The Adventures of The Monkey King

Featured in the University of Massachusetts Animated Film Festival (2023), hosted by University of Massachusetts’ animation studio, Meraki Studio.

Featured in The October 2023 Animation, Video & Film Student Showcase, hosted by the University of Massachusetts.

A paper cutout animation done with a paper puppet and paper cutouts. The story features the Monkey King, Great Sage Equal to Heaven! This animation serves as a pseudo-intro to a cartoon featuring the adventures and hijinks of this all-powerful monkey as he uses his signature staff to kick butt.

A stop motion animation that Olivia (Sarah) completed for her animation class for Smith College (class taken at Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst). This animation was completed using Dragonframe. Editing done in Premiere Pro, title done using After Effects.

Music Credits:

Energy Hard Rock Song [Hard Heavy Rock] by espatine

Stock Music provided by espatine, from Pond5.

Please note that in her video, Olivia spliced the song and overlapped it in the middle. Please listen to the original for the unedited version.

Quirky 1 (Harp And Double Bass) by Numusic

Stock Music provided by Numusic, from Pond5.

A paper puppet of the Monkey King. Alongside him are assests including his staff, eyelids, his tail, and his right hand.
A landscape shot of a gape in the forest that looks upon a waterfall and tall mountains in the distance. The mountain is Flower Fruit Mountain.

~Behind-the-scenes look~

Various paper assests including a closeup of the Monkey King's left ear, both hands, and cut up closeups of his staff.

Assets of the cutout animation.

From left to right: close-up shot assets, the Monkey King paper puppet with accessories, the background for the beginning and ending scenes.

A closeup shot of the monitor that displays the downshooter camera's perspective. The cutout puppet the Monkey King is on display. The background has the stop motion camera setup.
A horizontal shot of the the whole stopmotion setup. The paper puppet of the Monkey King lays light up on a glass pane while in the background a computer displays a closeup of it.

A downshooter camera is connected to a monitor that displays live feed of the ending scene. A glass pane is set up and 2 LED lights with orange gels are placed over them. The program being displayed on the computer is Dragonframe.

A downshooter camera pointing down at paper cutout, Monkey King. 2 lights stand on either side both light up
Closeup shot of paper puppet the Monkey King. The cutout is on a glass pane with 2 lights shining on the setup.