Faculty of Art

Experimental Animation

Andria Truong

DOOM CRUSH!!

DOOM CRUSH!! is a 2:15 minute-long mixed-media animated music video exploring unhealthy parasocial bonds in virtual fandom spaces, as well as the struggles and the pent-up rage that can come with being an artist and putting your work out in the world. We wanted to shed a light into these fandom spaces, especially ones involving “idols” that hold real people to unrealistic standards, hence the music video follows Emi and Rina, two young idols breaking free from these restrictions with a physical fight which is meant to be a metaphor for a more internal struggle.

“DOOM CRUSH!! is a 2:15 minute-long mixed-media animated music video exploring unhealthy parasocial bonds in virtual fandom spaces, as well as the struggles and the pent-up rage that can come with being an artist and putting your work out in the world. We wanted to shed a light into these fandom spaces, especially ones involving “idols” that hold real people to unrealistic standards, hence the music video follows Emi and Rina, two young idols breaking free from these restrictions with a physical fight which is meant to be a metaphor for a more internal struggle.This project draws significant inspiration from the J-rock genre and anime, both in music and visuals. We are collaborating with a music producer who has a deep understanding of our approach. Andrew Gosse took inspiration from BABYMETAL, Zutamayo, and various other J-rock and J-metal bands and artists per our request. The name DOOM CRUSH!! was a direct inspiration pulled from Japanese rock bands and Idol groups. We wanted a name that captured the spirit of the song as well as the contrasting themes of cute and violent.As for the visuals, we have studied and have taken inspiration from Studio Trigger’s already highly stylized approach to character design. Because our project will integrate digital 3D and 2D mediums, we have conducted extensive research on past projects like Klaus and Treasure Island, which display a smooth blend of the two. We wanted the project to reflect its heavily anime-inspired nature while also maintaining its individual style. An interesting evolution the work went through as it progressed was the emerging of a grunge feel. This theme made itself more apparent as we started to composite our work, especially after we added in the zombies. As fans of spooky media, we already had some initial ideas on how we wanted the zombies to act; slow, goofy and brainless. In a book by Leon Hunt, Sharon Lockyer, and Milly Williamson titled Screening the Undead : Vampires and Zombies in Film and Television, they mention how some main trait of zombies is their lack of individuality despite being more diverse than other supernatural horror creatures like vampires. This idea of “lack of individuality” worked really well with our concept since one of our main focus points for the theme of this project is fandom spaces. These mostly online spaces are known for being echo chambers that tend to demonize those with unpopular opinions on the media or the celebrities the fandom revolves around. This idea also worked in terms of practicality since we wanted to animate the zombies in 3D, to highlight their detachment from the idols, and rendering plain zombie animations saved us a ton of time.The process of bringing 2D characters together with 3D weapons, 3D zombies and environment has been somewhat tricky. Nalan was working mainly on 2D animation whereas Andria mainly conducted the 3D animation and the composition of the work. We had to be in constant communication to ensure that we were on the same track and that the 2D and 3D assets were being created in accordance to each other.”