My name is Norma V Toraya and the species of rabbitfish before you is called a “Crankbunny”.
I’m a New Yorker living in Altanta where I work as an animator and unconventional stationer. People hire me to make them commercials, tv intros, music videos, projections, etc. I also work on my own personal films, build mechanical paper puppets, and run a small shop creating handmade pop up cards. I’ve lived in a bunch of different cities. I have a big fine arts and film/animation fancy schooling background - yet in the famous words of a few old men, “I’d rather be fishing.”
My work is a layering of traditional techniques like hand drawn animation, under-the-camera, painting, and pixilation / stop-motion with a digital mish/mosh of live-action compositing.
I’m a big fan of instinct. My friends and family all share the same frustration of not being able to reach me. Don’t be surprised when I can’t say captain, Massachusetts, thyme and hearth correctly - English isn’t my first language.
The press fancy biography -
Some things in life are slick, polished and blatantly obvious. But for Norma V. Toraya, who’s known as Crankbunny, these are exactly the things she shies away from. Instead, Crankbunny is more inclined to explore storytelling through curiosity and timeless concepts while working as an animation director and paper artist.
A fine-arts background in sculpture and graduate studies in animation have inspired a magical melding of different techniques in Crankbunny’s work - including her recognizable hand-drawn painterly style, traditional cut-out camera work, stop-motion and digital tomfoolery with live action.
Crankbunny has directed commercial spots, TV intros, music videos and documentary film shorts for Nike, ING, Nestle, Darkhorse, Holt Renfrew, Rush, Etsy, W Network, MuchMusic, United Airlines and other similar lovely folks. She also continues to produce personal work showcased through Stash, Wired Magazine, FITC, OFFF, DotMov Shift Japan, ROJO and gallery spaces throughout the world. Her short “Animals Will Leave Us First” is part of the Museum of Modern Art New York permanent collection.
Crankbunny with Quayside Publishing put out a book called
“Paper Puppet Palooza” which coincides with her own line of pop up interactive greeting cards. “Paper Puppet Palooza” is a storybook instructional on creating paper puppets, toys and automata that stems from her flat puppetry work in animation.
