Below is a selection of Matt's animated work across various projects and applications, including character animation, motion graphics, and more.
Playboy is Matt Leahy's upcoming thesis film for his B.F.A in Animation and Digital Arts at USC. Grounded in LA's queer underground, the film is a semi-narrative visual music piece about queer expression and performance in an age of alienation. Matt is very deep in the thesis crunch & the film is set to wrap by May 12th!
Below is a selection of assets and excerpts from the film. The film is comprised of 2D cel animation and compositing. Music by Bunny G & Kurei.
Rhythms + Visions 4 was an installation and performance art event hosted by USC's Visions and Voices. The event transformed the USC School of Cinematic Arts' (SCA's) Meldman courtyard into a world of immersive imagery created by a group of Students, Alumni, and guest artists. It featured live music and other performance works as well as a range of projection mapping pieces interacting with the event space- from architecture to visitors.
"Throws" was Matt Leahy's piece for the event. Created as an homage to Los Angeles' graffiti scene, the piece depicted a mix of graffiti throws and tags on buildings as well as various unmistakable LA imagery like palm trees and low riders. The piece aimed to weave together the geometry of the piece with the building facade to evoke the feeling of nooks gaps and alleyways found in the synthetic environment of the city.
Projected to the size of 31' x 35' on the facade of the SCB building, the piece was looped and played in sequence with about 4 others for the duration of the event. All assets were created in Photoshop and composited/animated in After Effects
Unfinished Film
Two skaters hang out on a warm summer night. Everything goes wrong after Cat Dude suggests: "Hey man, wanna go get a yerb before the liquor store closes?" Will sick shredding skills be enough to get him out of this one?