A Trailer for my independently animated short film, which has recently been submitted to the Naperville Independent Film Festival. It will soon be submitted to others as well, and will be available on Amazon's Createspace for download.

Synopsis: A young man stuck in a dull and isolated town seeks adventure, as well as answers, as he finds out many of the locals have mysteriously vanished into the nearby woodlands of Farrlind. His own father, as well as two of his close friends, are among the missing. After overhearing a strange conversation amongst the authorities which seem to reveal that they have intent on hiding something within those woods, he decides to venture into Farrlind himself and discover the dark secrets that it hides. 


*Update: 9/18/14

Woods of Oblivion has been screened at AMC Naperville!

It has happened! One of my first ever short films - and my FIRST EVER independently created film, has been submitted and screened at both the Naperville Independent Film Festival (NIFF) (now called Naper Film Fest) for a live screening, in addition to the Viewster Online Film Fest to be screened online! I have spent many grueling weeks and months creating this film, and several more waiting for it to go through the festival submission process and finally be screened, so it was a thrill to see something I poured my heart and hard work into manifest on the big screen, in the company of many great and supportive friends and family!

There was also a Q and A session which took place directly following the film. I got to answer questions from the viewers and meet two other very talented filmmakers in the process...

Here is a link to the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VamfyzRXleM&feature=youtu.be

Two days later, my father and I attended the award ceremony, where I got to feel fancy for an evening as we sipped wine from the open bar and view a great awards show full of talented filmmakers. guests included local television broadcasters, Chicago-based filmmakers, and even the mayor of Naperville!

To have my animated short mentioned in the same breath as so many other great pieces (a couple of which were even cranked out by a major animation studio of hundreds of employees) was a great feeling.



* This short film will also be put up onto Amazon's online video service, Createspace, in the near future.


Steve LaGioia - My demo reel of various Maya-based 3D models, including assets and environments, some with detailed texture and lighting.

Steve LaGioia - My demo reel consisting of mainly Maya-based 3D animation

My final project for a 3D character animation course at DePaul university, as part of my Masters in Animation program. Thought this classic scene from Napolean Dynamite would be a fun one to animate.


Taking one of the several humorous scenes from the film Walk Hard, and animating two boxheads with the dialogue using Maya, focusing primarily on the emotions conveyed.

My demo reel consisting mainly of 2D flash-based animation with photoshop design, along with a touch of 3D/stop motion thrown in for good measure.


A hybrid 2d Flash/claymation which takes place in a pixelated 2D world where everyone is made of clay (because why not, right?). One particular clay man begins to get bored of his dull flat life and seeks to add another "dimension."

I used a blend of hand-drawn animation, claymation, and various assets rendered in the style of pixel art to assemble this piece.



A fun short animated dark comedy created collaboratively with two other animators, combining 2D animation with 3D design, drawing inspiration from film noir.

My work involved collaborating on the animation, as well as doing most of the 3D modelling and some of the set design.



This is a two-part video for a Multimodal Composition class project at Illinois State University, created in collaboration with 3 other students. One student conceptualized the ideas, while two gathered the footage. Meanwhile, the majority of the narration and video editing was done by myself. 

The video was published as part of among the first ever scholarly ebooks, entitled, "The New Work of Composing" which can be reached via this link:

http://ccdigitalpress.org/nwc/ 

The link to the specific chapter of the ebook related to our project can be found here: 

https://ccdigitalpress.org/book/nwc/chapters/normal/

The video poses the question; what place (if any) do new technologies, social media, and tablet devices - which stress visuals and multiple information streams - have in academia? Specifically, how does this change composition going forward, and how does it affect professors and students alike?


A Project made for my 3D Animation course at DePaul University, as part of my Masters program. Two very different walk cycles shown here, but equally amusing!

My first crack at stop motion and in fact one of the first pieces of animation I've ever attempted, back in 2010 - created for a basic animation course at DePaul university. While my lack of experience showed at this point, I'd say not half bad for a first attempt! A battalion of army men break into a Lego compound to break out their captured comrade.. Why not, right?


An animation project for school that I decided to more fully flesh out into a (very) short animated film. An unidentified green slime-like laboratory concoction breaks out of its test-tube prison and attempts escape from his birthplace..



A fun little 2D Flash animation, modified from a short animation homework assignment for class in which we were supposed to utilize a combination of basic animation principles, including the walk cycle, impact, follow-through and explosion/lightning effect


A fun little stop motion project I made as part of my basic animation course at DePaul university. I assembled the drum beats using editing software then synchronized the beats with the movement of the stacks of coins, giving off a waveform sort-of appearance.

A short project made for a basic 2D animation course at DePaul university. Trying my hand at fluid animation with a very basic wave movement, and a not-quite-as-basic grass movement in the wind.