I’m Darya — illustrator and 2D animator.

Logline: A video-game-obsessed teenager loses his grip on reality. Caught in a wave of derealization, his mundane trip to the grocery store transforms into a wild, chaotic gaming quest.
The Goal: Create a lineup of wild, grotesque characters wrapped in a layer of quirky humor.

Visual Solution:
To emphasize the main character’s gaming addiction, I designed his look using contrasting and humorous details. His hair is so unruly that it stands completely stiff, and his eyes are barely open from endless screen time. I gave him iconic gamer cat-ear headphones for added charm, and a hilarious, hyper-realistic wolf t-shirt that creates a sharp, comical contrast against his stylized 2D body.

Supporting Characters: Within the hero’s derealization, ordinary people transform into fantasy NPCs: a homeless man becomes a mighty Wizard, and a store clerk morphs into a Minion Dwarf. To bridge these two worlds, I integrated elements of their real lives into their fantasy designs. The Wizard wears a tattered robe, has overgrown nails, and traps bugs in his beard, while the fantasy Dwarf wields a barcode scanner and sports a supermarket name badge.

Locations & Backgrounds: The spaces are also split into two realities. In real life, we see the gamer’s trash-filled bedroom and a completely normal, mundane grocery store. However, the moment derealization sets in, the environment undergoes a drastic transformation: the world becomes flooded with loud, contrasting colors, and ordinary textures shift into pixel art, turning reality into a video game universe.

Game World: Chicago, 2124. A hyper-technological metropolis where AI is deeply integrated into daily life. A recent breakthrough allows AI to interface directly with the human brain and extract memories, revolutionizing crime-solving. Proving guilt has never been easier, but the line of privacy has vanished.
The Goal: Design two main characters—a human detective and an artificial intelligence—making them absolute opposites in both personality and visual appearance.

Visual Solution:
The character designs are built on sharp visual contrast, utilizing instantly recognizable visual cues:
• The Artificial Intelligence: The epitome of seriousness, logic, and order. Moving in a flawless, sharp business suit, its appearance projects cold efficiency and absolute digital control.
• Detective Aaron: The complete opposite of his digital partner. A carefree, chaotic human detective who unironically subscribes to reptilian conspiracy theories. His rebellious, quirky nature is instantly readable: unkempt messy hair, a loose, undone tie hanging around his neck, and ironic duck-patterned socks that completely shatter the image of a serious police officer.