Visual Game & Media Design graduation project
Student: Elin Van Bussel
Year: 2025
Ben has taken to his bike in his mission to chase a taste of joy, finding that help may come from unlikely places. Gearshift is a lighthearted animated short inspired by current animation trends blending 2D & 3D, making it a state-of-the-art animation.
Together with my fellow student Beth Fuller, an incredible talented illustrator, we set out to create a 3D non-photorealistic rendered animated short in Blender within 4 months. Inspired by animations like Spiderverse, Arcane & Entergalactic we set out to create a stylised 3D short that blends expressive 2D aesthetics with technical 3D production. This project challenged us to step outside our comfort zones—Beth explored 3D and stylised painting for the first time, while Elin led the technical pipeline in Blender. Working as a dedicated two-person team pushed us creatively and we found huge mutual benefit in the collaboration.
Our project followed a four-phase production pipeline: concept development, pre-production, production, and post-production. We began by shaping the story and visual style, then moved into asset creation, storyboarding, and animatics. Production focused on modeling, rigging, and animation, followed by rendering, sound design, and editing in post-production.
In planning our four-month production timeline for Gearshift, we identified pre-production and asset creation as the most time-intensive phases. This included developing the narrative, concept art, storyboards, and an animatic—alongside extensive 3D modeling of characters, props, and environments. Since we were both relatively new to 3D modeling, we aimed to build an efficient, stylized, and beginner-friendly workflow. On the recommendation of our supervisor, we explored Gravity Sketch, a VR-based modeling tool, to potentially accelerate this process. This exploration led us to formulate a focused research question around optimizing our modeling pipeline.
Elin is a graphic designer, animator, and producer from the Netherlands & Denmark. She’s a multimedia generalist, with additional skills in workflow management, 3D software, UI and Ux. She likes sunsets and British comedy panel game shows.
