Frame from the animation project. Showing a green forest with light coming through.

Gearshift

Navn
Elin Van Bussel
Uddannelsesgrad
Kandidat
Fagfelt
Design
Institut
Design og Visuel Interaktion
Program
Visual Game and Media Design
År
2025

Ben has taken to his bike in his mission to chase a taste of joy, finding that help may come from unlikely places. Gearshift is a lighthearted animated short inspired by current animation trends blending 2D & 3D, making it a state-of-the-art animation. 

Together with my fellow student Beth Fuller, an incredible talented illustrator, we set out to create a 3D non-photorealistic rendered animated short in Blender within 4 months. Inspired by animations like Spiderverse, Arcane & Entergalactic we set out to create a stylised 3D short that blends expressive 2D aesthetics with technical 3D production. This project challenged us to step outside our comfort zones—Beth explored 3D and stylised painting for the first time, while Elin led the technical pipeline in Blender. Working as a dedicated two-person team pushed us creatively and we found huge mutual benefit in the collaboration.

 

Old bold man standing in front of the sun holding out an ice cream.
Gearshift Frame

Gearshift

Boy in his bike in a forest.

Gearshift Development

Our project followed a four-phase production pipeline: concept development, pre-production, production, and post-production. We began by shaping the story and visual style, then moved into asset creation, storyboarding, and animatics. Production focused on modeling, rigging, and animation, followed by rendering, sound design, and editing in post-production.

Image of 3D characters of an ice cream van, ice cream man and a boy with his bike

In planning our four-month production timeline for Gearshift, we identified pre-production and asset creation as the most time-intensive phases. This included developing the narrative, concept art, storyboards, and an animatic—alongside extensive 3D modeling of characters, props, and environments. Since we were both relatively new to 3D modeling, we aimed to build an efficient, stylized, and beginner-friendly workflow. On the recommendation of our supervisor, we explored Gravity Sketch, a VR-based modeling tool, to potentially accelerate this process. This exploration led us to formulate a focused research question around optimizing our modeling pipeline.

Det Kongelige Akademi understøtter FN’s verdensmål

Siden 2017 har Det Kongelige Akademi arbejdet med FN’s verdensmål. Det afspejler sig i forskning, undervisning og afgangsprojekter. Dette projekt har forholdt sig til følgende FN-mål
CV

Elin is a graphic designer, animator, and producer from the Netherlands & Denmark. She’s a multimedia generalist, with additional skills in workflow management, 3D software, UI and Ux. She likes sunsets and British comedy panel game shows.

Uddannelse og relevante kurser
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Det Kongelige Akademi

Master's degree, Visual Game & Media Design
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Avans Hogeschool

Bachelor of Applied Science - BASc, Communication & Multimedia Design
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HKU

Minor, Interactive Narrative Design for Creative Industries
Erhvervserfaring
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Sprog
Dutch
English
Danish