THE PROCESS

I came into this project much more nervous than in previous projects. I knew this would be my first independent film, and I consider myself less of an idea generator than an actual animator. I was incredibly nervous that I could not make something interesting and engaging. However, I was excited to attempt to push the boundaries of what I could animate and how I could tell a story through non-conventional methods.

We were shown previous years’ work at the beginning of the project to set expectations for what we should aim to create. Something I noticed from one of these past works was that there was a piece with an incredibly smooth and well-established style, one that this person has spent years curating. It was extremely well-made and smooth, but I realised then that I wished to avoid this as much as possible. I knew I would be able to experiment with character animation in the next rotation, so attempting to stick to the boundaries of my style would be pointless and would get in the way of me experimenting in other, more interesting ways. One of my goals entering this project was to genuinely try and break past my established style that I have spent so long trying to curate and to try something completely new.

CREATING MY AUDIO

Discovering that I would not be working towards my own audio was daunting initially, but overall, it was incredibly freeing. Not only could I be free to make interesting and unexpected decisions in my audio-creation process, but I could also go into my assigned audio with a completely open mind and work within the limits I was given.

I was immediately drawn to the prompt “Electric Love”, as some of my favourite movies, games, and TV shows are based around robots and androids (I was immediately reminded of the 1984 film Electric Dreams, which I adore!). I felt like I could have a lot of fun exploring sounds in computing, robots, and tech, especially how they influence our daily lives. Other influences included:

• Love as a Construct, Portal 2  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOD3kMNb1sA&ab_channel=Batistuta.rwm – This song from the 2011 game Portal 2 served as a big inspiration, as well as the entire aesthetic of the game in general. The song has a solid rhythm amongst the chaos, with some droning synths that are calming and interesting. The game revolves around being the sole human in a world of robots, and you get to explore some of the gritty innards of the machines that make the facility you’re stuck in tick. It constantly inspires me as it’s such a fantastic aesthetic with so much to explore.
• Daisy Bell, Computer Speech Synthesis by the IBM 7094, 1961 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41U78QP8nBk&ab_channel=SlavenRadovic – This immediately stood out to me as the original Electric Love song. This is also an inspiration (but only a minor one, as I can’t make music!) surrounding the idea that robots can feel love, even the silly-sounding ones.

Sourcing my Sound Clips

This was an enjoyable process as my friend Salem and I went around my house recording every single appliance and electrical object we could find. Almost all of the clips I used were sourced from my home, from my telephone to my blender. I also sourced some clips from my dad’s workplace – a printing company with many rhythmic printers, vinyl cutters and construction machines. These were incredibly loud, jarring, and chaotic, inspiring me to lean into the chaos to create a crescendo of noise that takes you by surprise.

Attempt 1 – ‘The Worst Thing I’ve Ever Made’

Inspired by the slow, droning rhythm of ‘Love as a Construct,’ I attempted to create a rudimentary beat to ground my sound effects in Garageband, but this did not work as intended. Rather than feeling beautiful and terrifying, it sounded silly and downright stupid. It was clear that I needed to rethink my approach to making my audio, as I could not rely on any musical elements due to my lack of knowledge in the field. This was a significant step forward, as it lowered my scope of what was appropriate for the brief – it made me realise I couldn’t think so big about what I could make. Unfortunately, I did not save this first version, but it was genuinely the worst thing I’ve made in a while. I do have the original beat from Garageband, though- it’s really that bad.

Attempt 2 – ‘Something Usable’

After the fiasco of my first attempt, I approached the piece with a different mindset. I exclusively used the audio I had sourced with Salem and tried not to think too hard about the order of things and what that could mean for the piece’s story. This way, I could rearrange things in ways I was not initially expecting.
I was really drawn to all my sounds coming together to reach a crescendo of sound. I originally intended for the buildup of sounds to be rhythmic. Still, as I worked, I realised the unordered chaos of the sounds made it feel much more vivid and immersive and would allow for more creative freedom for whoever received my audio. I included overlapping beats with some of the tech I recorded, like my dishwasher and telephone. I’m happy with the unedited nature of my sounds, meaning you can single out any sound as you listen. However, it still creates a new experience through all the layering.
However, I realised I had accidentally made my audio far too long, very close to the deadline. I did not realise until I had mixed down my tracks—in Adobe Audition, I had been working in beats rather than seconds. So, my piece was 45 beats long, rather than seconds, meaning it was around 1:27. This was incredibly annoying, and I’m frustrated I didn’t notice it sooner, but I was able to shorten my audio. However, the final version felt significantly faster and had less time to sit and ruminate. There also may have been a cut at precisely 45 seconds, so I’m even more frustrated at the rushed conclusion of my sound.

