Hi! My name is Estelle Sabik-Ebert and I am an Animation student at Freestyle. In the year that I’ve been here, I’ve learned more than I have in the last 3 years of art classes. I love the community here, and how helpful and kind all of the teachers are. For the future, I hope to pursue a career in art, whether its Animation, Character Design, Graphic Design, or something else. I plan on majoring in Graphic Design at SDSU, and working with peers on the student magazine at the university. I hope to have a career that I enjoy, and something that makes me happy, which is why I chose to major in art. Outside of Freestyle, I like to make jewelry for myself, and right now I’m learning to crochet. Climate activism is also one of my passions, and something I want to work on in the future, whether it be a career or on my own free time.

Animated Music Video

I wanted to show off one of the projects I’m most proud of creating at Freestyle, my Zenith project, which is an animated music video. I would love feedback on how to improve my animations, or suggestions for software to try out. As well I’d like to get feedback about the characters in the animation, and if you think their dynamic is well portrayed by the animation.

Animation Reel

I chose my overall best works that I created during my time at Freestyle. I would like to know if I should include other work, like character designs or storyboards, as well I would love feedback on ways to improve my animations.

Reflection

For my Zenith project, I knew I wanted to portray the fun of having a close friendship. I wanted to create a montage of two characters and their friendship. I went through the entire animation process to create this piece. I started with storyboarding, then created an animatic. I then animated and colored the characters in procreate, which is also where I made the backgrounds. Throughout the process I used Photoshop, Procreate, and Adobe After Effects. This project was my first time creating a full, colored animation. I really wanted to practice cleaner animation, and I think doing this project has helped me grow and improve my animation. I would change some things, and I plan to continue this animation and improve it later on, but overall I’m proud of what I created.

As a first year senior, it was very strange going into Animation without the 2d animation experience that everyone else in the class had. Our main focus was 3d animation senior year, which I loved learning about. I enjoyed each step of the process, especially modeling. One of my favorite projects this year was probably 3d character design. I really enjoy designing characters and creating backstories for them in my head, then trying to convey all of who they are into their design. In my reel I also had some clips from my Zenith that I was really proud of, as well as other 3d models I created. One project I featured was the Senior Narrative, where I worked in a team to produce a finalized 3d animation. I found this project super fun as well, I enjoyed making new models, and actually animating the characters as well as the camera. I’m super proud of how it turned out since we had run into multiple issues, like the model’s skeleton not working correctly or the expressions stretching out the entire face. Lastly, I featured a couple of side project animations I did while at Freestyle. I wanted to practice effects, which is why I animated the explosion. My other animation was a bit of practice with character animation and expressions.

Freestyle has been amazing, and Animation has been more than I could ever ask for. Each project you get to showcase your creativity and improve your skills at the same time, which has been incredibly helpful. I’m so grateful I joined Freestyle and had this opportunity to learn new skills.