Overview

During my junior year of high school, I took on a capstone project. I decided to create a 7-minute animation about high school students' mental health during COVID. To make this animation, I used Procreate for drawing the scenes and edited them in Adobe Premiere Pro.

In April 2020, I came across a TikTok video that amazed me. It was an animation trailer with stunning graphics, music, and smooth movements. This 60-second video not only left me with goosebumps, but it fueled my creative passions. I felt inspired to try animation, even though I knew it would be challenging. But I had a burning desire to pursue this field.

Brainstorm

Sharpie in hand, I started jotting down stories on sticky notes and put them on a poster board. From there, I narrowed it down to two main ideas: plagiarism and dystopian themes. While I initially leaned toward making a dystopian film since I love the genre, I realized it would require drawing complex backgrounds and animated movements.

Considering it was my first film, I opted for the plagiarism idea instead. It seemed more manageable for me as a beginner, with a setting and story that weren't too complicated to create.

Script

Once I decided on the plagiarism idea, I needed to work out the finer details of the story. I wanted the film to focus on a student who loses their passion during the pandemic's isolation. To help me with the layout, I looked at movie scripts and referenced them to create my own script.

Character design

I named the main character Jake, and he struggles with low self-esteem and a lack of motivation for his passion - comics. To cope with his problems, Jake turns to plagiarism, which summons a character named Puddin'. Puddin' acts as his spirit guide, leading Jake on a journey of self-growth. Puddin's character is like the ghost in "A Christmas Carol," but with a lighter tone.

For the other characters, I collaborated with my older sister. It was fun creating super weird and funky characters together!

Storyboard

After finalizing the character designs and script, I proceeded to sketch the scenes for my animation. This part was really exciting for me as I could see my characters come to life in action. Creating the storyboard also helped me organize what I needed to draw and plan the motions included in the animation.

Initial Progress

Before starting in Procreate, I watched tutorials on YouTube to get familiar with the software. Despite watching a few tutorials, using the animation assist feature and tools was still new to me. Since I wanted a black and white color scheme, I used a graphite pencil tool to draw my scenes.

Drawing the scenes proved to be challenging as I dedicated over 2 hours to the film every day for seven months. Balancing this with my AP classes and SAT prep left me feeling exhausted. However, my motivation and eagerness to see the finished film kept me going.

In the video below, you can see my animation progress from January 13th, 2021. The transitions and movements are slow in this early stage. After recording this video, I set a new goal to increase the frame rate and add more motion to improve the animation.

Iteration

Once I reviewed my progress, I made a graphic organizer to note the mistakes I needed to fix and plan the sound effects for each scene. Next, I focused on improving the animation by adding more movements and increasing the frame rate to 6 frames per second, so my characters wouldn't look stiff.

After completing these changes, I revisited my graphic organizer and addressed any drawing mistakes that were listed.

Editing

After finishing the drawings, I exported them into Adobe Premiere Pro. Though I had some familiarity with the program, I needed a refresher, so I watched YouTube tutorials. With my newly acquired skills, I edited the frames, cutting scenes, and adding sound effects.

Even though it took me two weeks and was a bit tedious, I had fun working with the program because editing this animation was enjoyable. I felt proud to share my editing process with friends and peers since it looked aesthetically pleasing. Once I double-checked everything with my graphic organizer, I exported my final animation.

Final Animation

Seeing my final animation was an amazing experience. I had been so focused on editing and fixing minor mistakes in each scene that I lost sight of the bigger picture. Unfortunately, this caused me to neglect my SAT prep, and I ended up getting a score I wasn't happy with.

This realization prompted me to take action. I pulled out my planner and decided to create a schedule. I allocated specific time for each scene and school assignment, allowing me to balance my schoolwork with my future projects effectively while still leaving time for relaxation. It helped me find a healthier and more balanced approach to managing my time.

Takeaways

During my most exhausting school year, I discovered that I have tremendous motivation when pursuing something I'm curious about, even if it takes seven months to complete. While I expected to feel rewarded by my finished product, I found even greater satisfaction in reflecting on the challenges I faced and the hurdles I overcame along the way.