Sam Karolenko — While I’ve really enjoyed working in advertising for seven years as an animation generalist, I was never able to properly scratch my itch for storytelling

I decided to pursue an MA in Animation, focusing on pre-production methodologies and narrative structure with an emphasis on utilising software affordances - finally taking the deep dive into storytelling I had always wanted while still being able to pull from my background in software engineering.

Having always been drawn to story-driven action cartoons with fun casts like Avatar: The Last Airbender and Futurama, I used one of my own ideas for an original animated series as a vehicle in which to explore the development of these programs I greatly admire.

My original creation, Red Hands, is currently in a sort of proto-pitch form - there’s still work to be done, but the bones are there and I’m really excited to keep fleshing it out. Featured here is a sampling of character art and designs, an animatic (with a shorter super-cut version), and the current draft of the screenplay for the double-episode pilot.

Additionally, I created an animated short titled Ephemera - some small-scale practice with the various aspects of animation production, as well as an ode to those many weeks of strict lockdown I spent in my 20’x10’ studio flat.