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Well, uhh... hey there!

I'm Ben, an artist and filmmaker from LA. Currently a BFA3 Student at CalArts, I’m passionate about animation and coming up with weird pipelines.

My films Gary the Duck, NO DIALOGUE, PAINFUL HICCUPS, and VINTERFINT have been screened at film festivals like the Animation is Film festival and the New York Int’l Children’s Film Festival. NO DIALOGUE and VINTERFINT were selected for the CalArts Producers’ Show in 2023 and 2024 respectively. In my free time I like making music, eductional youtube videos, and coding stuff like this website!

Contact me at [email protected]

My resume

My second year film, about a group of friends trapped at a theme park. Based on a true story (kinda).

While my previous films had all had CG elements, this time I committed to full CG character aniamtion. Something about the nostalgic looseness of the story felt like it would lend itself to a chunky-painterly 3D style.

Storyboards

Falling IKEA furniture. Why is it falling? What does it want? What's really going on here?

I made this film in one week in September 2023. The genesis of it came when my friends and I went to IKEA and we started saying the names of the furniture in a sinister voice. From there I modeled a bunch of furniture in Blender and hit the physics button.

Vinterfint has gone further than I ever imagined it would, being played at the Animation is Film festival and getting a writup in Cartoon Brew. I still can't believe that happened.... what.

My first year film, and a direct prequel to Painful Hiccups. It's about trying to speak but not being able to, and also anxiety. Partially inspired by CalArts' requirement that first year films have no dialogue, and partially inspired by my real actual life.

Caleb Design Exploration

Caleb Design Exploration

Caleb Design Exploration

Early Opening Boards

Animation Process

3D work + compositing

In order to composite the 2D characters into the 3D scene, I had to come with some... interesting... solutions in order to get the shadows to cast properly. I... I hate it, I hate it so much, please make it go away.

Also pictured is a procedural rollercoaster generator I made with Blender's geometry nodes! Wheeeeeeee!!!

I had the pleasure of directing and animating this music video for Greg Blum's song "Gary the Duck." He and I led a team of five people to make the film a reality!

Here's a behind the scenes video put together by Scruffy, who designed Gary's spaceship. Also appearing in the video is Mahra, who painted my bacakground layouts, and my sister Evie, who designed the secondary characters.

Animation + Compositing

Backgrounds

Gary BG 1
Gary BG 2 Gary BG 3
Gary BG 4 Gary BG 5

Upcomming BFA3 Project

Animatic

Shhhhh! Don't tell anyone, but here's the animatic for my upcomming third year film. If you truly must flip through the storyboards, I've provided a pitch deck as well, but the musical rhythm is really integral to this one.