Ryan Newton
Little Endless Nights
Little Endless Nights is an interactive animated piece where the audience experiences the world through the eyes of a terrified child, haunted by the monster that lurks within every corner. Sunshine, the monster, is lanky, decaying, and faceless, meant to represent the fear of the unknown. Objects move and change in an instant, he vanishes as quickly as he appears, and every interaction leaves you questioning if it’s all in your head.
Artist/Thesis Statement
I always thought I would end up strictly as a 2D artist, whether focusing on concept art or animation, but I never believed my passion would end up being 3D. However, I discovered a love for all things 3D through my time at UML, where I learned modeling, texturing, animating, and even forms beyond it, such as more traditional sculpture and printing. Even with the medium's difficult learning curve at the beginning, I fell in love with it. It was an entirely new dimension added to what I could create, and I explored my ideas with a depth I could never reach before.
My art focuses on characters, from the original concept to fully developing them through modeling. I explore the unnerving and strange, aiming to create designs that stay with people, whether it’s monsters, humans, or maybe a mix of both. I generally use my characters to explore emotions, giving form to ideas like the fear of the unknown, idolization, and control. My work extends beyond the visual; I focus on how my characters would move, rigging and animating them in ways that reflect their nature and emotions. The goal of my art is to create characters that last with the viewer, beyond simply looking cool. I want to make designs that make people think, to agree and disagree with my choices, and imagine their own iterations.
