Animation: “Identity”

The concept of the “Identity” project was to visually express the road to self-discovery that people face when coming out by using anonymous interviews of members of the LGBTQ+ community. The work as a whole is a celebration of the bravery of the coming out process and a way for individuals to relate to the content regardless of how they identify. The inspiration for this piece came from my hardships and accomplishments during my own coming out process. I chose to keep the sequences in black and white with pops of color here and there to contrast the personal, heavy topics with more of a simplistic-looking sketch.

2018 Senior Art Capstone Project, 1/3. This is the story of a lesbian who comes to terms with her sexuality by falling in love with a close female friend of hers. She describes the experience as a “period of incredible intensity” and that the relationship felt really right.
2018 Senior Art Capstone Project, 2/3. This sequence tells the coming out story of a trans boy and the growing acceptance of his identity by family and friends
2018 Senior Art Capstone Project, 3/3. A young lesbian woman shares her story of her first love and how feeling this way about another woman made “everything fall into place.”

While this is a form of digital media, the way to create all of the films was by drawing each scene frame by frame. Many shots were well over 100 frames. The project was done using a technique called rotoscoping, which is the process of animating over the footage. It is a very technically precise artform; no frames can be skipped in order to achieve a level of smooth, fluid movement.

Other Animations