Messy the Maid
Messy the Maid is my Senior Thesis film that I fully directed and wrote myself, and managed a team of 20 people! It follows a klutzy maid in her attempt to complete a simple task: clean one room.
Messy the Maid is a 2D animated short film that pays homage to the UPA-inspired style of early 2000s cartoons. The United Productions of America (UPA), was an animation company that revolutionized the industry by breaking from the norm through their abstract ideas of animation. The style had gained popularity throughout the 90s, ultimately becoming the leading style attributed to 90s and 2000s nostalgia.
Things I did for this project: Art Director, Co-producer, Writer, Storyboarder, Character Designer, Additonal Illustrations, Background Design, Key, In-between, Retake, Clean-up, and Color Animation, and Video Editing.
Exhibition
Another part of my thesis was my exhibition, presenting the film in a gallery.
On top of doing a full animation, I wanted to go the extra mile for my exhibition and attempt to recreate the room Messy messes up. I spraypainted a bunch of fancy-looking frames golden and put stills and production art crooked on the wall. I got a CRT TV to really sell the 90s nostalgia I was trying to replicate for this cartoon. I got my good friend Sam Wilkinson to also create and 3D-print the mouse as a business card holder. And on top of all that, I also made an Art Book to show the process and work that went into making Messy the Maid, which you can learn more about below!
Art Book
So much work happens behind the scenes that just don’t get shown in that 3-minutes. That’s why I collaborated with Jorielle Arlock to create a book that shows all that!
This book is 120 pages long, and provides commentary by me on all the ins and outs that were needed to create Messy the Maid. The creation of the idea, character creation process, environment, storyboarding, audio, backgrounds, animation, and much more!
If you’d like to see the full book, please contact me through email here!