Animation Futures Lab

Outback Bl(H)ues is a short, 3D-animated film which re-imagines the Australian landscape and its flora and fauna in primarily abstract forms. The film has been constructed and formatted in a ‘dome’ orientation, and is slated for screening at the Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium in August 2026.

Its narrative-based theme provided a platform through which to examine traditional cinematography principles when applied to the dome space. In that role, it identified shortcomings in these principles and applied and tested alternative approaches to provide effective solutions.  Outback Bl(H)ues has contributed to new cinematographic frameworks and knowledge in the construction of Dome format films.

Farsh-e-Parandeh (Flying Carpet) – In the Gardens is a large-scale immersive digital installation designed for public interaction within an outdoor environment. The research asks how projection-based moving-image works can transform public space into a participatory, contemplative field of visual experience.

Inspired by Conference of the Birds, the installation uses animated flocks of birds across a circular projection of light to explore perception, movement, and shared presence in a non-theatrical context. Digital animation, projection mapping, music, and spatial design combine to create an environment in which audiences can walk through, interrupt, and reflect on the imagery as part of the work itself. Presented at Brisbane’s City Botanic Gardens during the Botanica Festival 2022, the installation attracted more than 47,000 visitors and engaged broad public audiences through immersive spatial design.

"Kam" — meaning "Shaman" in old Turkish — is a long-exposure pixilation and 2D animation film in which a woman dances in the dark, transforming her body into light and color. Expressing the primal, potent energy of the female body, the film responds to repressive discourses around women by combining long-exposure photography of real movement with 2D drawing to create a fierce, exuberant dance.

"Kam" has screened at numerous international festivals, winning Best Experimental Film at the International Women Filmmaker Festival (2021) and a Special Mention at Under the Radar Vienna (2022).

NO-BODY is a hand-drawn animated work that traces the visual and cultural history of women’s bodies in Iran, from ancient goddess figures to contemporary acts of protest and resistance. The research asks how animation and live performance can be used to recover erased histories and give visibility to women whose identities have been shaped and constrained by patriarchal and political systems.

The work is inspired by the Woman, Life, Freedom movement following the death of Mahsa (Jina) Amini and transforms these histories into a reflection on visibility, memory, identity, and resistance. Created through hand-drawn animation combined with original and rearranged music performed live, the work becomes a multisensory form of feminist remembrance.

It was presented as a live trailer performance within the BEACONS Project, curated by Prof Peter Morris for Griffith University’s 50th Anniversary, bringing together moving image, music, and live presentation in a public commemorative context.

"I Root for You" is a 5-minute fulldome time-lapse animation film following the lifecycle of a coastal mangrove tree. By condensing its growth into an immersive experience, the film transforms the "invisible" life of this vital ecosystem hero into a captivating spectacle. As part of a larger series, it embraces omnidirectional fulldome cinematography's unique freedom — inviting audiences to look anywhere within the frame.

Combining real-time rendering with photorealistic aesthetics, the film engages with the animated documentary genre. "I Root for You" will screen at the Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium in August 2026 as part of the UnBound Festival.

Ascendance (2021) is a 7-minute, 3D-animated, VR film. It has been screened at international and national events and has won multiple awards. The intention was to re-imagine, using modern CGI animation software and spatial sound technology, the ‘Visual Music’ or ‘Colour Music’ abstract animation forms that were conceived by the pioneering artists of this field in the early/mid 20th century.

The result is a highly immersive environment which represents music as moving abstractions of shape and colour.  This project makes an important contribution to the wider discourse of designing effective abstract animation to music in a VR/360 space.

FLOCK: Chapter 1 is a "meat pie sci-fi/war" comic about an old Australian soldier in the 1960s, recapping his life from World War 1, through conflicts including the Emu War, and his encounter with strange man-pigeon delivering messages for the allies.

The comic book explored approaches to modern Australian action-adventure comics that reflect past examples of comics created during the “golden age”.

The graphic novel was published by Gestalt Comics, crowdfunded and released to readers nationally and internationally, distributed at conventions and comic stores in Australia via Gestalt, and available online digitally. Pages featured in comic art exhibitions in Thailand and China.

Spinal Cord Injury Repair animation is a two-minute bio-medical animation, consisting of a blend of CGI animation and 2D stylised animation. It describes the complex medical procedures involved with ground-breaking spinal cord injury therapy being developed by Griffith University's Spinal Cord Injury unit.

