Over the course of pre-production, the TAOS Team decided to throw a big challenge at the community in Discord - come up with a 2D or 3D concept art for the film! The challenge was clear - start with an idea, create a concept for a character or environment, and submit. Sounds easy at first, but as the weeks went by, our contest participants got to feel the pressure and difficulties of a real production setting.

Thanks to Ivan, Gosia, Cezar, Rein and Renan, we got to see beautiful work being developed for our film, and we got to enjoy their process along the way. We couldn’t be happier or prouder of their submissions and commitment towards this project!

But something else magical happened alongside the contest, something that was unplanned, and truly struck us all in supervision. Outside of the contest, Raquel created a beautiful piece of work, dedicated to the main symbol of the THU Universe, Uni - the THU Unicorn.

The TAOS team is incredibly grateful to each and every one of these artists, we are very lucky to have you all onboard with us! Here’s a first look at these artists work:

Characters Contest

Ivan Reber

I’m @Ivan Reber, a Swiss artist living in Berlin. My career has taken me across a range of industries, from advertising, industrial, and interior design to the world of game development. When I’m off the clock, I’m likely at a life drawing session, wandering through an art gallery, feasting on good food, headbanging at a metal concert, or tucked away at home building my 'last' Gundam model – which we all know isn't actually my last one.

I crossed paths with Delcio in Japan last year, so when he asked for volunteers for his new short film, I jumped at the chance. Having been dedicated to the same project at work for the last five years, I was starving for something new and saw this as a perfect opportunity to break up my daily routine.

For the competition, I took part in the character design challenge, conceptualizing characters like the '404s,' the 'Mysterious Man,' the drone, and the one I had the most fun with: the 'Demon Pope.' While I initially envisioned him piloting a mecha to create a stark contrast with the protagonist, Lavina, I eventually toned it down to armor with a mecha aesthetic to keep the production manageable. Even though that specific design didn’t make the final cut, the creative process itself was a lot of fun.

During preproduction, I was assigned with taking the 'Mysterious Man' from initial sketches to a final concept design. Since character design is my daily bread, this task felt very natural to me. However, every time I thought I had settled on the final outfit, a new idea would pop up, so I ended up iterating through a wide range of variations before landing on the final version.

Working on TAOS was a great opportunity. The creative freedom was very liberating, and Delcio’s encouraging feedback really kept the momentum going. I found myself looking forward to working on it every single day after my shifts. It was a perfect escape from my usual studio routine and a great refresher on why I love to create. Whether you're a student or a veteran, I think we all need projects like this to grow, sharpen our tools, or simply remember why we started in the first place.

Gosia Kmiec

My name is @Gosia Kmiec, and I’ve been working as an artist in the games industry for over 11 years. Working professionally for this long is a huge privilege, but it also comes with its caveats. When we take our first steps in production, the excitement is immeasurable, we finally made it. But after many years in the corporate world, it became increasingly difficult to find that excitement that made me fall in love with creating in the first place. Around that time, I had the chance to meet Delcio at @THU Storytelling 2025 and learn about the project he was cooking up. 

I knew that being part of something driven purely by passion, something more about the craft than OKRs and investors, could help me find my spark again. This movie came into my life at exactly the right moment, and the opportunity to be part of the concept art team has been a huge honor.

I felt quite rusty when I first started working on submissions for character designs. You know that feeling when you sit in front of your tablet and physically can’t force your hand to do anything? That’s where I was. But the longer I was part of the discord group and saw everyone’s enthusiasm and engagement, the stronger the urge became to contribute something meaningful. On top of that, Delcio’s excitement is so infectious that after talking with him, you just want to start sketching.

We got to know the characters and the setting inside and out, and the work began.

Together with other artists I took part in the exploration for the Demon Pope, the 404s (which are my personal favorites), Uni, and the Drone. That’s a lot of creative input that we were entrusted with, and opportunities like that are rare. After the initial exploration phase, I had the chance to work further on Uni’s design and collaborate with an amazing group of artists to push it in the right direction.

The task isn’t easy. The simpler a character is, the more impact every subtle change has. But everyone involved is incredibly hands-on and committed to making this little unicorn shine. I can’t wait to see the final result on the screen at the @THU 2026.