Attempt 3 – ‘A Different Approach’

Since I had created my audio based on my own clips rather early in the project, I decided to experiment with my dad’s software, which has his keyboard hooked up to Cubase, with a library of hundreds of interesting sounds, computer-generated tunes, and ambience. This was a great experience, and I enjoyed coming up with an idea based on the countless sounds there were to source from. I sourced a lot of underwater ambient noise inspired by the ‘In the Beginning’ prompt- a primordial soup. I was also inspired by the PES animation ‘The Deep’, where vintage metallic objects are reimagined as deep-sea creatures. The spooky ambience in this added a lot to the film and was in the back of my mind as I made it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AK18bdUEWSs

I chose against this piece because I didn’t source the audio myself, and there were fewer interesting points to work with, mainly ambient sound. I also made this one far too long, as Cubase, an application for music generation, is also measured in beats.

FINAL AUDIO SUBMISSION

Overall, I am pleased with the quality of my audio, considering I had to halve it due to time constraints. I am still amazed that I or anyone around me noticed the incorrect timing, but it holds up quite well and has much to work with for whoever receives it. There is an intense emotional buildup that leads to an interesting and unexpected conclusion, and considering the discussions we had around audio not necessarily needing to match the sounds you hear, there is much you could do with it.
My dad said it reminded him of a Wallace and Gromit-style machine, whirring away to make who-knows-what, whereas Salem said it made her think of a robot making lasagna. There is a lot to work with! I’m proud of myself for picking up Adobe Audition so quickly, but it doesn’t feel nearly as intuitive as some other Adobe products (why can’t you set a definitive clip size?). I’m eager to explore it some more in future projects, as the sound-altering capabilities are exciting.

RECEIVING MY AUDIO

Receiving my audio was daunting at first, but I am incredibly pleased with its quality. It felt inherently linear to me like someone entering a car and switching the stations—I don’t think I’m creative enough to reinvent that entirely! So, I decided to break down what I could hear into sections that I could twist in interesting ways—see my initial notes from the day.

I love the mixed media element of the brief and wanted to make that a main focal point of the story. I wanted to have fun and enjoy making unexpected things in my piece, and soon enough, I was able to cobble together a general idea for the story. I always have a shot that becomes immediately clear to me, and this was the car letting out the smoke that changed the environment around them. This became the focal part of my piece – the world around this character transforming drastically. I soon began experimenting with what styles I could present and how to push my piece’s mixed-media elements.

INSPIRATIONS – I wrote these at the time, rather than after the fact!

Weirdness Bubbles – Gravity Falls

This is a really entertaining sequence in which two characters are forced to traverse through’ weirdness bubbles’ created by the antagonist, Bill Cipher. Each bubble they enter changes the fabric of their reality, turning them into birds, then live-action, then ‘anime’, etc. It’s a really comedic sequence that brings many surprises but keeps the audience engaged.

Richard Gets A Job – The Amazing World of Gumball

Another amusing sequence is when the main character’s lazy, unemployed father gets a job delivering pizza. This destroys the very fabric of the universe and forces the main character’s family to pursue him, but any time they get close, they are transformed into something crazy. For a show that consistently incorporates mixed-media styles, this felt in-universe while still being a crazy departure from the norm.

The most relevant detail shared between these two sequences is that the characters are still and unmoving (and, funnily enough, in a car, just like my piece), and the audience has ample time to appreciate the change in art style around them. It’s not too much information to take in at once, which elevates the whole piece. I should include this in my piece if I want it to be understood by my audience.

Vewn – Twins in Paradise

I am particularly drawn to this piece because there is a sequence within the animation where the main character enters a computer simulation / dream-like state that sets itself apart from the main environment of the world. The coloured lineart and bright yellow sky with floating nonsense are so interesting and visually appealing, and I would love to try to emulate this impression in my piece. Neon colours, nothing makes sense—even less sense than usual.

Also, the backgrounds Vewn draws are inspirational to me as they make so much sense while being completely outlandish. They are also ideal, considering I struggle with realistic backgrounds so often. I recognise I need to learn the rules before breaking them, but due to the short time I have to make this, I need to decide on a style quickly.

