Inspiration and Process

Ever since the release of Frozen, when someone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, my answer was an always an animator. It's hard to tell if your dreams change if you have no experience working towards them. So, for my independent fellowship project, I decided to utilize my then limited animation experience and create a short film. This is a great example of something that I did scared. 

In terms of process, every element of this animation was digitally illustrated in Adobe Illustrator, then the elements were separated out and moved over to Adobe After Effects. Here, each piece of the project was able to be animated. Most of this project was spent learning and experimenting. I would spend hours on YouTube and animating individual key frames. I have loved working on this, and while I am really happy with the result, I am not sure this is the completed film. While it has already been edited and advanced since its presentation, I definitely foresee myself adding to this animation as my skills progress, because it truly is a passion project.

The inspiration for this story was my growing up in competitive cheerleading. While tumbling, you have to ignore what may make sense in your mind and trust your strength and instinct. This is much easier said than done. I had struggled with a mental block over my tumbling for many years, athletes younger than me surpassing me while I could not get out of my own way. In the end, it was the positive support of my family, teammates, and coaches, as well as learning to trust myself, that really got me through it. In my life, I have been both frogs. I have been stuck and struggled with mental blocks, and I have aimed to help others through their own so that they don’t endure the same struggles that I did. I have recently been introduced to the concept of “Do it Scared” through social media, and I WISH that my younger self could have heard that. Who knows what kind of difference it could have made. This animation and the message that it portrays, it now something that I carry with me everyday of my life, and I can only hope that it makes an impact on you as well.