Ceasefire (2024) - Background Art for the Credits

Ceasefire (2024) - Reference sketches of still Background Characters

Ceasefire (2024) is a short animation directed by James Kirkwood and produced by Grace Higgins. The film compares the ‘normal’ lives of a young Palestinian girl, Rawiya, living in the war-torn Gaza, and a young Australian girl, Stephany, who is naturally oblivious to the atrocities taking place. The innocence and comparison of the two young girls intends to spark sympathy in an Australian audience and further humanise the victims of the war.

I worked as the art director on this film and assisted across storyboarding, layouts, visual development, character design, background art, poster illustration and logo design. The work above is a glimpse of my artistic contributions to this film.

I am so grateful to have been able to work on this project with such a great team and beautiful message.

Elephant (2024) - Facial Expression Sheet

Elephant (2024) is a short animation directed by Mia Innocenti and produced by Tenzin Kelly-Hall. This film is a beautiful representation of dementia and the affects it has on the person’s loved ones. The story follows a Mother and Daughter struggling with ‘the elephant in the room’ and navigating a new and difficult situation.

On this project, I worked as a visual development artist. I designed props, animation sheets including action poses and facial expressions for the Daughter, and illustrated two final backgrounds which were used in the film.

Everyone on this project was so amazing to work with and I’m so glad I was able to be apart of it.

The Sandwich Prophecy (2024 - incomplete)

The Sandwich Prophecy is a story idea I created where a knight has spent his whole life attempting to fulfil this grand prophecy of making the ‘prophetic sandwich’, in complete blind faith to the potential power it holds. The story is a comedic and absurdist take on the ‘Dying Earth’ fantasy/sci-fi genre and questions the ‘point’ of existence in a fun and light-hearted way.

The final animation intends to blend a mix of alterative styles including tapestry art and video-game-like mechanics to give it the unique cross over between extreme future and distant past often seen in the ‘dying Earth’ genre.

Shooting Stars (2023)

Shooting Stars (2023) is a very short, personal stop motion animation. I used my crochet skills along with my knowledge of animation to create each asset by hand and bring it all to life! This project was very experimental for me and I went through so many tests in order to fill the vision I had, however it was so much fun to complete.

In The Garden (2023)

In The Garden (2023) is a short multimedia film that explores the unseen ecological world of the forgotten creatures in our backyard. I attempted to imagine, through various textural elements, vibrant colours and small details, how the world would look to a small bug. I don’t think I was able to accurately capture what I had intended to, nor explore the full depth of ecological systems foreign to our own as humans, but the final product is a fun experimentation of animation techniques and multimedia fibre art construction!

Megan Ziarno

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