MOODBOARD ANIMATIC

This surprisingly useful exercise helped me visualise many ideas I then jumped from. I mainly looked around Pinterest, identifying things that fit my ideal colour scheme and art styles that interested me. I also found helpful references to car interiors and exteriors, which I find complicated to draw.

This also served as a helpful exercise in deciding the art styles I wished to delve into for the radio-switching sequence. While I ended up carrying out different styles from those I showed in my animatic, they were helpful in the initial design and production stages. I want to create something in the unused styles at some point in the future. I would say that choosing to include different styles from the ones in this animatic was a good call, as I simply didn’t have the time to do them justice in the time we were given. However, looking back, I’m not sure I utilised this animatic as much as I should have, particularly in the later stages of production. I often do this in my work, frequently leading to me deviating from my original ideas in my final pieces.

LIVE-ACTION STORYBOARD

I was feeling very uninspired to create my storyboard right off the bat of the Last Night On Earth project, so I enlisted the help of my mum to create a ‘live-action storyboard’, experimenting with some different shot angles. This animatic was invaluable to the creation of my piece as it provided me with heaps of references of the interior and exterior of a car and some tough perspective shots that I simply wouldn’t have been able to draw without a reference. This also directly inspired some of the real-life elements I used in my piece, as being in my mum’s car meant I could figure out ways to film shots that would look interesting and save me a lot of time. While it didn’t capture any of the emotions or expressions I was going for, the actual time between each shot was established, which was a key element to have figured out by this point.

BACKGROUND TEST

Inspired by Vewn’s work, I drew a background that accurately depicted the visual style I was initially drawn to. The audio I picked lent itself to a grey, dingy environment, so I attempted to emulate that. I have always struggled with creating convincing backgrounds, so I worked from an existing image to help ground my art in something real. It was a good experience, but the colours weren’t exactly what I was going for—they felt too real, and I wanted to go for something more whimsical.

However, due to time constraints, I ended up settling for this background. It got the gist of what I wanted to convey, which was good enough considering our strict time constraints. I colour-corrected it to fit the scheme of the piece, but if I had more time, I would have loved to redraw it using the same brush I used for my backgrounds, as it is one of the weaker parts of my project.

CHARACTER DESIGN

I wanted to create a weird-looking character—gender neutral, a little confusing, and not immediately clear what kind of person they are. I wanted to keep the audience slightly on edge throughout the entire piece, so I opted for a character that didn’t immediately make sense or could be attributed to either gender.

After drawing up a few concepts, I showed my work to Sofia, who argued that my character’s shape language was too spiky for the environment they were residing in. While I agree entirely, I had a lot of fun making this design and enjoyed drawing it, and I don’t get the opportunity to animate the characters I like. While I recognise this is a selfish decision – choosing a character I like over making it make sense- but that’s kind of the attitude I’m taking into this entire project.
After learning more about the ins and outs of character design from the Lip Sync rotation, I’m now able to realise how little planning went into the creation of this character, and this simply can be attributed to a lack of knowledge and experience. Many elements of this project could have been greatly improved if I had spent more time investing in specific aspects of the piece, but I simply didn’t have the time or knowledge.

Ryan’s ‘Character Sheet’

This was about as much information as I had on paper about Ryan’s design. I wanted to keep their design loose to play around with, making them look a little different every shot. I really wasn’t particularly focused on details or creating a completely perfect design, as I wanted to experiment and have fun with what they could become!

ANIMATIC

After deciding on my overall storyline, I spent a weekend creating an animatic to solidify my ideas and confirm that it was worth pursuing. The process was made significantly easier thanks to the live-action storyboard my mum and I made- since I had already done a lot of the experimenting with angles and shot types, I could focus on the character and emotions they experienced. I wasn’t too worried about continuity as I worked; I was just going for the general story.

The idea of The Horse appeared at this stage. I had already decided upon something weird and unexpected getting into the car (I had used my dog Milo as a precursor for this in my live-action storyboard), but horses are strange, creepy, and unnerving (I was thinking about those horse masks you can get on Amazon), and it would be a fantastic surprise to work in an entirely different style than usual.

While I wasn’t 100% sure about the mixed-media forms I would be using at this stage, I knew I wanted to attempt photobash-type animation, as that felt like the most unexpected form of animation to include in my piece. I also knew I wanted to create some cut-out paper animation, as it had always been something I’d wanted to look into (and I love South Park, so it seemed almost necessary).

