SUNNY SIDE DOWN

Role: Visual development - Character design, Motion design

Production: MAKE Originals

Main Medium: After Effect, Photoshop

Type: Animated short series

Year: 2024 - 2026

"Sunny Side Down" is MAKE Originals' 2D sci-fi parody short series born from the creative mind of Natalia Poteryakhin, the series director. The story follows 'Nat', the girl who is lost in the space and ended up working at Sunny Side Down, the alien cafe floating in front of the black hole.

I particiated in the early visual development and contributed some character designs - from protagonist designs to 'incidentals', unfortunate living beings that are stuck in Sunny Side Down forever.

CHECK OUT THE FULL EPISODES OF
SUNNY SIDE DOWN ON MAKE ORIGINALS YOUTUBE!

CHRACTER AND GRAPHIC DESIGNS

Early 'Nat':
At the very early stage of vis dev, I was tasked to find the look of Nat and the overall show by designing the character first since the style of the character would decide the overall visual direction. I initially referenced exsiting late-teen/adult animation series such as Daria or Bob's Burger as starting points, then developed my own interpretations of the style.

Incidentals:
Sunny Side Down features many different incidentals/imprisoned customers, whose designs are based on characters from classic sci-fi movies and TV shows. This parody approach adds more fun to the series to look for and find references of viewers' beloved sci-fi contents.

Credit graphic/motion design:
Later in the production, I was tasked to design the end credits. The main inspiration of the credits were a reciept railing that keeps all order reciepts. Reciept numbers, table numbers, napkin doodles, and/or guest numbers in each episode credit were used as 'easter egg' device to hint trivia of the show's original references, such as movie/TV shows' release dates, director's birthday, and so on.

2026 All rights reserved.