For the daydream video project, it was challenging to come up with ideas that combined animation and have a great story-telling experience. Many of my initial ideas were either too complicated to animate or didn't have enough story to fit the project's required length. My first concepts involved playing sports like basketball or football, then transitioning into an arcade game character (the animated part) while the real-life version of me played the game. Another idea was to show the experience of long-distance relationships. I liked this concept because I've been in a long-distance relationship with my girlfriend for the past three years, and I know how challenging it can be. I wanted to present an idea where your partner could teleport to you at any time and place. Fortunately, spring break allowed me to visit my girlfriend in Iowa City, where I could film and plan for this project.
When I was in Iowa, I created a storyboard (attached below) to visualize my plan for this project. Before starting the drawings, I thought of the two segments that I would animate to meet the project requirements. I decided on the idea of a paper airplane representing a note being sent from me to my girlfriend. I envisioned the transition to animation as I threw the paper airplane off my porch in Boulder. As it flies across the country, various landscapes would appear in the background until it lands at my girlfriend's door, symbolizing the long-distance relationship between the two characters. For the other animated segment, I plan to keyframe my girlfriend's movements in the video, allowing me to create my own animated character that will follow her movements.
The next scene shows my girlfriend reading the note before transporting herself to my apartment (though in reality, we filmed it at her apartment). Her journey would be animated to convey that she is there, yet not entirely present. In the following scenes, I plan to include a montage of us engaging in different activities like playing video games, watching a movie, and talking to highlight the joy of her presence. The project concludes with me hugging her goodbye at the door as she slowly fades away, leaving me alone by the door. These final scenes aim to show that, in long-distance relationships, the time spent together feels brief before reality sets back in.
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