Shehr-e-Tabassum is an animated short film set in a dystopian Pakistan, and is a product of 17 months of hard work by a diverse team of 20 Pakistani animators, storytellers, musicians and actors at Puffball Studios. The film was screened both locally and internationally and received critical acclaim. It was selected for the Palm Springs International Animation Festival & Expo 2020.

As the Creative Director I was responsible for creating an immersive experience through world building and visual storytelling, supervising the environment design team and coming up with concepts for the backgrounds, coming up with the initial storyboards, deciding on various visual aspects like the colour palette, mood, lighting, character design, as well as the look and feel of the city. The goal was to create an experience that is visually alienating and uncomfortable, while drawing the viewer in through the familiarity of language and sound. Films like Blade Runner and Akira played an important role in terms of the mood, while novels like George Orwell’s 1984 and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World acted as sources of inspiration for a dystopian city and concept. Additional personal literary influences that informed my decisions were Tolkein and Dostoevsky. 

In addition to this I was also a part of the character animation team, and worked on the background design and character highlights, later switching to the role of concept artist and supervisor for both these departments.