animation, creation of assets, and compositing of assets.
PROCESS
No Characters?!
Free Beagle initially did not include characters! It was supposed to be a collection of vintage-style, eerie animated illustrations with a touch of some good ol' motion graphics transitions. As I was sketching ideas for "Free Beagle", I drew a fun little washing machine with arms and legs to fill in space in my sketchbook, and our first character was born!
I've always loved rubber hose animation, something about stripping the rules of anatomy and slapping a face on every object in sight is very charming to me. Characters are a great way to hook in an audience, and for this piece there is nothing more that I want than for people to listen.
Designing the Washing Machine
Designing the Detergent Bottle
Bringing Characters to Life!
Supporting Characters Ideation
Finding Solutions
Ideation
Personal Connection
As a kid it was my dream to be a veterinarian. I loved animals and my heart ached for the littlest of creatures. I remember crying over ants my parents were getting rid of with pesticides! However, my dream of becoming a veterinarian was shot down when I bit into a cooked chicken leg and blood oozed out... It made me nauseous, and I realized I didn’t have the heart to see the critters I would be taking care of in pain. Around this time, my middle school teacher saw my potential in the arts and I quickly found a new passion and dream: Becoming an artist. With my thesis, I want to fulfill my inner child’s goal of helping animals by creating a PSA with my art.
Execution
I want to create a PSA regarding animal cruelty. However, no one likes to sit through those commercials or PSA videos where they see animals in cruel conditions, or where fingers are being pointed toward the audience for enabling these conditions. To avoid people turning away, my approach is to create a satirical and colorful piece.
Storyboard
Style Frames
Concept
“FREE BEAGLE” will focus on detergents, which are tested on Beagles through the exploitation of their forgiving and docile nature. After being put through inhumane conditions and trials (such as forcing ingestion of mock products through tube feeding), the beagles are killed. This piece will be a fake product commercial of packaging of cleaners (pesticides, detergents, etc), “Clean your life!”. At the end of the commercial, the audience is told it comes with a dead beagle.
