Motion design and animation

VConnections Digital Lovers

Justin Valdez

Trumbull, CT

Advisor: Samantha Olschan

Artist Bio

Justin Valdez is a digital artist and animator from Trumbull, Connecticut. He develops imaginative ideas through drawing, doodling, and storyboarding. Before putting those into an animation or an art piece, he regularly shares his work on social media to showcase completed projects and celebrate creative milestones. He discovered his passion for art in high school and animation at the University of Connecticut’s Stamford campus. Despite being colorblind, he remains dedicated to honing his artistic skills. His work reflects persistence, creativity, and a belief that imagination is the foundation of meaningful art. Currently, he is a Digital Media & Design major at the University of Connecticut, Stamford, with a concentration in Motion Design and Animation. Outside of his academic work, he creates YouTube gaming thumbnails and edits gaming content as a hobby. After graduation, he plans to continue developing his skills in digital art, animation, 3D designs, and content creation.

Artist Statement

V Connections: Digital Lovers is a 2D animated love story between a YouTuber and a VTuber. The story follows the two characters as they meet online through a virtual game, VRChat. They interact with each other with their custom-made virtual avatars, learn more about each other, gradually developing a mutual relationship and romantic feelings later on, but something goes wrong along the way. Through animation, themes of friendship, self-discovery, communication, miscommunication, and romance are explored. A couple of months before beginning my senior project, during my previous animation class, I first developed the idea of what it might look like for a VTuber and a YouTuber to get to know each other.

I watched my favorite anime, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, to better understand character relationships and emotional connections. Various romantic comedies, anime, manga, and other shows that feature bewitching and captivating moments, as well as conflicts where characters work through personal struggles.

I wanted to create this animation because I wanted to finish what I started in my previous animation class. Another reason why I wanted to create this short animation is that I could connect to my graphic novel, Dimensional Detectives, which I am personally developing in my free time. The story follows two stepbrothers who partner up together traveling through different dimensions, solving various mystery cases while uncovering the truth behind their father’s death. Their father was the king of the Ice Dimension, Frosty Frostburg, and they sought to understand why he died.