Annual student animation project sends joy to alumni across the world

This December, one student's animation project will be seen by thousands of alumni and MSUM supporters across the country.

Each year, the MSU Moorhead Marketing & Communications team hires inventive students to brainstorm, sketch out and develop a fun, festive short video to share holiday greetings with the wider Dragon community. This tradition showcases student ingenuity, skills and patience. Sometimes this animation is created by a group of students and other years, it's created by one student.

In 2024, that imaginative mind is Ashton (Ash) De Luney, an animation major from Apple Valley, Minn. Ash came to MSUM because the university isn't far from his home in the Twin Cities, yet it offers affordable and extensive opportunities in the arts. Once on campus, Ash decided to get an emphasis in sequential art and began creating.

While experimenting, Ash has appreciated intimate class sizes so he can get to know professors better. "Doing so let's you actually gain experience from talented filmmakers and animators," he says. "You don't get that on a bigger campus. There's a lot of heart in every department here."

Personal connection is what brought him to the Marketing & Communications team. Most marketing students aren't found through a job posting but are referred by faculty or discovered by other means. A marketing staff member saw Ash's work at a student awards event and asked if he'd be interested in joining the team.

"It was the first time that anyone had given me a job because of something I made," Ash says, "So it was pretty great."

As a part of the creation process, Ash had to pitch a storyboard of the animation to the Marketing & Communications team and present several iterations for criticism.

"I learned that it's not as easy to make a cartoon as you'd think," he says. "Animation is a process already, but then there's music, backgrounds, sound effects, editing, storyboarding, many components. You have to plan things out before you jump in headfirst."

Ash's style is what he'd call "an exaggerated cartoon feel," triggered by memories of the shows he grew up watching on Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, and Adult Swim.

"I try to take what I love about those cartoons and slip it into my work whenever possible," he says. "This project let me flex those animating muscles and helped me learn how to actually make a full-fledged animated segment."

To construct the animation, Ash had to wing it a little. "Just make stuff. It's the best way to learn," he says.

Getting to collaborate with staff was a pivotal experience for Ash. He was able to sit in on strategy meetings, present ideas to marketing professionals and get valuable feedback on his work. Ash's final animation involves familiar MSUM scenery and a good dose of humor. In the storyline, Scorch and President Tim Downs have a snowball fight near the campus gates. Depicting them both was a welcomed challenge for Ash.

"Getting President Downs' likeness required going through multiple development stages," he says. "It took some trial and error to get it right, but that's the best part of creating. Getting to draw Scorch was great fun, too, because I could give him overly dramatic expressions."

Through several iterations, Ash experienced firsthand how developing skills requires daily practice. That perseverance paid off, as his animation will be sent via email and mailed cards to alumni and donors and posted on social media for all friends of the university.

See Ash's animation for yourself. Special thanks to President Tim Downs for being a featured character.