Dancing Dhamaal!

Meet social media assistant Moni Moilanen! They’re a 4th year student who aims to be either a storyboard artist or a screenwriter in the film industry! Half of their family is Finnish, so Moni travels to Finland every year to eat lots of Finnish food with them!

Meet Matt Newman, a 1st year production assistant! He’d ideally like to live alone in the woods with his  dog, but says he might end up being in the animation industry. When it comes to connecting with their culture, his grandparents show their love through cooking food

Meet Tessa Carter, our 3D lighting volunteer! She’s a 3rd year student who would love to be involved in any 3D pipeline, but especially for stylized films such as Spider Verse. Tessa connects most with the Italian and French sides by making meals from scratch with her relatives!

Meet Ema Sun, a 4th year cleanup animator! She wants to work as a story artist for feature films or as a creative producer, with a long-term career goal in story development! She connects most to the cultural holidays and food of her Japanese-Chinese culture.

Meet 4th year animator Jennifer Salgado Coronado! Once she graduates, Jennifer wants to get a job in storyboarding. She hopes to go into TV but she’s ecstatic to storyboard for any other platform too! She connects to her Mexican culture by listening to her parents' stories.

Meet Allyson Hou, a 4th year animation volunteer! Allyson wants to work as a storyboarder in TV action and work in a feature film. As a Taiwanese-American, one of her biggest joys in life was visiting her relatives in Taiwan. She loved eating the food her grandma would make!

Meet Mikayla Hatchell, a 4th year rough animator! After graduation, they aspire to work as a professional animator or a character designer. Mikayla has German and Scottish heritage that they connect to through the stories and food that their family shares. Insta: @mhatchell_art

Meet 4th year animator Hannah Brohlin! They want to be a storyboard artist and be able to write their own stories after they graduate. Hannah has been trying to connect more with their slavic culture. They got to try perogies for the first time over winter break and loved it!

And that’s a wrap! Dancing Dhamaal! premiered at the San Jose State University Hammer Theatre alongside the other thesis projects from our fellow seniors! We couldn’t have done it without all of your support especially from our advisor David Chai! Now on to film festivals!

Meet our wonderful music arranger Aditya Kudalkar! What is your inspiration behind the composition of the song? - The inspiration came from traditional Indian weddings where dhol and shehnai are used extensively and Bollywood musical elements.

Let’s get to know the amazing people who created the song for our music video! Today, meet our phenomenal composer Pandhari Mane! What's your favorite part of music making? I like making sure the tune is catchy and planning musical instruments for it

Get hyped cause on May 20th Dancing Dhamaal will be debuting alongside our fellow thesis projects in the Hammer Theatre Center in downtown San Jose! Take a look at the venue for our dance party! Our technical director Sneha Krishnan and modeler Alex Alfaro did a phenomenal job!

Meet 4th year animator Alexa Hernandez! Their goal after graduation is to work in feature film and TV as an animator! From cute and cuddly, to horrifyingly tear jerking, they want to do it all! Alexa is Mexican-American who connects to their culture through food and dance!

Meet Hollyn Urrabazo, our first 3rd year social media assistant volunteer! After she graduates, she’d love to follow a career in Production and make some fun things with cool people! Hollyn is mixed Hispanic-Norwegian and looks forward to her grandma's Norwegian Krumkake!

Happy Lesbian Visibility Week! Shout out to all the beautiful lesbian romances out there! We celebrate you, and the Dhamaal crew hopes that Aadarshini and Parvati’s romcom love story brings as much joy to your community as it does for us #queeranimation #lesbianvisibilityweek

Meet compositor volunteer, Rebecca Lofis! She’s a 2nd year who hopes to work in art direction, production, visual development, or even compositing. She enjoys helping execute an artistic vision whether that be designing minor props or working together to assemble a film!

Meet 3rd year animator Cammy Tan! After graduation, she would like to animate 2D films and maybe make her own short films as well! Food was one of the ways her mother tried to connect her and my brother to their Japanese culture. Instagram: @cta_06 #2danimation #2danimator

Meet 3rd year visdev volunteer Ruhi Madapoosi! While she isn’t sure exactly what she wants to do, Ruhi does know that she’d like to be able to draw and help tell stories. Ruhi is South Indian an spending time with her family are what makes her feel the most culturally connected.

Meet Pooja Sundaram, a 3rd year volunteer in visual development and color artist for animation! Her goal is to work as a visual development artist in feature or tv animation after graduation. Pooja connects most to her Tamil culture through dance and wearing her cultural clothing

Meet 2nd year animator Samara Rodgers! She wants to be a storyboard or lead story artist, and eventually create her own animated TV shows after she graduates. Check out her Instagram @rando_mara and LinkedIn Samara Rodgers #2danimation #2danimator