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. 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The scene was modeled in Blender, using basic architectural elements like empty rooms, office furniture, and outdated tech.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.

Rendering &
Post-Processing

I also wrote an essay on Substack called “The Anatomy of a Liminal Space,” where I break down the core characteristics of liminal environments and why they create such an unsettling mood. It’s not a process log for this project, but a deeper explanation of the concept itself for anyone who wants more context behind the atmosphere I recreated here.

Check it out here: https://stephaniebenohanian.substack.com/p/the-anatomy-of-liminal-spaces?r=3fpiu2

Highlight