A Zenith is the highest point, a climax. For our final projects as seniors in our elective class, we ha a Zenith Project to reflect what we’ve learned at Freestyle Academy.
Finished Zenith
My project is an animatic of the beginning of a story I’ve been developing. I took the character, Hollyleaf, and made an alternate universe with different plot threads. The beginning focuses on themes of omens, alienation, and responsibility. “Hollow Moon” by The Crane Wives inspired my project.
Behind the Scenes
An animatic is a finalized version of a storyboard that better reflects what the final animation would look like. I chose to give color to my animatic to build atmosphere and gain a better idea of what the final animation could look like.
I worked independently on my project because I had a specific vision for how the pacing and staging of the animatic would be. I was responsible for making my own concept art, storyboard, editing, and completing the animatic.
I incorporated my After Effects knowledge to put together the scenes I animated in Clip Studio Paint. I also learned more about the animation production pipeline from our short film earlier in the year. I applied that knowledge for focusing on the early stages of a production.
Reflection
In our English class, we wrote our reflections for the Senior Zenith project. Below is the script for my reflection and a Soundcloud Recording to listen along with.
My project is an animatic of a story I’ve developed since December, 2021. I took a character, Hollyleaf, from a book series and created an alternate universe. There was a playlist I made that captured the atmosphere of the story. One of the songs I have there is “Hollow Moon” by The Crane Wives. The original song was “Dedicated to all of the anxious thoughts that keep me up at night”. My story’s beginning act and the song’s intentions aligned, thus culminating in my animatic.
Artistic influences of mine involve other artists who also did their own interpretations of the character Hollyleaf. Her story draws artists towards it because of how transformative it is, thus creating a library of videos to draw inspiration from. I had three major videos that guided me.
“Scotland (Warriors – Hollyleaf AMV)” by virtualantlers has very clear character acting in the animation and the pacing of the story. There’s distinct scenes because of how the colors and environment change. The character designs aren’t burdened with patterns, which makes for a smoother animation process.
“The Wolf (Hollyleaf PMV)” by BlueJump works more like a slideshow, displaying gorgeous art. The color theme of red, green, black, and white for the project gives it a strong identity. The lineless style is unique and I was inspired by how the person gave a powerless character an ability for their alternate universe.
“Sin Triangle – hollyleaf amv” by peppermint-moss has a simple style with the black and white palette. The storytelling is clever with the speech bubbles. You focus more on the character’s emotions because of the simpler style and it also allows the animator to have more freedom with the character’s motions.
I chose to do this project independently because I knew I had a specific vision in mind for the pacing of the story and trusted in my ability to complete a three minute and twenty three second video. I also wanted to challenge myself by doing so. I expanded on my skills to self direct, creativity, risk taking, and productivity. Doing this independently meant I had to recognize what choices would maximize in efficiency and appeal.
I’m hoping to create other animatics in the future to continue the story since this one has left on a cliffhanger. I enjoyed the process of getting my story shared in a visual manner. I’ve become a better communicator and learned more about the animation pipeline.
The zenith project in my animation class brought us all closer together. Even if we were working on different projects, we understood each other’s obstacles and were supportive of the accomplishments we made in our zeniths. It has become a key memory for me because of the community building the project created for us
If I did the project differently, I would’ve done the assets as their own separate PNGs for the animatic and then edited them in After Effects. I did the scenes in different sections on Clip Studio Paint. Editing it all in After Effects would have created a more dynamic effect with the camera.
Animation is a time consuming process in general. You never truly understand the effort and passion put into creating an animated production until you try. I focus on the storyboard, concept art, and animatic stage of an animated work for my project and it has made me feel a lot of appreciation for the other works I see. For every movie, no matter how cheesy it is, there was at least one person on that team who gave it their all. I encourage the person reading or hearing this to give this medium a try. You’ll end up with a deeper understanding of the craft and maybe even have something to rewatch down the road.
