Laura Dooney is a 22 year old NCAD student from rural Mayo. After studying art teaching for three years she decided to follow her passion for moving image design. Her course has allowed her to explore a variety of disciplines, from filmmaking to motion graphics, but her main focus is stop motion animation. She first gained an interest in music video production after creating a claymation piece for Curtisy’s Tree Sap. The creative freedom she had on that project helped her develop her style as an artist and shape the kind of work she aspires to make. Most recently, she combined claymation with projection mapping for Dublin Winter Lights, where her work was displayed on the Newcomen Bank in Dublin over the winter. She draws inspiration from filmmakers like Michel Gondry, Allison Schulnik and Jan Švankmajer as well as from old fantasy films. She enjoys the liberty of mixed-media and its tactile nature, as it allows her to showcase the maddest ideas through any means possible. Much like the process, there is a lot of playfulness to stop motion, from character design to sculpting sets. She finds that the space between capturing frames leaves much time for ideas to spiral, often leading to unexpected details that can bring her stories to life.