Zenith

My Zenith Project

Final Video

For my zenith, I wanted to make an original short 2D animation about a queer, cloud themed love story, which came with many challenges and victories. Being a first year senior, I had missed the first year of animation, during which students focused on learning 2D animation, and so before this project I had little to no experience with this medium. As a result, I could only utilize the skills I had learned from studying 3D animation, and I had to learn quickly on my feet for this project. Due to my lack of prior experience with this medium, I had to develop my technological literacy and self direction so that I’d create something I was satisfied with, and I expanded upon my creativity and visual literacy in the process.

Process Timeline

Photoshop interface while drawing line-art animation.
Background images painted in Photoshop. Inspired by artwork in the show Steven Universe.
Coloring Process for the photoshop frame animations. This one clip was 33 frames long with multiple subjects that needed coloring.
Screenshot of Premiere Pro interface. Compilation of all photoshop animations rendered into one document on top of music.

Overall, I had to adapt and work hard on many parts of this project, but it was well worth the satisfaction of seeing it finally completed. I know I put all my effort into it, and I hope the final product shows it. I’ve always wanted to see more LGBTQ representation in the media, and so I think contributing my own art with meaningful representation is definitely a step in the right direction. I hope that Freestyle students, present and future, will be able to enjoy and perhaps relate to my Zenith in their own way, and I’m glad I got the chance to put a part of myself into animation.