analog horror
animation
Date: June 2025
Type: Personal Project
Tools: Blender & Premiere Pro
Role: Modeling, Texturing, Lighting, Animation, Compositing, Art Direction
Style: Stylized
Project Breakdown
Overview
Summary: A stylized 3D animation designed to mimic the unsettling tone of analog horror. The project takes the form of an archived instructional tape from a fictional facility and blends low-fidelity textures, eerie pacing, glitch overlays, and environmental ambiguity to create a disorienting short-form narrative.
Inspiration: Inspired by projects like The Mandela Catalogue, Gemini Home Entertainment, and The Backrooms, the aim was to evoke horror through tone, environment, and post-processing — not jump scares. The absence of characters, paired with cryptic on-screen text, enhances the discomfort and sense of surveillance.
Modeling & Texturing
The scene was modeled in Blender, using basic architectural elements like empty rooms, office furniture, and outdated tech. Textures were intentionally low-resolution and slightly distorted to simulate VHS compression.
All sequences were rendered with simple passes and then treated heavily in Premiere Pro, with added VHS-style overlays, flicker effects, static noise, typography, and frame stutters to mimic analog degradation.
Color grading and timing were used to isolate mood shifts and guide tension
Layered glitch textures, text overlays, and volumetric masks created a visual rhythm unique to each reel
Simulated analog interference and compression gave the project an archived, corrupted aesthetic
On-screen messages were timed frame-by-frame to create unease and narrative ambiguity
This project was an exercise in using compositing as the primary storytelling tool — crafting dread not through characters or traditional animation, but through subtle visual cues, distortion, and rhythm. Designed for vertical format, it challenged me to think about narrative in seconds, not minutes.