Date of Submission

Spring 2023

Academic Program

Film and Electronic Arts

Project Advisor 1

Ephraim Asili

Abstract/Artist's Statement

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always loved the idea of creating my own world and characters. There is something so satisfying about taking a single idea and creating an entire world around it. I remember watching “Avatar: The Last Airbender” and being blown away by the diverse and vibrant world they created. My favorite subjects are written arts and film. This is because after having spent most of my life reading stories and watching tv, I feel like I’m truly creating something that I would’ve enjoyed when I was younger. Writing and Film classes best teach me how to create what I love. I normally use Adobe programs, mainly Photoshop, Animate, and Premier. While I am familiar with other programs, I’m most comfortable with Adobe software as that’s been my go-to program for years.

For my Senior Project, I created an animatic pilot episode for a series that I’d been planning. I started by writing an outline for a story idea that I had for a while. After going through multiple different versions and getting second opinions from my friends, I completed the outline. After that, I wrote a draft of the script, eventually going through six drafts until I was satisfied with the script. Once the script was done, I moved on to designing and drawing the character designs for the main and side characters as well as the monsters. With the character designs taken care of, I began storyboarding. While reading through the script, I drew small storyboards for each shot, scene, and movement. By the time I’d gotten through the entire script, there were four hundred and nineteen individual storyboards. After scanning the storyboards into my computer, I divided them into scenes and put them into Photoshop. Using an IPad and an Apple Pencil, I redrew each storyboard until the frames were detailed enough to tell the story. Each frame was detailed enough to portray what was happening well, but not enough to be a finished product. With the storyboards done, I turned my attention to the audio. I recruited voice actors while also collecting sound effects from the school’s library and online. It was challenging to find voice actors whose voices matched my characters. After meeting with, and recording the voice actors’ lines, I cut and altered the audio to match the script. Once that was done, it was only a matter of syncing up the audio with the finished storyboards, as well as adding the sound effects.

While there were certain things that I was unable to do for my Senior Project, I was still able to accomplish my main goal: to tell an interesting story that the audience would want to see more of. I feel that I have done exactly that.

My future goal is to become a graphic novel and webtoon writer. I hope to partner with an artist to pair with my writing and create a series together. My dream is to one day write a series with such an in-depth world and characters that it’s compared to a series like One Piece. I hope to inspire others the same way I was inspired as a kid. My biggest inspirations are Neil Gaiman, Brandon Chen, and ONE. All three are examples of exactly the kind of work I want to do. Besides creating incredible work, they also did so with minimal drawing ability. They are amazing writers that paired with artists to create something incredible, and I hope to follow in their footsteps one day.

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