​Barking Birds Studio is based at AKV St. Joost in Den Bosch. As part of our development, we needed to establish a cohesive work team, sharing responsibilities and delegating tasks. The creation of this studio served as a model to apply and further develop the skills we had learned.

Barking Birds Studio’s personality embodies an aura of experimental 2D animation, mixed media, quirkiness, and humor. During the brainstorming process, we held a meeting between Ender, Stephie, and Iulia to clarify the direction of our brand. Iulia envisioned it as experimental, 2D, and non-narrative, while Ender favored a narrative, character-driven approach. Stephie leaned towards a combination of mixed media and 2D. In the end, we found a way to integrate and harmonize our different ideas into a unified vision. To the right are the logo designs.

The studio consisted of several members: Stephie, Iulia, Ender, Thomas Van Deelen, and Yao Yao. As part of our professional practices, we worked on various animated projects and created concept art for potential future projects. Among these, one special project stood out to me.
For this particular project, we were tasked with developing everything from scratch, with a final animation lasting 35 seconds. The main objective was to present and introduce different artists, showcasing their work at the Playground Festival 2019 in Utrecht, Netherlands. This animation video was an integral part of our assignment.

When creating the storyline, we aimed to develop something fun, cartoonish, and visually engaging—an approach that would humorously and uniquely highlight each artist.
To the left, you can see some contributions from all the participants.

For the character design, we chose to create a woman who is big, strong, and full of personality. She’s covered in tattoos, but with a twist—these tattoos feature the names of the different artists we are showcasing for the Playground Festival. Pretty spicy, right?
As for the color palette, Stephie, as the art director for this project, selected a pastel color scheme for the background. For the main character's skin, she chose shades of red and hot pink, creating a striking contrast. Each scene was colored with pastel gradients, with soft green used for the plant leaves. The soft green was a subtle accent that helped break up the gradients and made the colors pop in each scene. On the right side of the screen, you can see some images that illustrate these choices more clearly.