ARTIFACTS

1. Opening
2. Act Introductions
3. Line Backdrops
4. Dance Backdrops
5. Reflection

Motion Graphics

Lunar Gala 2025: Elysium

Lunar Gala is a student-run fashion show with thousands of attendees, celebrating a diverse selection of designers interpreting a single theme. In 2025, I led LG’s 7-person motion team, collaborating closely with other creative departments, including print, web, stage, and photo, and this year’s line designers to create a series of animated visuals.

TIMELINE-

10/2024–03/2025

ROLE-

Co-Head of Motion

TEAM-

Isabel Fleck, Emily Lau, Karis Choe, Deeptika Mandha, Silvia Shin, Jeff Ye

SOUND-

Katherine Wang

TOOLS-

Blender, Figma, After Effects, Premiere Pro

CONTEXT

Reimagining Fashion as Motion

This year’s theme was Elysium, which is the paradise Greek heroes go to after they pass. The show’s producers interpreted Elysium closer to the Judeo-Christian idea of Eden, focusing on universal concepts of humanity, ambition, and acceptance.

1. Opening

OPENING

Establishing the Show

The show’s opening has to build hype, intrigue, and establish the story and brand system for the rest of the show’s motion. Here, I focused on establishing the motif of a snake, for the Year of the Snake, and the recurring circle motif, which references the snake’s coil. I directed, built, and edited this sequence.

Music by Katherine Wang.

2. Act Introductions

ACT ANIMATIONS

Emergence, Blossom, Hubris, Embrace

This year, the show was divided into four acts: emergence, blossom, hubris, and embrace. Each focuses on different themes. To introduce the audience to each act, we created animatics to tell the story of the show’s transformation. Members created many of the animated assets for the act animations. I created a handful of the shots, but mostly focused on creative direction, organization, and editing.

Music by Katherine Wang.

3. Line Backdrops

LINE BACKDROPS

Branding Each Line

The core challenge of creating line backdrops is celebrating and complimenting without overshadowing. We collaborated very closely with line designers to ensure cohesion. I personally edited and color graded every line and created three line backdrops. We used the sphere in the center of every line to keep the overall show cohesive.

4. Dance Backdrops

DANCE BACKDROPS

Opening & Closing Out The Show

Two dance groups, Infra and Soul Stylez, performed before the first line and after the final line, respectively. My co-head, Isabel, and I handled creating these backdrops to align with the overall story and come full-circle.

5. Reflection

Reflection

Going into this role, I had minimal experience in 3D software. My entire team was also pretty much new to Blender, so it was an organizational challenge to lead everyone through the many steps of 3D animation. We ran into several challenges, from delayed approval from Producers, to adjusting to music, to last-minute aspect ratio and color changes, to finding computers powerful enough to render. Overall, I’m super happy with how the show turned out, and I cannot thank my team enough.

Special thanks to Katherine and Jeff, our Producers, Ray and Leslie, our Creative Directors, Dylan, who let us abuse four of his fancy computers every day for weeks to allow us to render, Isabel, my incredible Co-Head, and of course, Karis, Emily, Deeptika, Silvia, and Jeff, the greatest-ever motion team.