Day Off

2D Animation, Illustration

In this story, we go on a calm journey through a day of observation and reflection. As we watch, we discover that the things we might think are ordinary can actually be quite extraordinary, and vice versa. This animated short is a tribute to the people in my life who taught me to find happiness in the little things. Each part of the story is like a meeting point between what's usual and what's strange, making us reconsider what we call "normal." When the day turns into night, the character sits by the window and sees something incredibly beautiful and magical. They take a picture to remember it, adding it to their collection of similar moments.

Key moments from the full piece:

Process:

The process begins with design: the character, props, and colors. Hoping to keep the colors whimsical and relaxing, I based the color scheme off of a sunset, which had enough range to convey the passing time, mood, and gave me a good contrasting palette to convey lighting. Keeping in mind how the extraordinary and the ordinary could overlap, I designed the fruits, drink, and plants in a way that looked like real life but with differences that ranged from subtle to more obvious. All my references stemed from actual existing objects; this was necessary to keep the design somewhat grounded and easy to believe.

Drawn in Illustrator before being brought into After Effects to be animated, the style is angular with no use of bezier curves. Though it doesn’t utlize curves, it can emulate that look and feel. In After Effects, everything was animated with the puppet tool and basic position and rotation keyframes.

One of the greatest challenges was finding a way to keep the audience’s attention while still keeping it relaxing. The mood is meant to relax but also to generate curiosity. With each slow shot, the audience is meant to take in the details and question what could be next.