Line

In my Fine Arts class, we were assigned the first project, called “Line.” I only had five days: five days to do whatever I wanted to do, five days to outdo my past self, and five days to make a new best that would be my new worst.

On Monday, I animated as though my life depended on it. I did not have a computer or animation software, so I researched how to create a flipbook animation. I brought my detailed storyboard drawings to school with a big binder clip attached. I worked on it whenever I had the chance, using my school laptop as a lightbox. A light would shine through the pages giving me a better view of the past pages. 

That week I stayed up late until 1 AM while working on it. Some nights I didn't even go to bed at all. The joy of flipping through the pages and seeing the glimpses of movement gave me the confidence to continue. By Thursday, I  reached 300 pages. It was so big that I could not flip it, and some pages started to skip. My heart sank, and I wondered whether all my work was in vain. Fortunately, my friend offered me her scanner to use, and I stayed at her house for ten hours scanning the pages, one at a time. Once all 300 pages were scanned, they were converted into a video.

My sleep-deprived self was overjoyed. The pictures were moving. The character came to life. That night I could not sleep because I dreaded my fate. Would everyone laugh? Would anyone understand it? 

In class, everyone else had something physical, and I felt even more nervous. Then it was my turn. My video played on the big screen, and I stood there for 41 seconds while others watched my video. Everyone was in awe. Suddenly the room erupted in cheers. 

Ever since my freshman year of high school, I have strived to push myself, yet I continually keep in mind that the moment I think I have succeeded is the moment I start falling back down the mountain. Being able to reflect on my creations has given me the drive to continue, not because I am in awe of my work, but because I see my mistakes, and they inspire me to continue to improve. I believe in dreaming big, but big dreams come with risks. Even if I fail, this serves as a valuable lesson. I learn how to pick myself back up in order to try again. If I don’t try, I’ve already given up. Failing involves trying, and if I have never failed, I will never experience success. Therefore, I choose to take risks. 

For this animation I drew about 300 pages on the computer.  Later the drawings were put to motion.  My inspiration came from multipute flip book artists on youtube. They made an impact on my decision making resulting to me wanting to put my story to life. I wanted to do a flip book but later decided that I couldn't flip it since it was so big, so it became a scanned animation.

There were many challenges that I faced such as time and resources. I drew about 300 frames, this took a long time resulting in sleep loss. I also realised that I couldn't flip the book so I had to find a scanner. Scanning also took time, it took me six hours to san in my drawings. I had to cut some scenes because I realized I couldn't finish in time. By cutting out some scene this made the story more easy to understand which was beneficial in the long run. This helped with my time problem.

 My inspiration for the plot line was introversion and how to be healthy one needs to socialise. At first, I thought of a fictional world where stick figures creatures are called Lines. In this animation the first Line you see is an introvert, and can't dance the way he wants to. This Line becomes unhealthy and is depressed that he can't dance. This brings in the title and my opening line, “Healthy introverts need to socialize.¨I learned the art of opening lines from creative writing.  Soon after, two Lines knock on the door and dance for the sad line; this makes him sadder because they can dance how he wants to. One of the happy Lines grabs the sad Lineś arm and all three lines start dancing, while this is happening the sad lines arms begin to move slowly until he can dance the way he wants to, this makes him happy and healthy. He begins to grow a light.  I used the art of creating a plot line and that is what I learned in drama class.  

In the beginning second I created the word,¨ line.¨ I did this with the Line figures.  I used formation of dance in the word to create this. My title and open line is,¨ healthy introverts socialize,¨ This conveyed  is conveyed in the sad line´s purple underneath the eyes. This represents bags underneath eyes. These bags disappear once he sociales with the other lines the unhealthy bags under lines disappears and this represents that he's is healthy. 

In the being, the line is overcome with an unhealthy sadness; this is represented when he falls down the stairs and a cloud of dark colors are above him. When I was drawing this I listened to sad violin music. This shows drawing emotion at the beginning reflected the sadness and created a story we learned this from music class. 

 In this animation the Lines dance; they move thier bodys at the beging the sad line is dancing in a jagged way with his arms. Later on this Line loosens up and becomes wavy and can dance how he wants to. I used line of dancer in this. The dance gives emotion, especially the curvy lines at the end, which symbolize happiness unlike the beginning, where the sad line dances and makes a jagged line.

This is similar to what we learned in dance. I convey emotion through visual arts by having each line of drawing convey an emotion.  This idea compliments the music and dance elements to this story. An example would be when the sad line expresses anger at the two second mark.  Sparks fly out of the sad Line´s head. I used zigzag lines to convey frustration. I also lead the veiwerś eyes when I added lines that follow the direction of the sad Line´s eyes in the 38 second mark. This conveys better when the Line is looking. I also use this technique when the Line´s eyes look at something; this can be seen throughout the story.