TERM 3 – Serra
Week 1 & 2
This week marked the beginning of our Experimental Art unit, and it’s already shaping up to be an exciting and creatively challenging journey. The design brief sets a clear intention: to craft an engaging, interactive experience using animation, grounded in storytelling, observation, and innovation. I’m especially intrigued by the emphasis on exploring multiverses and questioning conventional design norms. It’s a unique opportunity to stretch both my technical and narrative capabilities.
We started by discussing our target audience. This was a crucial first step—it got me thinking more critically about who I’m designing for and why. Knowing the audience will help determine the tone, style, and platform for the experience, and it’s already influencing how I’m approaching the story.
My early ideas have begun taking shape around my Destiny 2 original character, Lucille. I’m exploring ways to tell her story through this project, and I feel a strong pull toward creating a tribute to Axis Studios, the cinematics studio behind some of Destiny’s most iconic animations, which sadly shut down in 2023. Their work has always inspired me, so this project feels like an opportunity to honour their legacy while adding my own creative voice to the Destiny universe.
Right now, I’m imagining a blend of immersive storytelling and cinematic visuals—something emotionally resonant that fans of Destiny could connect with. I want the experience to feel like you're stepping into Lucille’s world, whether through direct interaction or passive observation. I’m not locked into a single format yet, but the foundation is forming: something narrative-driven, deeply atmospheric, and experimental in how it engages users.
Next week, I’ll start expanding on the world-building and research Axis’s visual storytelling methods more closely. I’m excited to see where this leads.
Week 3
This week has been a major turning point for my project. After some reflection and discussion, I decided to shift directions and move away from the Destiny 2-inspired narrative. While I was excited about honouring Axis Studios and telling Lucille’s story, I realised I wanted to use this opportunity to explore something more personal and emotionally resonant to me.
I’ve decided to revisit a storyboard I developed during George’s Term 2 unit—one that explores ARFID (Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder). ARFID is something I have a personal connection to, and I think this project gives me the space to depict what it feels like to live with this disorder, alongside other mental health challenges. It feels honest, raw, and important to bring awareness to an often misunderstood condition.
The creative approach will be an experimental film that combines multiple mediums: live-action film, 2D animation, and 3D animation. The experimentation lies in how these styles interact with each other, sometimes seamlessly, sometimes jarringly—mirroring the disjointed and overwhelming experience of mental health struggles. Each medium will represent different layers of thought, emotion, or sensory experience, allowing viewers to step inside the fragmented reality of someone dealing with ARFID.
I’m currently revisiting the storyboard and brainstorming how to visually translate sensory overload, fear, confusion, and the isolation that often comes with eating disorders. This new direction feels much more personal and emotionally charged, and I’m hopeful that the end result will leave a lasting impression on viewers—something the design brief really encourages.
Next steps will involve experimenting with how these mediums can merge and support the narrative. I'm excited (and slightly terrified) by how much vulnerability this project requires, but I think that's what will make it powerful.
Week 4
This week was heavily focused on the production side of my project, particularly diving into asset gathering and 3D environment creation. Since the 3D world will serve as the foundation for my 2D animations and film footage, I’ve been treating it almost like a character of its own—shaping it carefully to support the emotional tone of each scene.
I’ve begun building two distinct 3D environments in Unreal Engine, each designed to represent different emotional states tied to the experience of living with ARFID and related mental health struggles. One scene is meant to feel isolating and heavy, while the other leans more into anxiety and overstimulation. It’s been interesting figuring out how environmental design—through lighting, weather, and space—can subtly communicate emotion without needing a character present.
A big part of this week was testing different water assets, which have become a central visual metaphor in both scenes. I looked for water types that matched the emotional tone—still, reflective water for the more introspective, emotionally numb scene; and more chaotic, flowing water for moments of overwhelm or tension. I also experimented with lighting setups and skyboxes to represent different times of day, shifting moods through sunrise, dusk, or grey overcast skies.
