Introduction

For the Junior Documentary Project, we were challenged with finding an important or interesting figure in our community and conducting an interview with them to share their story with the world. To further add to their story, we researched related topics to develop a specific perspective on our subject which we later incorporated into our paper in English, a brochure, and an elective final project. In Animation, we were assigned a short animation on our research topic. This unit emphasizes narrative-style journalism and allowed students to develop their researching skills, as well as their technique in their elective class.

English

I based my research paper on the importance of having a hobby, especially during Covid-19, when our options were significantly limited. My interviewee was my brother, Nicolas Weng, who answered questions about his dancing journey. When I was introduced to this project, I immediately thought about my brother because his passion for dancing has been prominent during these past few years. Through this project, I was able to try a new form of writing and learn more about a meaningful topic.

Animation

In Animation, I chose to create a short documentary video about my brother’s dance experience, specifically the significant events he shared with me. The project was definitely challenging for me because it required an immense amount of time and effort. Additionally, I had little experience with After Effects and I ran into some issues during the production process. Regardless, I was proud of the outcome and this experience has been valuable to me as it has shown me what I am really capable of and helped me improve my animating skills.

Process

After interviewing my subject and recording it, I began animating some of the topics he talked about in Photoshop. After all of my animations were drawn, I imported the files and the audio into After Effects to put everything together.

Most of the scenes in my documentary animation were frame animations that I created in Photoshop. The first photo above shows the first scene that I made. I began by drawing the background and adding color. I then proceeded to draw the characters and copy and paste them, while adjusting what was necessary. The next image is of a short clip that I animated using frame animation as well. I was inspired by a work I had seen, and I thought it was different from what I had previously done. I was extremely content with the outcome!

After finishing all my drawing in Photoshop and exporting the files, I imported them into After Effects. I played around with different transitions by using the keyframing function. Here, I also imported the audio file from the interview, as well as music for the beginning and end of the animation.