The Bench
Animated Short Film
A lighthearted sort film about a bench sneaking through a busy park, chasing a mischievous pigeon.
This project was a short scene made as the final project for my After Effects course. The rubric was around a minute but I wanted to go further and push for a full short film. The concept was adapted from an old game idea for a stealth game based around a sentient park bench sneaking through a park.
I built out a color palette and made some test scenes. I also started experimenting with characters. I initially had them as silhouettes to save on work and time but decided to go the extra mile to fit them into the artstyle.
I started by iterating through some design ideas. I decided to take heavy inspiration from the Kurzgesagt style as I was getting into the channel and really admired the artstyle.
Then came the two weeks of arduous animation work. I honestly don't remember most of it but despite the program's slowness, I liked seeing the project come together. I did have to rush a bit at the finish line. After Effects refused to render the day before it was due, forcing me to viewport render and stitch it back together manually. I then also saved sound design for last, expecting to have a day to work on it.
It was a fun concept, I got to experiment using digital instruments and such but I gave myself so little time that I was working on it in my CS lab the class before. It was still rendering in my bag when I got to class. I'm still really proud of the final product, just not so much my time management strategy for it.