Lunar Gala 2026: Fable
3D/Motion
Brand
Timeline: September 2025 - May 2026
Role: Co-Head of Motion Design Team
Team: Isabel Fleck, Lailai Zhang, Kyle Luo, Rebecca Rotenberg, Viviana Staicu,
Xiao Yuan, Yutong Zhen, Jaden Scutero, Shienka Martinez
Tools: Blender, Figma, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Premiere Pro
Lunar Gala 2026 is the 30th anniversary of Pennsylvania’s largest fashion show, all student-led. I led and directed the 10 person motion design team, helping my team members with technical problems and art direction, while creating various animations myself. A big part of my role was also aligning my team and produced visuals with the theme for the year, ‘Fable’.
SETTING THE STAGE
Act Animations
Before a section of lines go on stage, an act animation plays to set the mood and introduce each act. This year we had 4 acts: Follow, Wander, Trace, and Discern. The assets within the act animations were primarily created by members on my team, and with help from the Creative Directors. I helped my team member’s with their animation questions, clipped together their renders, and contributed to directing each act animation.
COMPLIMENTING THE FASHION
Line Animations
My biggest task in the position of Co-Head of Motion was directing the animations that play behind each fashion line. We worked closely with the fashion designers to understand their vision and collaborated with the rest of the creative team to align on the brand. We came up with a grid system for each animation based on which act they’re placed in to match the print team’s brand system, instead of having a central motif within each line. I helped direct my team member’s motion designs, providing critique as necessary, and contributing to color grading/editing their renders for show day. A challenge was the dimensions of our delivered screens, the way they were placed warped our animations, so some had to be edited in a 3-part function to fit the screen.
I created 4 line backdrops: Frame36, Joie de Vivre, Eden, and Jangal.
Frame36
Joie de Vivre
Eden
Jangal
MOTION FOR MOVEMENT
Dance Animations
This year we had 4 dances, each needing their own accompanying animation. My Co-Head Isabel and I split the task of creating the dance animations. I created the motion design for the dance teams SoulStylz and Helix, as seen below.
SHOW PROMOTION
Hype Video
I also worked on creating a hype video to be posted before the show date. I utilized the brand system that ‘Fable’ uses.
REFLECTION
Leading the motion team brought its challenges, but was also one of the most rewarding projects of my college career. I am grateful for my amazing motion team, and my fellow sub-heads Melissa, Sonya, Chieri, Erin, Serena, Yuktha, Joy, Isabel, Maddy, and Erik, as well as the creative directors Michele and Garrett for putting together this show.
This year I also got to model for the show! An amazing experience getting to walk to fashion lines with some of the motion backdrops I designed.
Transitioning from a motion member to co-leading the motion team, I learned a lot and met so many inspiring and talented people. I enjoyed working on such a large-scale project and collaborating with various teams.
