Heart of Gold | Animated Short Film (ACCD Thesis)

THIS VIDEO IS NOT ALLOWED TO BE REUPLOADED WITHOUT CREDIT. If you are making a fan edit for Tiktok or YouTube Shorts, you MUST link back to this original upload, or I will have your video removed. Please link any uncredited reupload you see in the comments.

A young woman cruelly rejected by her church seeks the assistance of an exiled necromancer to help her create the perfect offering to win her priest over.

Official Selection - 3rd LA Student Film Festival (2021)
Winner, 2D Student Film Silver Award - 14th Los Angeles Animation Festival (2021)

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This was the film I storyboarded and directed for my final year at Art Center College of Design. I am so immensely grateful for the help and support of my classmates and friends during the production of this film, I definitely couldn't have done it without them.

Credits with social media links:

Amber Avara - Director/Storyboard Artist/Character Animator/Compositor

Vicky Xie - Lead Designer/BG Painter

Tony Hsueh - Soundtrack Composer

Jose 'Chipi' Estrada - Sound Designer

Additional Animators
Gaoge Ren

Layout

[marilunaadams]

How does this 6 minute animation have deeper characters and more emotional impact than half the big budget movies out there??

[colleenrementer]

Everyone saying the message is “don’t be greedy” missed so many signs. I’m not sure what the artist intended but I see the corruption of church/religion. 1.) as the woman walks out the church the cross is very clearly broken 2.) the man had just sacrificed himself and the pastor just wanted the gold 3.) the lengths people will go to please the church (the woman was willing to sacrifice another life)

[lookingforanewchannelname]

LMAO THE PRIEST THOUGH

“give me that dead mans golden heart 😡🤑”

[bnny]

Hello there! I am a student of your former teacher. He just showed us this film you did in class! He said that you sent him an email asking for feedback. I don't think the feedback I've given him was too good so I just wanted to type out this comment saying that your short film is really good like... the you did all the art, the animation even the background music and the actual plot of the film was so enticing as well! You're truly so talented! <3

[niccalee]

5:10, there's three lil bois, showing that the necromancer was able to bring his little friend back. So like, hopefully she can figure out how to do it. :)

[avidhossanmansur]

The moral of the story is, " Don't mess with stuff you don't understand".

[dragonbat]

So in the end she is not able to bring him back yet? this was really good and emotion sparking.

[alexarandall]

The fact that you made my heart absolutely ache in less than 6 minutes means you've done a stupendous job

[LKPrime]

THIS IS SO GOOD!
I love the character designs and all the little details in the background, like then cross on the front of the church being broken.
This is so awesome, you guys killed it!

[ash.sa]

Mann we need a part 2 and this is so good 😭✨🖤 i loved this with full of my heart

[ShadwSonic]

That so-called "pastor"... He may wear priestly robes, but he clearly acted the least Christ-like out of everyone in that tale! Had he forgotten the Parable of the Poor Widow? How could he so simply accept what would appear to be witchcraft as if it was just fine (it might be fine, don't get me wrong, but there was no spiritual scrutiny applied before he made that decision)? And how dare he value a heart-sized lump of gold more than a human life?!
If that's what that girl thought God was like, no wonder she rejected the cross! Her heart was aligned with righteousness, was presented an image of God that outright contradicted that righteousness, and cast out what she had identified as evil! Never once realizing that it was only the presented image, and not God Himself, that was unrighteous!

[nougat]

DONT DO ME LIKE THAT WITH THE "THE END ?'" 😭

[curlyfries]

I honestly feel like she gives off that old woman from the Bible. She donates a penny which is all she has to the church and everyone laughs at her. However Jesus told them that as long as it was from the heart its good. If it'd not he doesn't want it.

[commander]

3:05 shoves her outta the way when he thinks she was just money hungry
this man aint no simp

[dragonickittens]

I found snippets of this animation on tiktok (not credited to you, of course), but I'm glad I found a comment that stated the name of the short plus your name. Beautiful animation and story telling!

Edit: Ok, so after this comment kinda blew up, it drives me nuts that this user on tiktok is getting all of the views and is getting asked for another part. It also makes me mad that them saying that their link in their bio would bring people to this video when that's a lie as well. I do want to thank the person that did comment the name of this video, but sadly that was a reply to a comment, so its not as visible. Tiktok is honestly a mistake, and people stealing animations like this isn't going to help the original artist the views they deserve. I did report the account, but I don't think Tiktok is going to do anything about it, which is an issue.

[lookingforanewchannelname]

priest be like: “ god need that gold drip 😤🤚”

[Sandyoo]

God doesn’t need money. If you really believe him you believe that he is the all mighty and has no need for money. Like the title of the animation, all you need is a good heart or “heart of gold”

[AgentWolnyTylk]

You know, I wanted to point out some moments that could get some more work, stiff pieces of animation etc... But then I remembered that I'm not watching an official animation, but a film student project.
Like... wow, the amount of details put into every frame... It's on pair, if not even better than most of the animations that came out in cinema last year.
Just bravo <3

[dapperghost]

He then proceeded to use magic to bring a chinchilla to life, greatest s*** I ever saw

[blazebauer]

I know it takes months even years to do a sequel but I would absolutely love a second one to this