BAM: Son of the Genie in the Lamp is a short film directed by myself as a collaboration with illustrator and character designer Ac1d1c titan1um, who also happens to be my little sister! She came up with this character while doodling in class and the geometric shapes and neon colours were evocative of Memphis art design and I had never seen a character created in that style to my immediate recollection so I knew we had something to work with here. I had just started to learn how to character model in Blender around the same time and because I had started out learning how to make assets using low poly shapes, Ac1d1c titan1um’s character design worked excellently with my limitations at the time.

I modelled the character in 3D and fleshed out the rest of the character details like the name, attitude and backstory so that I could then form a convincing scenario to showcase all of these details in. I chose to frame the video like it was a dance video because BAM is supposed to be the son of the elusive genie in the lamp and in most interpretations of that mythological creature, they are playful, so BAM has inherited that behaviour. His name is a reference to the sound you would usually hear after a genie has granted a wish, however, something more generic like poof did not stick as well with audience tests done amongst family and friends ! All in all, this project came together using programs, Illustrator, Photoshop, After Effects and Blender, and in the eyes of the original character designer, was successful in developing and delivering exciting new visual experiences to its audience.