I took a difficult decision when I started my final year project: despite having only approximately six months of practice and minimal experience, I would challenge myself with character animation. Animation has always been my weakness, even though the majority of my previous work focused on environments, composition, and experimental shader work.
Checkmate’s objective became evident: produce a cinematic short with stylised images, compelling narration, and emotionally based character animation.
Inspirations included:
Oppenheimer for visual storytelling
Death Note and its psychological tension
Arcane for its lighting and stylisation
Sports for character development and stories
High-level chess tournament aesthetics
Right from day one, the magnitude of the project was felt. But also felt excitement. This was the project that would push to grow, technically and artistically.