Premise - Reflective Statement

Fig.1 - Reflective Statement

For my premise I got excited for this project when writing the script and talking to my childhood friends, being reunited again. My friend Virginie (played by Virg) was easy to find as she was always in my contacts. However, Xander was a hard one to find since we both did not have anything about him. Luckily in Belgium, we would go around handing out a friendship book (in Dutch, vrienden book) where people would write their details in. I found this book in my room and used it to find him which wasn’t easy but found him at the end. This is why Alex disappears first in the story, a connotation that we never had a hold of him. After talking about the story and reminding each other about the fun times we had as kids, this helped me with creating my story as we would remember things differently from each other which I refer to and gave me the idea of a ‘glitch’ in the mind. When making this story I was thinking of leaving little Easter eggs in the background and acting to summarise everything in my childhood in Belgium. We would always say it was like living in paradise because all the fun we had was unreal.

Fig.2 - Rough Drawing

Coming up with the script took a lot of time which I think helped go in full details as every detail means something. For example, the stars, flags, tree, the one slow-motion in the scene and the ending. I had a good experience with creating the story because is something I never thought of and a puzzle for an active audience to put together. I also loved creating the characters as it is everything, I never thought it would be, with the big head and small body. I thought that was an interesting character design since it gives different personalities that people could relate to and shows how different we all are.

The challenges I faced during this project again was time management. I found that I seem to move in my own time instead of disciplining myself to start something. I also think Anxiety took control a lot as I just kept worrying about the future and where I am/ was heading which made me stationary. At the end of the day looking back at my 1st-year work and the Fantastic Voyage I did, made me realise why I chose this subject which was to learn everything about animation and enjoy it, nothing to do with the future. However, I should still think about the future but don’t stress about it, since my mind tends to focus on one and that thing alone in details.

Fig.3 - Animatic

Doing the animatic I enjoyed every moment of it, however, never knew it would soak up a lot of my days. As I was drawing, I would go off the script a little as I thought it would be best in a certain way. When drawing them I could imagine them being animated and how they would move since they have this big head creating their character making them more childlike. What I found very fascinating when understanding the character in each frame was how each character moved differently which I loved. What I think went well in the project and mostly character designing is people/ friends picking what character they could relate to or liked. Which reminded me of my childhood when watching a tv show and having favourites, which I thought was perfect for this situation since the characters are wearing clothes featuring their favourite tv show and character.

Fig.4 - Characters

In conclusion, what sense I can make out of my experiences is that I have to be sterner to myself because at the end of the day each step you take goes somewhere. I should focus on making my deadlines and not hesitate to ask for help, in addition making sure the exact time each task is going to take. In my opinion, everything went well except for timing as time is my weakness, however coming up with ideas and doing/experimenting with work is my strength.

What I would do differently is stick to a routine even though I may not like it until I get used to it. If I don’t, I would change the routine. What I wouldn’t do differently is how I approached my project (forgetting the abusement of time) in creating it because I was able to think so much about it in details and was able to reunite with my friends.
Looking at the outcome of this ‘reflective statement’ and the others past that. I am going to work on a routine for my mind and tasks.

Fig.5 - Stars In My Mind