The Year 2 student I was paired with was Zhimeng Zhang. Before I received any files from her, I managed to find her Instagram account and was immediately in awe of her work. Her smooth 2D animation and riveting art style captured my attention instantly, and I knew we’d work well together.

Zhimeng was extremely punctual and responded to my email way sooner than I expected, considering how busy she must have been. She was eager to share her storyboards and creative explorations for her film, and I was eager to help in any way I could. She offered to let me assist her with some roughs for a scene, and I gladly accepted. According to an annotated storyboard, I was to animate the roughs for the “Grandpa” character over

Within the following week, I sent her updates as I worked and she offered her feedback where necessary. She was always quick to respond and encouraged me to ask questions when I needed to. This ready and open communication was great to work alongside, and her feedback was always concise and helpful. I was excited every time I worked on her project, and really wanted to make sure I did it justice.

Her character has a more complex form than most things I animated for my own projects, and the angles she had for some shots were an extra challenge. Still, I was excited to push myself and see how well I could manage to execute her vision.

In both these, it’s clear there isn’t much in terms of pacing, as I wasn’t entirely sure how slow or fast she wanted the film to go, but I tried my best to give her a decent base to work off.

This is the only minor setback I can think of- the lack of detailed direction in the storyboard. While she had provided me with a working file complete with the frames of her storyboard inserted as “keys” for the timing of the shots, I still felt a lack of precise direction. Since I was to merely carry out her vision for the film, I found myself unsure of how to pace the roughs without any real keys for guidance. However, since she was readily available for questions, I was able to make good progress.

All in all, though, this project was really exciting and presented a welcome challenge. I hope it was useful progress, even if it is a tiny blip in the workload Zhimeng has for the film.