Beauty takes on many forms — sometimes prim and proper, other times messy and mischievous. As the title of the student film Eye of the Beholder suggests, it’s all just a matter of perspective.
Created by DigiPen Institute of Technology Singapore graduate Xinling Teng (2013), Eye of the Beholder presents the story of a young girl’s attempt to copy the makeup tips she finds in her mother’s fashion magazine.
Xinling created the animated short as part of her senior coursework in the B.F.A. in Digital Art and Animation program.
“I wanted to tell a story that had a message but wasn’t preachy. I eventually picked this particular story about a girl wanting to be pretty like her mother, because it was not only endearing — it was also a lighthearted way of questioning our perceptions of beauty. It had opportunity for visual comedy and was well scoped for a one-person team,” Xinling says. “One of the highlights of working on it was showing the final animatic to a group of industry professionals and watching them actually laugh out loud at the right points.”
Eye of the Beholder is currently being featured at the brand new PLAY@NMS children’s gallery of the National Museum of Singapore and will be screening there for the next two years. The new gallery features several digital and interactive exhibits geared toward young families.
“I’m glad that it has a chance to reach a wider audience!” Xinling says. “I hope people who watch it enjoy it.”