Client
Coog eSports & UH Student Programming Board
Product
Live Event Loop
Role
Character Animator & Storyboard Artist
Time
June 2023 - Aug 2023
OVERVIEW
Cougarcon is an annual event held at the University of Houston in the fall semester. It is sponsored by the Student Programming Board and hosted by the Coog eSports club, which organizes a multi-club effort to create the event and gather volunteers. The convention is a single-day event, lasting 4-5 hours that students can attend to compete in a cosplay contest, buy from art vendors, compete in video game tournaments/LARPing, network, and more!
Coog eSports approached my club, The Animation Club, in need of marketing materials leading up to and during the event. Our team split the tasks and I assisted with the live event loop, broadcasting to the ballroom’s huge screen and two supplementary screens.
The looping animation is a filler between livestream events (such as the video game tournament(s) or cosplay contest) and was set to repeat and be enjoyed seamlessly throughout the event.
Our sponsor gave us a few conditions when developing the visual branding of the animation deliverables:
✦ Feature the UH Mascot, Shasta the cougar
✦ Comply to UH color usage guidelines
✦ Project must comply with accessibility standards (legibility, attention to contrast)
Our Timeline
Late July 2023
Marketing deliverable is approved and pushed, loop deliverable undergoes critique & approval process
May 2023
Animation Club agrees to produce deliverables
June 2023
Meet with sponsors and discuss vision & scope; get style approved
Late June 2023
Deliberate tasks between members and make out production timeline
Early July 2023
Share progress reports, get corrections from sponsors
August 2023
Loop deliverable is approved and pushed
PROCESS
My pitches
Because our target audience was mainly aimed towards young anime and video gaming enthusiasts of any background, our sponsors wanted to feature UH’s mascot, Shasta the cougar, in some form and fashion in the initial pitch.
For the marketing deliverable, I pitched to feature a diverse student audience interacting with Shasta in a variety of activities planned to be held at Cougarcon 2023.
The red lines denote mostly static features, while the blue denotes highly active, animated pieces.
The client did not have any particular visions for the looping monitor, and left it entirely up to the Animation Club to pitch ideas.
Initially, we contemplated having an intro screen with minimal and msotly atmospheric animations in a more illustrative style, to give the event producers room to list textual event updates for gaming tournaments and food arrivals on the ballroom screen during the event.
Given current trends at the time in the anime community, I pitched cybertech, traditional fantasy Japanese atmosphere, and a generic run loop. My cougar run loop ultimately made it into the final deliverable!
When initially planning to differentiate the two animations for Cougarcon2023, we decided to create one animation to promote as marketing before the event on the Student Center South’s TV screens and the other animation as a graphic to loop during the convention.
The participating Animation Club officers collaborated to create a mood board to present to the event sponsors (SPB), regarding the project’s scope in length, color palette, imagery, motion stylization, and body copy language.
Our motion designer, Denny Vu, created this animated style frame to show the sponsors what the final product could feel like:
Style Frames
The motion designer and I worked together to create style frames to get another round of approval from the sponsors before we began the animation stage.
Cel Animation
For my task, I created a seamless run cycle for the cougar that can transition into a jump. I chose to animate this in cel style, which is similar to most anime.
I utilized handy references of cougars pouncing over rocks, breaking into a run after prey, and hitting the brakes to better research the distribution of weight and how their limbs cycle with one another.
I broke down my progress into four segments:
✦ Roughs
✦ Lineart
✦ Flats
✦ Highlights / Shading
All frames are hand-drawn and animated using vector layers in Clip Studio Paint.
Our team for the looping monitor consisted of three Animation Club officers:
Jana Rowe
Storyboard Artist & Character Animator
Ash Serrano
Storyboard Artist
Denny Vu
Motion Designer & Animator
As the first collaborative project of the Animation Club, we couldn’t be more proud of the outcome! We received great feedback from the event sponsors, other student organizations, and convention attendees. (Yes, I’m the grey one.)