Its creation was a collaborative effort between all stakeholders (scientists, patients and animators) through which a suitable (animated) visual language could emerge which accommodated the needs, limitations and expectations of all concerned. The work has been broadcast nationally via news channels, and is also widely available through online screening platforms.

The Soldier Legacy was a comic book and trade paperback action-adventure/superhero series, with 7 issues and 2 paperback volumes. Written and illustrated by Paul Mason, and published by Black House Comics (with Mason Comics) from 2010 – 2015.

The comic books aimed to investigate professional methods but applied to Australian works, which aren't as widely discussed in the world of popular culture; in comics followings, Australian comics is a "cottage industry", and material made is widely drowned out by its larger international commercial competition.

The books were distributed nationally via conventions and comic book stores.

The Phantom: Vietnam is an ongoing project with multiple outputs in process. Final work will include  ~300 page collection of comic stories featuring the King Features comic strip character, with various stories, settings, ideas and adventures set during the Vietnam War.

This is an extension of research in Australian comics history, exploring historical and creative practice ideas, and concerns in making a multi-part, ongoing series for Frew Publications. 12 chapters currently published and distributed nationally, internationally via newsagents and participating comic stores, and available online.

Page Art has featured in exhibitions in Brisbane, Thailand, China. Work has been discussed in academic books via Routledge and Pan Macmillan.

The Phantom © King Featues Syndicate inc. 2026. tm Hearst Holdings, Inc. Published by Frew Publications.

Shaping the Curve is an animated interpretation of Michael Nyman's musical composition of the same name, made for the soprano saxophone. The piece was performed live at the Melbourne International Saxophone Festival in 2019, by Dr Diana Tolmie of the Conservatorium of Music, Griffith University.

Shaping the Curve represents a series of animation experiments aimed at exploring and evaluating the creative possibilities afforded in the latest iterations of a selection of animation software in the context of the visual representation of music in a live performance.

Animation for "Who Wants to Live Forever" (Oceania Section) is a collaborative international animation project inviting schools from 6 continents to animate Queen's iconic song in response to pressing environmental concerns. The research question asked how students could experience animation as an agent of change through a real-world brief.

Led by GFS Animation Futures Lab participants, students were mentored through character design, environment design, and storyboarding, drawing on local fauna, flora, and recent events to engender empathy and authenticity. The film was released during COP26 (Glasgow, 2021), winning the Golden Leaf for Best Animated Short at the Italia Green Film Festival and Best Film About Nature at the Motion Picture Awards (both 2022).

Thirst (2018) is a 5-minute 3D-animated, VR film which has been screened at local and national events and venues. _Thirst_ furthers the application of VR as an empathy machine, utilizing embodied sensorial experiences in the service of environmental awareness. At the nexus of science, the sonic and animation arts, Thirst explores and extends the possibilities of cross-disciplinary creative collaboration in the VR space.

James the Rat King eXperience is a multimedia installation retelling the story of Brisbane's 1900–1907 Bubonic Plague outbreak. A collaboration between Drs Akcay and Hooper, the work was featured in Curiocity Brisbane 2021.

Investigating how animation can bring historical events to life in public space, the installation combines animated sequences, archival footage, and scientific information accessed via QR codes at 8 points across Southbank Parklands. The full animated film was also screened on the big screen of the State Library of Queensland.

Kid Phantom was a 11 issue comic book series which featured Lee Falk’s THE PHANTOM character in childhood adventures. The concept was could we update a classic comic book character with a long Australian comics history, for a new, younger readership.

The series was distributed nationally via newsagents and comic stores, as well as subscription, and participating comic stores nationally and internationally. Comic art also featured in gallery exhibitions in Bundaberg and Brisbane QLD, and Liverpool NSW.

Art and design by Paul Mason, written by Andrew Constant (2 –10, one-shot), Gabriel Henriquez (1), Edited by Glenn Ford, Published by Frew.

The Phantom, Kid Phantom © King Featues Syndicate inc. 2026. tm Hearst Holdings, Inc. Published by Frew Publications.

This 30-minute animation was created to accompany the performance of Bach's 'Partita for Solo Violin in E Major', performed live by internationally renowned violinist Karen Gomyo, at the Australian Festival of Chamber music in Townsville, Australia, in 2018.

An area of intense investigation throughout animation history, the interpretation of music in colour, form and movement has been central to abstract animation since the advent of cinema. This animation investigates these interpretations through the use of current CGI tools and software. In doing so, it located workflow efficiencies and creative solutions in the construction of lengthy animation and large-scale projection to accompany live musical works.