PREPPING FOR ANIMATING

Even before animating, I was highly aware that I needed to be able to multitask and handle more than one scene at a time if I ever wanted to get it done. As a result, I decided to create a reference key for the main mixed-media shot, where I would include all of the transformations my character goes through. By creating a reference shot of my character and their background, I could work on the mixed-media frames at university and the more tedious, nitty-gritty work at home and over the holidays.
This meant deciding my colour palette for the whole piece – something I did not have the time to do in Out Of Your Head, which caused me lots of stress at the time. I experimented but eventually settled on what I thought was a solid, cohesive look. At the same time, I was already sketching out and lining some other backgrounds, so I was working with a lot at once.

The sketch of my main mixed-media shot compared to some of the colour variations I was deciding on—since I hadn’t received any formal lessons on values, I was shooting entirely in the dark for something good, and I can see now how dim and poorly coloured these are. Still, I tried my best with what knowledge I had, and the shots functioned to tell the story.

BACKGROUNDS

So, while I was animating in mixed media at university, I focused my attention at home on creating the backgrounds to place my animation on. Only when I was almost done with these backgrounds did I realise I had completely miscalculated my timings—and I wrote this at the time:

“I realise (as I am writing this) that I have dedicated far too much of my time to this portion of the project, and I do not have enough time to actually animate anything. Because I struggle with creating backgrounds so much, I really tried to dedicate time to making them look good, but in the process, I neglected other portions of my animation that desperately required attention. I am very disappointed in this fact as I have previously struggled with time management in my work.“

This was a big problem for my workload and contributed to the massive amount of time this project took. Additionally, after receiving classes on colour theory and background design from the Lip-sync rotation, I realised just how weak my backgrounds are in terms of values. If I had known what I know now, I would have created several value sketches to ensure my characters look well-adjusted within the environment. I am really disappointed that I did not give many parts of my work more attention and scrutiny, and I just went with the first idea that came into my head. While I know I didn’t have much time to complete this project, it could have been stronger if I had given some parts more thought in the pre-production stage.

MIXED MEDIA

While working on ToonSquid at home, I could start on my mixed-media frames at university. I didn’t have much time left at this stage, so I immediately came up with the paper puppet I thought would be the most time-consuming mixed-media frame. I had previously produced paper puppets in prior projects (that’s a lotta p’s!), so I was confident in promptly getting it done. I bought construction paper from the university art shop, fabricated a puppet in the lesson, and created the background over the weekend. This was a lengthy process, but it felt intuitive when it was time to animate, and I greatly enjoyed it. It’s a shame I didn’t have more time to animate more of my piece in this style, as I adore working with this medium.

Another form of mixed media that I was immediately drawn to from the beginning was watercolour. Although I have experimented with the medium once or twice before, it’s a skill I’d really like to improve on in the future, so this was an excellent exercise for me.

The process of animating in watercolour was very tedious – using watercolour paper meant I could barely see on the lightbox, and I needed to tape down every piece of paper so they wouldn’t warp too much. The process was a long one and took me around two days to complete, but I am very pleased with the results – I don’t think it’s the most technically impressive piece of watercolour, but it’s obvious it’s a change in media, which is what I was going for.

LIVE ACTION

Inspired by my mum’s acting in my live-action storyboard, I wanted to include a live-action portion as an element of comedy in my piece. This was easier said than done, as the shot I was after was very specific and required a lot of setup and planning.

I was able to get the shot by having my dad and boyfriend hold up lids from plastic storage boxes with hockey shirts over them (as I don’t own a greenscreen) while my mum blindly put her keys into the ignition, wearing a similar coat to the one my character wears. I was in the footwell with the door open so I could bend over and get the shot, and I was recording on my brother’s iPhone as his camera quality is better than mine, and it has a 0.5 zoom lens.

That, alongside some garbage masking, colour correcting, and adding a circular object around a part of the wheel (near the centre) where the silver reflected the green material, I think the shot looks very well integrated, serves its purpose, and adds a level of playfulness to my piece.

