Father and Daughter

My Senior Project

 

My senior project is a short animation based on Michael Dudok DeWit’s artwork.  The story is about the unbreakable bond between parents and children.  Being Asian, I was raised in a different culture than Western children.  I was taught to wait for your parents to sit down at the dinner table before you, for your parents to take the first bite before you do.  I was taught to fold my arms and bow to my parents while returning and leaving home and to give and receive things from them with both hands.  It seems like the relationship we have with each other is very different, yet the love is the same; it is unconditional.  Only our parents are able to say that their love for us is unconditional from the very first moment that they see us.  No matter what the child does, that love remains.  There is no dialogue in my animation, because it is unnecessary.  Just like the love our parents give us, it is very quiet and peaceful, like a safety net that always catches us when we fall.   

Show info:

 

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3D Animation

My comfort zone includes many things: my sketch book, brushes, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and Photography. However, it definitely does not include   Maya, Motion, or After Effects. I tend to have problems with these programs every step of the way. How come the program freezes while I am rendering? Why does the lighting look so strange? How come my reflections and shadows don’t come out right...etc. These are some of the gazillion questions you will encounter while animating. If you ask any animator, he/she will tell you the same thing. The creation of any animated piece  comes with many problems, and none of them are alike.

3D software is probably the most challenging tool I’ve ever had to use. I had little patience with these programs at first. I still have problems , but now I have learned that animating takes time and requires more patience than anything else I’ve ever done. After coming to this realization, I find a lot more joy in creating my works.

It’s because of these problems that I have come to like doing animation more than anything else. Challenges are satisfying, because once you overcome them, once you figure out what the dilemmas with your project are, there is no greater joy (especially at 5 in the morning when you yell“I KNEW IT!!!" and wake your whole neighborhood up – sorry dear neighbors)

This is why I’m choosing 3D animation as my senior project, my last and most important one before I graduate. Yes, it has come with many sleepless nights, frustrations, and screaming so far. I know that there’s definitely much more to come, but I can’t wait, because “the best is yet to come” :D.