gracewong/Work/Animation/Witching Hour
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Witching Hour, 2024
Official Selection, 40th Interfilm Berlin – EJECT XXVII: The Long Night of Weird Shorts

Selected by the School of Visual Arts for the BFA Animation Department Highlights of 2024 and the Film Festival Program.

Silver Winner in the General-Student Film Category for the 2025 Collision Awards
Reality blurs, and the horrors of the night take shape. Inspired by my own late-night anxieties, I really wanted to focus on emanating more of a feeling rather than telling a linear story, which allowed me to be truly experimental and step out of my comfort zone.
I started with a concept flowchart, mapping out all my ideas. From what helps me fall asleep to what keeps me up at night. This allowed me to visually explore the emotions tied to each stage and consider how I want to portray them to my audience.
Kitchen background
I wanted the perspective of the backgrounds and objects to be distorted. Simulating an otherworldly/liminal reality experience. I experimented playing with twisting and bending objects where they normally wouldn't. The challenge lay in maintaining perspective rules so that it visually would work cohesively - while carefully and intentionally picking where to break those rules.
Wide shot bedroom
Top view room
Bedroom lamp scene
Wide shot bedroom back view
Animatic
Rough cut
Style frames and exploration
Style frame - sleeping scene
Style frame - falling sketch
Style frame - bathroom scene
Character turnaround sheet
Character exploration sketches
[2026]