Everything is being developed in Unreal Engine, and I’m using the Sequencer editor to render the shots. It’s been a learning curve, especially balancing visual aesthetics with performance and rendering quality, but it’s also really rewarding to see the environments start to take form.
Overall, this week helped bridge the conceptual and visual sides of my project. I’m starting to see how the mixed media elements—2D, 3D, film—will layer together, and it’s motivating me to keep refining both the technical and emotional aspects of the piece.
Week 5
Experimental:
This week was all about character creation and refining the visual identity of my piece. I focused on drawing a series of PNG characters for the various shots in my film. Each character is designed with intention, representing different emotional states or moments in the narrative. Some of these characters are animated GIFs that I created using Procreate on my iPad, while others are static illustrations that will be brought to life later through motion in Adobe After Effects.
What’s exciting is how these hand-drawn elements are starting to interact with the rendered 3D environments from Unreal Engine. Layering the 2D animation on top of the cinematic 3D backdrops is creating a really striking contrast—it merges the textured, emotional feel of traditional animation with the depth and realism of modern digital environments.
I’ve also started experimenting with visual effects and compositing to blend these two mediums in a cohesive way. Things like light leaks, grain, colour overlays, and glitch effects are helping me craft a unique aesthetic—something that feels dreamlike, fragmented, and emotionally raw. This visual experimentation ties directly back to the core themes of the project: the disjointed, layered experience of mental health, and the sense of being stuck between internal and external realities.
Each new layer I add—whether it’s a drawing, a piece of animation, or an effect—adds more emotional nuance to the piece. It’s been really satisfying to see how this mix of old and new animation styles is helping define the tone of the project and deepen the storytelling.
Next week I’ll begin bringing these scenes together in After Effects and start testing how they transition and flow as a full sequence.
Week 6
This week marked a big step in the production phase: filming the live-action footage that will act as the core layer of my mixed-media project. I shot a range of clips featuring different poses and physical expressions, aiming to capture two emotional extremes—isolation and freedom. The goal was to create contrast through body language and movement, helping to visually communicate the emotional highs and lows that come with ARFID and related mental health struggles.
After filming, I began experimenting with basic colour correction and colour grading to enhance the emotional tone of each scene. It was a great way to push the footage beyond realism and into something more stylised—something that can better support the layered animation and 3D environments I’m building around it. Playing with warmth, shadows, desaturation, and contrast helped reinforce the themes visually, even before adding animation on top.
This was also my first proper week working in Adobe After Effects, which, to be honest, felt very overwhelming at first. The interface is dense and layered, and it took time to adjust to the workflow. That said, I’m starting to understand the logic behind the timeline, keyframes, and how layers work. I didn’t get very deep into animating this week, but I explored how my filmed footage, 2D characters, and 3D renders could be composited together. It’s exciting to see the potential of what this software can do, even if it’s still early days.
Overall, this week was about capturing authentic emotion, both through the camera and through the tone of the visuals. The footage gives me a strong base to start layering my animation and effects onto, and I’m slowly building confidence in After Effects. Next week, I’ll begin compositing more seriously and timing out scenes more precisely.
Week 7
This week I started pulling everything together and moving into the post-production phase. I imported the filmed footage into Adobe Premiere Pro, where I began organising the layers and prepping the scenes for compositing. It was exciting (and a little nerve-wracking) to start lining up the first few shots—seeing all the elements come together helped solidify the overall structure and pacing of the piece.
From Premiere, I brought the first sequences into After Effects, where I started building out the layered visuals. This included prepping and importing both 2D animations and 3D elements I’ve been working on. At this stage, a lot of my process has been trial and error—experimenting with different ways to blend layers, add effects, and create transitions that feel emotionally impactful and visually cohesive.
I also began developing a library of effects, textures, and transitions that I plan to use throughout the film. These include glowing outlines, distortion, layered lighting, and overlays that help the visuals feel surreal and disjointed—mirroring the experience of disconnection and overstimulation that I’m trying to represent.
