Laika’s design was inspired by Harry Fonseca’s Coyote Series. I was immediately drawn to his coyotes’ exaggerated proportions and graphic facial structures.
Animation
Laika’s face-morph was achieved through multimedia recreations of her face. By exporting and tracing the digital frame, I was able to create exact copies which morphed into each other seamlessly.
LAIKA is inspired by Mecano’s song of the same name—when we were younger, my Dad often played the song to my brother and me. In it, Anna Torroja sings,
Laika looked through the window: What could that ball of color be, and why am I spinning around it?
How could a stray dog conceptualize what she had witnessed—a planet in which, up until this point, she had experienced her entire life? In the Summer of 2024, I set out to answer this question, reframing Laika’s tragic story into one of joy.
