Blog Post 1 (9/7/2022)

I have a general sense of what I would like my senior project to be about. I want it to be an animated short (fully drawn in 2d format on Procreate) with thematical elements surrounding mental health, existentialism, and self love. During the summer, I created an original character, Sierra, and possibly want to use her for this animation. I still don’t have a strong grasp of her full story but I do want to base it off my personal experiences with depression and anxiety and express that through her story. I think that way, I will be able to make this animation more authentic to the feelings and themes I want to portray and make her character feel real and genuine instead of just making this animation just seem visually appealing.

I have several aesthetic inspirations I have in mind; namely, “Dear Basketball” directed by Kobe Bryant and animated by Glen Keane. Glen Keane’s sketchy, hand-drawn animation style is something I want to emulate in this project with an obvious twist with my own artistic style and considerations. Thematically, my work will be inspired by “A Silent Voice” directed by Naoko Yamada and created by Kyoto Animation as well as a myriad of Studio Ghibli films such as “Kiki’s Delivery Service”, and “A Whisper of the Heart”.