SEAGULL

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  Seagull by Ercole Zaccaria

Inspiration

The project draws inspiration from small, intimate details of everyday life and from the human tendency to question existence. The vintage stop-motion aesthetic naturally lent itself to a subtle horror tone — a space suspended between fear and curiosity. This contrast became the emotional backbone of the narrative.

What it does

In the video, an elderly lighthouse keeper faces a violent storm and suddenly notices the presence of a red moon. This surreal event pulls him into a bleak, unsettling dimension from which only a seagull seems capable of escaping. The concept began with the character’s expression — eerie yet curious — and expanded into a broader exploration of perception, transformation, and inner fragility.

How we built it

Midjourney for generating the character and visual concepts Runway to merge separately created characters and environments Higgsfield, Runway, Kling, and Hailuo to animate the scenes ElevenLabs for voices and sound design Each scene required careful blending of tools to maintain a handcrafted stop-motion feel across all elements.

Challenges we ran into

Maintaining a coherent visual style across multiple frames was particularly difficult, especially keeping the character’s facial structure consistent throughout the animation. Ensuring stylistic continuity between environments and movement was also a technical challenge.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Winner at the NYC GenArt Hackathon — Hailuo, Oink (Best Narrative).

What we learned

A creepy vision of everyday life in its entirety.

What's next for SEAGULL

I aim to expand the story into a short mini-series, exploring the lighthouse keeper’s world, symbolism, and transformation in greater depth.

Built With

• elevenlabs
• hailuo
• higgsfield
• kling
• runway