Little Frog Art

Miranda Santana

Welcome to my site! I'm glad to have you here.

Here you can find a collection of my different kinds of artwork, from illustration, to 3D modeling projects, to animations.
In the projects section below you can click each item to open up individual galleries displaying additional information and shots for my more involved projects and get more insight into my creative process, or you can use the navigation buttons to see a variety of my completed works. Gallery items with the caption marked as [Project] will link back to that artwork's project page.

Projects

Illustration

3D Modeling

Character Art

Environments

Animation

Character Animation

Flora and the Witching Wood Character Showcase

Horror Shorts

FEVER.dream

LOOKING BACK

The Artist

Hi! My name is Miranda Santana. I am an illustrator, 3D modeler, and animator.

I'm on my way to getting my BFA in illustration from UNC Charlotte, and along the way I have gained experience illustrating for children's book projects.

I am primarily a digital artist, and I integrate other digital mediums into my work such as animation and 3D modeling.

I have a passion for world building and character development, and this often drives my creative pursuits.I like to do a little bit of everything, but everything I do eventually ties back to the love of storytelling and character creation.I am inspired by fantasy subjects, especially those involving magic, but also by real world issues such as those surrounding struggles with mental health and processing difficult emotions.

If you would like to get in touch with me, or have a business inquiry or other questions about my work, please contact me using the email form, or via my socials in the links below.

Vampire Witch Character Concept

This was a project I created as part of an independent study and an Art Jam that I participated in in college. The goal was to create an animated, 3D modeled character. This included character concept art, 3D modeling, texturing, and rigging to eventually create an animated final product.
My concept was to create a cute but slightly sinister character. I ended up with the idea of creating a witch who is also a vampire. She makes and sells her potions and spells to the nearby villagers, but if they can't pay in coin, she'll accept a much redder form of currency instead.

Ziggy

I created this project as part of an independent study in college. I designed a character based on my real-life cat named Ziggy, inspired by the cartoon bipedal animals found in games like Animal Crossing, among others. I then modeled, textured, rigged and animated him as a part of the project. His expressions were created using a range of hand drawn 2D textures rigged on a flat plane.

The Swan Lake

The Swan Lake was a series of interrelated assignments done for a Narrative illustration class. This project involved taking an existing fairy tale or other story in the public domain and designing characters for an illustrated story. I created mine with graphic novels in mind, and created designs for four of the primary characters from the Swan Lake ballet's story.

During my research I took inspiration for the character designs from elements of the character's ballet costumes, personality traits, and different styles of dance outside of ballet, such as Odile's flamenco inspired costume to reflect her more passionate and intense personality to contrast with Odette's more vulnerable and demure demeanor.
Rothbart's look is inspired by horned owls as he is known to transform into an owl at will, and Prince Siegfried's appearance is inspired by the charming scoundrel archetype, particularly Disney's Tangled's Flynn Rider.

Initial color concepts for Siegfried and Odette, with Odette showing elements of a partial swan transformation and Siegfried wielding his bow.

Two graphic novel pages depicting the scene where Prince Siegfried discovers Odette while out hunting.

A splash page spread depicting the love triangle conflict between Odette, Siegfried and Odile, and featuring the ominous presence of Baron Von Rothbart and the torment he inflicts on Odette.

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Gallery

BFA Senior Show Concept and Design Book
(Digital Version)

Videos

Senior BFA Exhibition - Flora and the Witching Wood Character Showcase