Sometimes, when I have the chance to mentor younger artists, I get asked how to get a foot in the door. This is exactly how. This is an open project. Everyone can contribute, whether it’s drawing a silly little sticker, creating a piece of concept art, or simply offering a word of encouragement. It’s important to recognize these opportunities and make the most out of them. In today’s world, building connections is more important than ever. No action is too small, what matters is taking it.

We were given the opportunity to build something together. We have people from different backgrounds and skill levels, all working side by side and exchanging ideas. And we do it all with a healthy dose of chaos and an enormous amount of love for art.

I’m not exaggerating when I say that working on this project completely revived my desire to create simply for the joy of creating.

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Environment Contest

Cezar Loureiro aka Hevon

My name is @Cezar Loureiro, I currently live in Portugal and work as a Game Artist at Studio Bravarda, a game development company that I also co-founded. Throughout my career, I have primarily focused on creating art for video games, contributing to various stages of visual production and helping bring the creative vision of our games to life.

I first heard about TAOS from a longtime friend, who had collaborated with Delcio on previous projects. Participating in TAOS' open dynamic is an incredibly rewarding experience. I had the opportunity to create concept art for the Slums Zone, which gave me the opportunity to reconnect with an area of art that I have always been passionate about: concept art. After spending approximately six years focused mainly on game art and asset creation for games, I had been somewhat disconnected from concept design focused work. This project was a great opportunity to sharpen those skills again while also learning new aspects of animation production pipelines, a field I had not previously worked in. It was also fascinating to collaborate with such a diverse group of artists and contributors, each bringing their own unique ideas and experiences to the project.

I am very glad to be a part of the TAOS community and being able to contribute with the project, and really grateful for being selected as one of the contest's winners, which will give me the opportunity to attend THU later this year. I am excited to see how everyone's efforts come together in the finished production. Additionally, being able to attend the premiere represents a unique opportunity to meet new people, exchange experiences, and further expand my connections within the creative industry.

I can't wait to see which new aspects of the project I can collaborate with in the upcoming months. Thank you so much Delcio Gomes, Fer Costa, Inês Coimbra, Maria Gorbacheva and all of the TAOS team for giving us a chance of working on something truly fun and creative.

Renan “Bari” Amorim

Hello, my name is @Renan Amorim, I’m a Concept Artist and Illustrator from Brazil!! I'm a recent grad in Animation, and my experience consists mainly of animation projects and illustration for advertising!!

However, despite having had many great opportunities, my biggest dream has always been to create worlds. I've been creating worlds since before I could properly hold a pencil, because, being neurodivergent, one of my characteristics is that I've always been absent-minded and scattered. I think and create stories all the time, and over time they've become more and more a part of me, an extension of my being, where my imagination, besides being a refuge, has also become a beautiful strength of mine, which, despite being rebellious and hindering me at times, has also allowed me to experience many good things! I'm passionate about Concept art and Visual Development, and also about writing! However, up to this point, despite evolving and studying a lot to improve my art, I hadn’t yet had the opportunity to work with it! And that's when Delcio and TAOS came into my life!!

My story with TAOS started at the last Career camp when Delcio gave us a talk about the process of making @Everlasting with the THU community! It was such an awesome talk, and it was beautiful to see how much Delcio truly believes in the power of community! What Delcio said inspired me a lot and made me very excited to participate in the next production he mentioned he would be doing and invited viewers to participate, in this case, TAOS! Since that day, when I talked to Delcio, I've been very excited to have an opportunity to contribute to the project! And since I joined the discord server, I participated in a script reading, which was incredibly fun, and I loved the experience, and also participated in the Concept Art Contest designing some environments for "The Slums" area, and it was wonderful!

During the contest I was able to wander and conceptualize through places like the Dark Alleys, the balconies, and the apartments of this incredibly rich world. I was so happy that several times a day I found myself thinking about ideas of what to put in my environments, the props I could create, how to properly represent the mood from and how to meet the production needs. It was magnificent when I discovered that not only had I done a good job, but I could also go to THU main event, and have the amazing opportunity to work on the project as an Environment Concept Artist!! 

