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Personal 2024 Pixel animation · Compositing

Chillin

Pixel-animated characters dropped into real-life backgrounds — small loops of stillness in the middle of the world.

Chillin — cover image

What it is

A series of short pixel-art animations composited over photographs of real places. A character sitting on a curb, on a bus, on a windowsill — barely doing anything, just existing.

The idea

The contrast does the heavy lifting. Photography says “this is a real place, with weather and signage and tired commuters.” Pixel art says “and here’s a tiny moment of attention inside it.” The combination feels honest in a way that pure illustration sometimes doesn’t.

How

Backgrounds are stills I shot myself around Bangkok and Seoul. The character animation is hand-drawn frame-by-frame in Aseprite, then comped into the photograph in After Effects with a slight color regrade so the pixel art picks up some of the ambient light of the scene.