OVER THE HOLIDAYS

Over the holidays, I focused my attention on some of the more tedious parts of my animation – the initial sections, like Ryan entering the car and focusing on the keys. At this point in the project, I really tunnel-visioned and started focusing on these pieces of animation as individual works of their own rather than part of a collective whole. This may have been a bad call, as I was not taking the time to consider how the whole piece looks/feels, and I feel it is not as strong as it could be. I was very concerned about how my piece would turn out, and I was struggling to stay motivated and work consistently, so I compiled my thoughts into somewhat of a ramble, which you can read below:

“Something I have been struggling with in this project has been motivating and pushing myself to get started. This elective has felt much more low-pressure than the projects we’ve had in the past. We are encouraged to work at our own pace, and there have not been any formal deadlines for having parts of our piece done by a certain point. Talking to people in the lip-sync rotation has been very eye-opening as they are pushed very strongly to get work done promptly and to specific deadlines. This is something I will keep in mind as I enter the next elective, but it also provides a contrast to the low-pressure feel of this project. As a result, I find it hard to get myself to work to the standard that I have in the past- there doesn’t feel like there’s a looming “threat” to get my work done. Getting work done shouldn’t be a threat, but being held accountable for having things done is really beneficial to me, and I have been struggling without it. I am not able to get my work done for the screening on Friday, which is a disappointment. Usually, I am much better than this, but I haven’t been able to output the same amount of work as usual due to the aforementioned reasons. Maybe I’m just burnt out.”

FINAL SHOT

A few days before the end of the holiday, I experimented with the idea of making my final shot completely live-action to avoid having to animate difficult perspective shifts following a car moving down the road. I figured this was a very out-of-the-box solution to a problem, precisely the vibe I was going for. I made this incredibly shoddy setup with green card and paper and enlisted the help of my boyfriend (again) to push a toy car down a fabricated road. I think this process produced many challenges and was a rabbit hole I ended up jumping down. Still, I had a lot of fun making the set and filming with my new camera- and I’m glad I didn’t just choose the boring option of animating something that could only come out okay.

ADDITIONAL MIXED MEDIA

In an attempt to add even more flair to my piece and really accentuate its weirdness, I scanned some of my jumpers from my wardrobe to act as knitted textures for Ryan’s scarf. This was a super easy addition that I think adds a little extra fun and texture, and it’s got me thinking about what else I can scan with my printer!

I got this shot done very quickly using True Grit Supply’s KolorMarc Studio Marker Photoshop brush pack, which has a fantastic range of super-realistic marker brushes. This was a nice little test of this new pack, and I made it digitally just for time’s sake. At this point in the project, I was already starting on lip-sync, so I ended up cutting a lot of corners. This was also why I used the “animatic” mixed-media in the radio sequence, as I ran out of time. This is something I am terrible with as a whole, and I must improve on for future projects- managing my time and making realistic decisions about how much work I can get done in time.

I wanted to keep the second half of my piece as weird and unexpected as possible, so clay backgrounds felt like an easy way to achieve this. By sculpting my backgrounds (based on the sketches from my animatic) on Plexiglass, I could key out the green and create a nice boil on Dragonframe. I’m really pleased with my ability to make everything seem a little weird and outlandish in this piece – I feel like I won’t get much chance to experiment like this in the future, so I wanted to take advantage of it!

The horse and birds were also corner-cutting techniques that meant I didn’t have to animate by hand, but still gave my piece some originality. By sourcing stock images online, cutting them out, and animating them in After Effects, I could quickly create convincing and engaging character animation.

The MS Paint section of my piece was an attempt to make a quick transformation that had some comedic value to it- having Ryan react to the environment around him in a quirky and confused way, I think, added just a little bit more to the overall appeal of the video. I animated the entire thing on MS Paint, and coloured exclusively with the pre-set colour palette, which was a lot easier thanks to the Layers feature in Windows 11, but this still took me a whole day to complete. I am upset that I strayed so far from my original ideas in my moodboard, but I think I did well trying to be efficient and get the video done quickly without sacrificing quality too much.

COMPING

The composition stage of this project produced many unexpected challenges, but I was motivated to find solutions to them as much as I could. I’ve gotten into the routine of making my animatics in After Effects, adding my assets as I make them, and timing them as I go, which means I was constantly able to check my progress and fix mistakes as they appeared. I think this is a very intuitive way of making animations, and I really enjoyed putting all the pieces together as I worked.

Making the cloud of smoke in the final shot work took a lot of fiddling with Alpha masks, and I can now say with confidence that I am a lot more capable of using this feature than I was before. Figuring out the order of overlapping layers took a lot of time, but I am overall very pleased with the result—I hope it’s clear to the audience what is going on!

