To get a sense of Norma Toraya, aka Crankbunny's animation style, take a cue from an Addams Family pinball machine. "You're playing it, and you expect it to go a certain way, but then these magnets that run underneath grab the ball at certain times and shoot them," she says. "It's a very creative way of messing with a pinball game."

The same could be said of LA-based Toraya's dreamily chaotic work, which has been popping up of late in projects for the likes of Nike and music videos for bands such as Do Make Say Think. Her animated sequence for the band Maritime's video, "Someone Has to Die", starts out as a beautiful, bird-chirpy day that descends into blood and carnage. But somehow, it manages to be cheerful, courtesy of Toraya's loopy crab and lobster characters.

Working as a Web designer and animator since 1999, Toraya was born and raised by Cuban parents in Miami. She left home at age 17 to get her degree in sculpture from Syracuse University. Shortly thereafter she ventured into the design world. It was also around this time that Toraya took on the moniker Crankbunny - a name that started as a joke with friends, stemming from her "frantic little bunny doodles" - and one that stuck.

Toraya lived and worked in NYC for four years, freelancing and working for various agencies. But with the end of the dot-com boom, Web design work was dwindling and Toraya moved to LA to work as an animator. Now 27, she's been there for a couple of years, and she signed with Toronto-based Electric Company in spring of 2004. While she enjoys the strong creative community and steady stream of work that LA offers, she misses the urban jungle and plans on returning to New York. "I miss public transportation and all that a big city has to offer," she says.

In the meantime, Toraya hopes to complete a couple of personal works in progress: an animated film called Black Pillville, about a group characters dwindling their lives away; and a tattooed arm sleeve that has required multiple sittings at the tattoo parlor and a deep trust in her tattoo artist friend. "I'm not exactly sure what he's planning," she says. "I've just realized if I just let him do whatever he wants [with the design], it's the best."

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