At the beginning of 2023 I was required to make an animation for my Illustration & Animation course at UCA Canterbury. I decided to make my animation around the idea that "A stranger is just a friend you haven't met yet" and decided to capture a small moment I experienced on a train on the way to London.

 

I was on the way to watch the premiere of Yes Theory's Project Iceman documentary, if you know Yes Theory at all, you know that they share this sentiment and have a large fanbase of people who enjoy meeting with strangers and 'seeking discomfort'. While on my way there, I found myself sitting across from a woman who had an airport tag on her bag which piqued my interest. Eventually, I worked up the confidence to speak to her and found that she was a very kind and interesting person. I wanted to capture a moment like this because it was very special to me. 

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Over the course of a few months, I hand drew each frame for my animation using crayon and edited it using a mixture of Adobe After Effects and Dragonframe. I also managed to find an Irish lady (Amy Robinson) who was kind enough to do the voice lines of the stranger through the Yes Theory community.

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I had a lot of fun creating this project, even if my hand felt like it was going to fall off. Using a mixture of traditional and digital media to create a short film was something I found myself enjoying a lot in the end.