Pre-Production

I used the school's art studio for the opening sequence. I got permission to use it verbally from the art teachers. I just had to make sure I didn't get the exam art pieces in the shots. The room is brightly lit with a lot of natural light. I didn't need to clean up too much as I wanted it to look really artistic and full.

This area was going to be used for the last scene. I needed it to look like a blank slate with a bunch of boxes. It was supposed to be the true new beginning for Gary. I wanted the wall to be completely white and empty, so when the paintings went on, this was like him accepting those more vulnerable parts of himself and finally letting himself express genuine feeling through his tears. This space was good as the main light source also came from the side, paralleling the ini

For the office parts, I decided to use the school office area. Permissions had to be obtained from the HR and admin department and was done so via email. After the exchange, at lunch time, I took a bunch of photos around the area that I wanted to film, making sure no documents could be read. I looked around different rooms, but ended up really liking one with a bookshelf on the side. The main objective is to have it look like a typical and mundane office and that one fit that

I had done another animation test on Procreate with Gary blowing out candles on a birthday cake. I wasn’t sure if this scene was going to be in the final, but I did like the composition of this. This positioning was how I initially planned the life montage to look like. Anyways, this animation test was relatively simple and took me about half an hour to complete. I drew six frames, trying to keep Gary’s characteristics consistent. I had learnt something called ‘anticipation

I knew I wanted the childhood home shots to be done in my childhood home as there were multiple doorways that resemble the one I had in my head for the montage-ish part of the short film. I did a couple of test shots by placing my phone on a tripod and imaging where I could add the animation. An important part of the montage is also the lighting. I wanted there to be a light source coming in from the side of the frame (almost like representing Gary’s enlightenment leading him

“All of our storytelling theories have one thing in common, all revolve around one central idea: the incomplete is made complete; sense is made.” “Great characters are consciously or subconsciously at war with themselves.” ― John Yorke, Into the Woods: A Five Act Journey Into Story I took these quotes and tried to apply them to my story, especially the second one. I really liked the idea of how true conflict is not through external influences, but rather internal. This is im

I started on the character design for my animated character. All of these were done in Procreate. I had read in the book 'The Art of Up' that simplexity was the formula they used when creating the characters. Specifically how they assigned different shapes to different characters, already visually representing their personalities or their behaviours through connotations. They wrote that 'The circle represents the future; the square symbolises the past.' and '“Most of the dyna