Anim Ch 18: The Great Comeback

May 28, 2020

Anim Ch 18: The Great Comeback

Where life's influences become animated metaphors, and dark places spawn creative resilience

Hey there, fellow animation enthusiasts! I know what you're thinking: "Where have you been hiding your animated self?" Fair question. I've been out of touch with animation lately, but that's what happens when too many people try to influence your life. Sometimes you need to step back and recalibrate.

Knock Out: When People Touch Your Life

This piece—"Knock Out"—emerged from a particularly dark place. Not all influences push us in positive directions, right? It's essentially a visual metaphor for those moments when people's touch leaves an impact, whether wanted or not.

The beauty of animation, though? It's been my creative lifeline through these challenging periods. When words fail, frames speak. There's something therapeutic about channeling negative experiences into something that moves—literally and figuratively.

Animation becomes therapy when life becomes overwhelming.

Who Is In My Face?

Remember that animation of people running into the face of a giant sculpture? That was an extension of my ongoing exploration of identity formation—who makes us who we are?

We've become such a strange generation, haven't we? Finding independence through co-dependencies. Filling ourselves with people to avoid the void of time that should be just "mine." My mind jumps between different faces in my life like a goldfish in a too-small bowl—some from my past, others from imagined futures.

This piece is available as an NFT [here], for those interested in owning a slice of my existential questioning.Human soup has been stewing in my mind for quite a while now. This animation connects to an old post where I first explored this concept—how we all simmer together in this collective experience, individual ingredients creating something altogether different when combined.

The initial stages were rough sketches that evolved into this bubbling cauldron of humanity. Something about the metaphor just wouldn't leave my brain until I animated it.

Technical Experiments: Beyond Keyframes

After completing my course at Motion Design School, I've been testing keyframe-less animation in After Effects. There's something liberating about breaking free from traditional animation constraints—much like breaking free from life's constraints, I suppose.

These brutalist buildings with their moving windows became the perfect subject for this technique. There's something hypnotic about architectural animation, the way these rigid structures can suddenly breathe and pulse with unexpected life.

Better Dead Than Alive: Confessions of an Accidental Gamer

I used to be that judgmental person who looked the other way when somebody identified as a "gamer." In my mind, they were just man-babies in parental basements, playing games all day. Oh, how the mighty fall.

Everything changed when my cousin reintroduced me to Counter-Strike—right after I quit my job. You can guess how that panned out. Being me, I created this animation from screenshots taken during times I was "dead" in the game—turning even digital death into creative opportunity.

Sometimes the most unexpected influences create the most authentic animation.

This short required around 430 screenshots culled from a collection of 720. An unintended observation: many people playing with me were single men, making the soundtrack choice unexpectedly appropriate. I'm planning to add their in-game comments here later—pure gold found while compiling the animation.

These Days: Quarantine Imagination

One of my favorite time-killers during quarantine combined 2D animation with pixelation. The video compiles screenshots from Google Maps showing places I would have visited if not for the pandemic.

If there's one rule of quarantine creativity, it's this: frame-by-frame or bust. There's something satisfying about the labor-intensive process when the world outside is on pause.

Looking at these recent projects, I'm reminded why animation remains my most honest form of expression. When life gets complicated, when too many people try to steer my course, animation becomes my private language—translating experiences that words can't capture.

Dark places spawn creativity because they demand processing. Animation gives shape to shapeless feelings, movement to stagnant thoughts. Whether it's people running into faces, buildings with living windows, or human soup bubbling with collective experience—these moving images speak when I cannot.

And maybe that's why I keep coming back to animation, even after periods of absence. It waits patiently, demanding nothing but honesty.

If it is not last minute, it is not my work. Around six hours from the deadline, I received a Spam from the School of Motion(SOM) regarding the cutoff time/date of the application for a scholarship. I had browsed through the application process so I had an idea about it. I downloaded the assets and decided to take a nap. I figured I would be more creative with good sleep. So this short clip has been made in less than 3 hours. Partially being distracted with my friends playing counter strike. In times like this, I can't help but wonder what is going in my head and what are my priorities. I realized that I want things but I don't want to appear as if I give too many fucks. I want to achieve my goals with my intuitive skills and casually.

There were a couple of options I wanted to apply to. I ended up applying for advanced after effects and motion design, considering I have a license of adobe CC for a couple of months.

This was the brief that was shared, You can explore this in detail on their site.