The green screening process was a difficult one- the wheel shot of the key going in the ignition was surprisingly easy, but the final shot was a nightmare to put together. Not only did I have an extremely crude greenscreen, but there were many colours in my set, some of which showed up almost completely transparent once I applied the Keylight effect. I even tried masking out the shot in Photoshop- which ended up being even more of a waste of time since it didn’t look clean. After LOTS of fiddling with the controls (and help from the official Keylight user manual) I reached an acceptable result. I just masked out areas that had shown up slightly transparent, such as the floor and the chicken’s feather on the right-hand side of the screen.

The background of the final shot took a long time to decide on – arguably, it was just as much work as if I were to animate it conventionally, but I really enjoyed the method I decided upon. Colouring boils with pencils and scanning them was a lot of fun (also quite cathartic, scribbling as much as I wanted to), and I cut everything out on Photoshop to import into After Effects and animate. I could have mapped this so much better onto the background, perhaps utilising the 3D camera feature, but I simply didn’t have enough time, and I felt like my brain had no new capacity for knowledge. I will explore this feature properly over the summer, as I feel like it’s a much more intuitive solution to problems I’ve had during this project.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Due to our short timeframe in this project, the pre-production and research stages went largely undeveloped and would have benefited from more attention early on. I feel as if I rushed into the first idea I had – at least in terms of character design and backgrounds – and I believe my work could have been improved if I had time to consider some of the more foundational aspects of animation. After the knowledge I received in the Lip Sync rotation, I can now see how something like value sketches or considering the ladders of Ryan’s face would have improved the overall visual style of my piece, but this was knowledge I didn’t have at the time. Editing my workflow to invest more time in experimenting and playing has been a great lesson from this project.

I found inspiration from cartoons like The Amazing World of Gumball and Gravity Falls, which I enjoyed as a child for their weird and quirky approach to storytelling and comedy. However, perhaps broadening my research into more experimental forms of mixed-media animation would have made for a more cohesive final product.

One of my goals in this project was to create a narrative that encouraged a lot of experimentation and provoked interesting ways to complete animation that didn’t rely too heavily on my personal style conventions. I performed very well in this – creating a light-hearted and engaging animation that doesn’t attempt to say too much. In the previous tasks assigned to us, I worked hard to tell a story or convey a message, so I wanted to break free from that and make something undeniably weird. This approach to this project meant I could have more fun coming up with bizarre and unexpected solutions to problems, and the lack of rules, overall, improved the visual style of my piece. The actual story adheres very closely to the “narrative” of the audio I was given, but I believe the audio itself was incredibly linear. This allowed me to explore different styles without worrying about not being understood, so I feel I made the right decision in narrowing down my overall story to focus on the interesting visual elements.

I believe that, all things considered, I was very proactive in producing my animation. The hands-off approach to deadlines in this rotation meant I struggled with self-motivation to finish work on time, but I managed to pull myself together and work consistently to get my shots done promptly. The production process was incredibly long – not only working into the Easter holidays but through the next rotation as well – but this could also be attributed to my big idea requiring lots of time and energy. In the future, I should be more reasonable about how much work I can get done in a timeframe and how I can pursue these eccentric ideas without overworking myself. The last shot of my animation was another instance of this—it took a significant amount of my time, and many issues arose in editing and composition. While I was forced to cut many corners due to time and a lack of knowledge, I believe trying this idea taught me a lot about After Effects, and the effort was worth it.

One of my goals in this project was to approach things entirely differently and make something that didn’t look too similar to my style. As my work is more character-based, I attempted to create something unlike anything I’ve made before, and I achieved this very well. I enjoyed this approach to storytelling as I was encouraged to think in unexpected ways and work with mediums in ways I wouldn’t have thought of in traditional character animation. I want to maintain this approach to my work in the future, as it’s so much fun!

However, because I wanted to focus on experimenting in areas of animation I hadn’t done before, the quality of the animation in the first half of the film leaves a lot to be desired. I felt like I wasn’t pushing myself to my usual standard of animation, but this could have been solved with more time and better planning. I’d love to have been able to apply a similar (although not as much, I still enjoy the contrast of the two) amount of weirdness in the first half as in the second half—I even experimented with changing textures in the buildings in the first shot—but I didn’t have the time to give the same amount of attention to both halves.

Overall, I think I did very well in working independently with my ideas for the first time. This project has provided me with many new avenues of animation to explore in my own time and some foundational building blocks in editing and storytelling.