Even though I still feel like I’m learning the language of After Effects, I’m starting to build confidence just by exploring and experimenting. Each scene I work on feels like a small puzzle, figuring out how to use tools and effects to support the emotional narrative rather than overwhelm it.
Overall, this week was about laying the technical and visual groundwork for the film’s final look. Next week, I plan to focus more on rhythm, sound design, and refining the animated sequences.
Week 8
University Adobe Certification Course
This week was a bit of a break from project work, as I focused on completing the Adobe After Effects Certification course. While I didn’t make direct progress on my experimental film, the time spent on the course was incredibly valuable. It gave me a much clearer understanding of the program, and it was a great way to build confidence with tools and techniques I’ve previously only touched on through trial and error.
The course covered a range of fundamentals and workflow practices, and I was especially glad to learn about the Puppet Tool—which will be perfect for bringing some of my still 2D characters to life with subtle movement. I also learned how to mask more efficiently, which will definitely help with compositing and layering animation into my footage with more precision.
Although I didn’t work on any of the actual scenes for the project this week, I feel like this was still a crucial part of the process. Getting a better grip on After Effects is going to make the rest of the production smoother, and I’ll be able to approach upcoming shots with more control and creativity.
I’m also happy to say that I passed the certification exam, which felt like a solid milestone in both my technical development and creative growth. I’m really glad I took the time to do it.
Next week, I’ll jump back into the project and start applying some of the techniques I’ve learned to the actual film sequences.
Week 9
This week was all about bringing my characters to life—and it was honestly one of the most rewarding parts of the project so far. Using the Puppet Tool in After Effects, which I learned through last week's certification course, I was finally able to animate my PNG drawings and integrate them directly into the 3D environments I built earlier in Unreal Engine.
It felt amazing to see the characters move and exist within the space I’d created. The Puppet Tool allowed me to add subtle, expressive movements that matched the emotion of each scene without needing to redraw full frames. Because I already had a good understanding of keyframes from the course, the process was a lot more intuitive than I expected—and far less time-consuming.
Some of the animations I completed this week have ended up being my favourite shots in the entire piece. There's something really powerful about the contrast between the flat, illustrated characters and the fully-rendered 3D world—they almost feel ghost-like, like emotional projections rather than physical beings. That’s exactly the tone I’ve been aiming for: a layered, surreal experience that captures how isolating and internalised something like ARFID can feel.
Now that the animation pipeline is flowing, I’m hoping to build momentum and push to the finish line next week. I’m feeling really inspired by what’s coming together, and the animation work is finally starting to reflect the emotional depth I’ve been working toward from the start.
Week 10
The final week has arrived, and it’s been all about bringing everything together. I spent the majority of my time in Premiere Pro, compiling all the footage, animations, and rendered sequences into one cohesive piece. Since After Effects only allows for one-shot-at-a-time editing, there was a lot of back-and-forth—especially for final touch-ups, adjusting graphics, and refining certain effects. While this part of the process was a bit time-consuming, it allowed me to maintain a high level of detail in each shot.
Thankfully, I’m very familiar with Premiere Pro, so the actual editing process was smooth and efficient. I was able to focus fully on pacing, audio, transitions, and flow—making sure that every moment felt intentional and emotionally resonant.
I’m genuinely proud of the final product. The combination of live-action footage, 2D and 3D animation, and digital effects has created a layered and stylised piece that feels true to the emotional experience I set out to capture. This film has become more than a creative experiment—it’s a personal reflection of what I went through during the most difficult periods of dealing with ARFID.
It’s raw, vulnerable, and sometimes uncomfortable—but that’s exactly what I wanted. I hope that anyone watching it can feel the emotional weight behind the visuals and maybe come away with a deeper understanding of what it’s like to live with this kind of disorder.
This project pushed me technically and emotionally, and I’m grateful for the space this unit gave me to explore both sides. I’ve come away with new skills, a stronger creative voice, and a piece of work that I truly feel connected to.