Palengke
2D & Frame by frame Animation
Palengke is a short film that reconstructs the Filipino wet market through memory. Rooted in personal reflection and the voices of the Filipino diaspora, when asked what they missed most about home, they spoke not of landmarks, but of the everyday: the food, the community, the sound of life unfolding in the market.
Blending frame-by-frame and 2D animation, the story moves between home and market. Pop-up frames rise like fragments of memory. Environment anchors and patterns present each section of the market as an emotional waypoint in the narrative.
Retro filters and grainy textures lend a sense of distance and familiarity. Palengke stands as an ode to home, community, and the sensory weight of remembering.
Year
2025
Role
Storyboard
Character Design
Frame by frame animation
Concept
FRAME WITHIN A FRAME
Each frame functions like a memory shard, fragmented, but full of emotion. When placed together, they form and build a mosaic of recollection and narrative.
Character design
The characters follow a borderless style: soft, fluid, and without clean edges to echo the impermanence and haziness of memory.
Character turnarounds were developed to guide animation and preserve visual consistency.
They establish how the character’s shapes and proportions translate from front to side to back, ensuring accurate form and alignment in every motion sequence.
environment design
The design process was deeply iterative. Shaped by experimentation, feedback, and reflection. One of the main challenges was finding balance between clarity and chaos: capturing the market’s vibrancy without overwhelming the viewer.
Early explorations leaned into Filipino maximalism, but some scenes felt overly polished. Through continued iteration, I introduced the cultural details like tangled power lines, cluttered stalls, and motorcycles, drawn from references such as Google Street View.
storyboard
