My name is Chris McConnon Espinola, and I am an Irish animator and artist. My work in animation primarily focuses on visual development and environmental design, but I am also active in other areas of the pipeline, such as compositing, sound design, and directing. I mainly use Clip Studio Paint for animating and illustrating my concepts, as well as Adobe After-Effects for compositing, and Adobe Premiere Pro for editing and sound. Most of my inspiration comes from nature and animal documentaries, which is where the idea for my graduate film began. My film is an experimental animation based on the symbiotic relationship between termites and their mound, where the mound is as dependent on the termites as they are on it. It is an abstracted take on how the environment is as alive as its inhabitants, where termite mounds are often described as 'super-organisms' and almost function as a pair of lungs. As the audience are taken deeper into the environment, the intensity and anxiety grow as as the mound begins to breath and reveal a life beyond it's hosts.
