Open Screen Forum Workshop | Creative Rotoscoping: An Experimental Approach to Animation

PF Upstairs Gallery #247

Friday May 9 from 5pm-6:30pm

Class Limit: 15 people of all ages. Space is limited RSVP early to reserve your space in the workshop.

This workshop (90 Mins) will give students an insight into the joys of collaboration through an experimental process for animation. This workshop would introduce how animation is an in depth process in which one animation cycle could lead to many creative possibilities.

Through guided exercises, students will either design and animate a walk cycle for their own original character or creature or contribute to a group-created stylized walk cycle. This collaborative approach will highlight how diverse artistic interpretations can seamlessly come together within a structured form. By embracing different techniques and personal styles, participants will see firsthand how animation thrives on both individual creativity and collective synergy.

The workshop is facilitated by Sishir Bommakanti and Shafrin Islam. Sishir is an illustrator, painter and animator from Minneapolis, MN. His work ranges from the surreal, mythological, absurd and experimental. Working in a range of mediums, from painting, drawing animation, 3D, interactive, photography and other experimental mediums.

His work is a commentary and reaction to the overload and burnout of a society that's been caught in a spiral of endless feed of information and noise. Using mythological characters and fantastical, surreal settings, he builds an entire new world to process and relay our age of informational overproduction.

Shafrin Islam is an interdisciplinary artist and illustrator from Bangladesh currently based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Working across illustration, experimental animation, film, poetry, installation, and sound, they explore themes of identity, time, language, and the intersections between natural and imagined worlds through geographical mythology.

As a published children’s book illustrator and freelance artist, Shafrin collaborates with musicians on album art, bridging literature, music, and visual storytelling to engage diverse audiences. Their practice incorporates pre-cinema animation techniques such as crankie boxes, bioscopes, and performative musical elements to craft layered, immersive narratives.

Through mixed-media storytelling, Shafrin challenges traditional narratives, blending tactile materials and digital techniques to create worlds that feel both intimate and expansive. Their work invites wonder, playfulness, and introspection, revealing the extraordinary within the ordinary while expanding the boundaries of storytelling.

Please contact ryan@publicfunctionary.org with any questions or if there are any accessibility needs we should be aware of.