It was magical for me; this project has ignited a powerful and warm flame in my heart that makes me increasingly certain that I chose a path that makes me extremely happy!! Hearing Delcio talk about the project, about his vision of the artistic world and art, about everything, is extremely inspiring, and being able to work alongside such incredible and wonderful people, both as artists and as people, makes me think I'm living a dream!! I'm loving meeting other artists, I've made wonderful friends, and I feel I'm growing enormously as a person and as an artist!! I believe strongly in this project, and for me, it's a pleasure to be guided by the incredibly talented and kind hands of Delcio and the other artists who coordinate the production to finally do what I love and help create the incredible world we are building!!

I’d like to express my deepest gratitude to the entire TAOS team, to Delcio for his wonderful feedback and care, to Fer Costa and Ines Coimbra for all their support, to Maria Gorbacheva for her guidance, and to my friends Fernando Viana and Soup for their partnership and encouragement, and to all the other incredible artists!! It might sound cliché, but THU and this beautiful TAOS project made me feel what it truly means to be part of a tribe and grow as a group! And I think that's what we need most right now!!

Rein Peñaflor 

My name is Rein Peñaflor, and I'm a concept artist, storyboard artist, narrative designer, and game developer from the Philippines. My work is heavily inspired by film, animation, games, and world-building, and I enjoy designing environments that tell stories and reflect the lives of the people who inhabit them.

I joined TAOS because of my twin brother, who introduced me to the community and encouraged me to join the contest with him. From the beginning, it felt like a unique opportunity to collaborate with artists from different backgrounds while contributing to a larger creative vision, what immediately drew me in was the script and the world behind the project. I had the opportunity to work on environments for the Slums Zone, exploring a grounded yet futuristic vision influenced by dense urban spaces, layered communities, and cyberpunk themes. I wanted the environments to feel lived-in and relatable while also hinting at a future shaped by rapid technological change.

One of the most rewarding parts of the experience was seeing how many talented artists came together to interpret the same world from different perspectives. It was inspiring to be part of a community that shares ideas, pushes each other creatively, and collaborates toward a larger vision.

I'm incredibly grateful to the TAOS team for the opportunity and honored to have been selected as one of the contest winners. Attending THU later this year is something I'm very excited about, and I'm looking forward to learning from other artists, meeting new people, and continuing to contribute to the project in the months ahead.

Thank you to Delcio Gomes, Luna Mckee, Fer Costa, Inês Coimbra, Maria Gorbacheva, and everyone involved in making this opportunity possible.

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Community Projects

Raquel-Agnieszka Szmaj Llácer

I'm @Raquel Agnes, a hobbyist 2D animator with a knack for hand-drawn animation. If you were in 2024's THU Portugal and saw a gal with a flour sack flipbook, that was me! I've learnt about TAOS through last year's online talks, and since that moment I had very clear I wanted to be part of the project.

My moment came with the first Call for Contributions: a contest where anybody could submit their vision for the characters in the film. Ideas are evaluated over technical skill, and the guideline submissions were intended as starting points rather than limitations. Now, I'm not a professional by any means, but I knew I wanted to make an animation whenever I got the chance, and this was it.

The director, Delcio, wanted to portray Uni as this embodiment of creativity, and to convey that, he wanted him to shift art styles every frame. I wanted to bring that idea to life through a short animation loop as a way to test it out and foresee any potential obstacles along the way. I set myself something manageable yet challenging: I have never animated a four-legged animal before, and I do it by flipping paper sheets like in the old times. I started doing this as a way to give my art more options, and make it less dependent on technology - and I'm very grateful TAOS has allowed me to do this.

After all the frames were drawn, I took it as a personal challenge to paint each frame with a different material, most of them continuing the traditional theme. I went for everything that was already laying around in my house and then some: acryllics, crayons, markers, colored pencils, watercolors; but also clay, stamp markers, colored salt, eggshells, and even toothpaste - yes, toothpaste! It just goes to show the freedom given for this contest and how crazy and creative you can go.

Of course, even if I painted all the frames on my own, the idea for the final iteration was for them to be painted by different people. In the spirit of that, I offered my frames to the TAOS community, so they can paint them themselves, and compile them together once again to see them in motion. We even got children of the community members to paint the frames, which is an honor for me.

The best part of this project is that you don't need to be a professional to leave your mark in the film. The community has people from all walks of life, and they're all very, very welcoming. Whether you're deep in the pipeline trenches or making stickers for the film, there'll be very few projects that allow you to express yourself the way TAOS lets you, no matter if you have 30 years of experience in the industry or 30 months in this world at all.