Tension
My senior thesis at Ringling College of Art and Design
CHALLENGE
To create a thesis film about the feeling of an anxiety attack, and being on a final thread before snapping.
FEEL
Tense, Anxious, scared, shakey
Research
When it came to this piece, I was looking through different styles and ways to show an anxiety attack. Through this, Paul Sharits’s Touching was a good reference, as you feel tense watching the film. The flashing lights, quick cuts, and utter unknowing of what is happening, help gave me inspiration for my animation style.
color palette
The color palette was suppose to be bold, with a distinct focus on only the rope and the flashes in between. The colors and stark contrast are suppose to make you feel anxiety and to make you feel tense, as it replicates this feeling that someone would have during an anxiety attack. With the quick flashes, and the inpending impact of what is going to hit.
#000000
#FFFFFF
#A8A3A3
#FA1818
PROCESS
During my screenprinting class while I was at Ringling College, I took a class on screenprinting. One of the projects was a two tone print, and with this, I used my cel frames as a basis, and printed out individual cels that I put back together digitally. It gives a very gritty finish, but works well with the messaging. Later on, I ended up not using the screen print for the final, however it was a great experiment.
Screenprinted cels. 21 frames were printed on a single page equivalent to a piece of printer paper.
The cels when put together for animation
PROCESS
During the process, it was difficult to find reference for the rope, and even harder to roto them well, as they weren’t giving the desired effect. So, I took reference footage of myself breaking rope. I also took footage with the rope being frayed a bit, just to get that constant of the rope breaking apart slowly, as when it was just broken apart by itself, it was too quick.
PROCESS
The roto process took a long time to work on, but in the end, I went for a style similar to Faith: The Unholy Trinity, and it helped with the tense emotion with the piece. I cut up 2 rotos of myself to create this experimental look
Final Look
Combined footage
First Footage
Second footage
PROCESS
Originally, there were going to be cut ins that included what it feels like when your having an anxiety attack, however that was later changed for the full rotoscopes. The rotoscopes made it feel more personal, as it was based off of my own experiences.
Heart racing
Choking Feeling
Roto experiment 1
Roto Experiment 2
Animation Passes
Pass 1
Pass 2
Animation Passes
Pass 3
Pass 4
Animation Passes
Pass 5
Pass 6
Animation Passes
Pass 7
Final Pass