Oliver Keppie kept a diary detailing his work on creating an animated short film about depression for his final major project. Over several weeks, he conducted research on depression, created character designs and storyboards, tested different animation techniques, and planned out his production schedule. While the Covid-19 situation presented some challenges, Oliver found solutions such as completing as much work as possible remotely and revising his research. He also began a separate mini-project focused on character design to develop his skills and stay creative during this time.

1. Diaries
By Oliver Keppie

2. Week 1
• This week I started out by writing my pre-proposal. The way I wrote this was by keeping my ideas slightly more open and
just writing a general theme for what I would like to create. This was so I could figure out more of a specific idea later on in
the research and planning stages. I think my pre-proposal went well and gives a reader a good idea of what I would like to
create but still gives me the creative freedom to explore different ideas.
• I the created my inspirations. I started off by looking at animators who inspire me. This was a good place to start because
they connect directly to my project and I watch all of there work so I found it easy to speak about. I then started to look
into more broad areas such as color theory and sound. I decided to look into some more specific films such as “Inside Out”
which I think works well in my inspirations because of the similar themes between the project I would like to create and
the movie. To improve my inspirations I think I would add more visuals to prove and back up my reasoning and I would
also speak more about general inspirations that will have inspired me to make certain decisions when creating my piece.
• My proposal went quite well and I think that it was definitely helpful to have written my pre-proposal. I found that I
couldn’t settle on one idea just yet because I have a few in mind and I would like to decide on one after I have conducted
more research. One thing I struggled with was trying to find books that would relate to my project that weren’t just books
on animation. This resulted in me looking on the college online library for books on animation and media theory. I
managed to fill my bibliography but I think I managed to find sources that I will almost definitely use. The reason I have
done this is because I think it will be a great help to have all my sources in one area so I can easily navigate between them
and get the information I need where and when I need it. I tried to keep the proposal quite open to new ideas and
modifications so that I could adapt the idea later. I think that after I have done some more research into my audience and
what I want the subject of my film to go into, I will be able to decide for definite what I want the mood and tone of my
final animation to be.
• Overall I think this week went quite well although I had a few problems with finding books for my bibliography I think that I
managed to overcome this problem by using the college online library. I think that it will be helpful to go back and look at
my proposal if I need to get more of a variety of ideas as its quite open to interpretation.

3. Week 2
• This week I started on my first week of research. I started by looking into some existing products. The reason
I started on this is because it would give me a better idea on the path I would like to go down and it is also a
good way to let the reader know why I have gotten my inspiration from straight from the start. I then went
back and added a little introduction and explanation to what my product will be to add aa bit of explanation
and context to the research. From all this I have learnt a lot about color theory used in the shows I
researched and I decided to add a little research on the color and shape theory's I saw.
• I then did some secondary research on he main factor’s such as age and gender. I started some research on
location and income but couldn’t find enough useful information so I decided to cut these slides. I found it a
little tricky to find easy to display information. I spent a lot of time on these smaller slides because I know
that it is very important on the results of my product. I then created a short survey which I created a draft of
first and I decided to go with my second which was more heavily based on the mental illness side of my
product instead of the animation. I am going to write about the results next week. I think its important to do
both types of research because secondary can give you a more general idea of the audience your looking for
but with primary it can be very specific and a lot easier to send that information to a specific audience to get
more useful answers. It also allows you to choose specific questions that can impact the final product
greatly.
• After this I did some research into the causes and signs of depression as these are the things that I will need
to portray in my animation. I also wrote a lot about the context of my product and why I think I need to
create this. For this I researched how many teenagers are educated in depression at high school and also
what the main demographic for people to started getting mental illnesses was. This information was very
useful because it essentially made my product very well needed as my results showed that its teenagers who
need informing on this sort of stuff the most.

4. Week 3
• This week was the second week of my research and I got quite a good amount of research done. I
started by looking at the results of my primary research. I found this very helpful and I think it was
essential information to collect for my product to be created. I think most of the questions were
quite successful although a few individual ones could be improved. Some of the results in my
primary research were quite surprising for example the way that all 19 of my participants have
some sort of relation to mental health and it was also interesting finding out what people knew
about the symptoms of mental health. This will have an impact on my research because it will
help me decide what symptoms to put in my video as some need to be made more aware than
others.
• I then started to research into places that my product would be displayed and other animations
similar to mine. I started to look at why I was making my product and write a bit about why I think
this product would be useful. I found quite a lot of articles that backed up my point of saying that
we need more educational materials on mental health in high-schools. I also found the same
results from my primary research. I think this is one of the strengths of my research because it
validates the production of my product and it also means that there is more reasoning to create
it.
• If I had more time I would do a little more research on men's mental health as I found out from
my primary research. I did a little more research into men's mental health but I think I could do a
little more. I'm not yet sure weather my character is to be a male or female but it would help
doing the research if my character was a male. Overall I think that my research was very
successful and I know pretty much everything I need to to create my product from the symptoms I
will try to make aware to the reasoning behind my product.

5. Week 4
• This week I started on my problem solving. I started off by writing about the equipment I would be using and all of the problems I
could encounter. I also wrote about the techniques and abilities I have and then started on experiments. I think that the biggest
problem I could encounter would be trying to find a good suitable and different art and animation style. I started on some practice
animations this week but aim to get more done next week. I think this is the biggest problem because its hard to find the right
style on the first attempt and its always good to experiment with other styles until you find one that’s works best with the theme
and tone of the animation. I also have to think of many other factors such as the time I have to create this and that I have to design
everything in illustrator and it has to move. I am also planning on doing a few more experiments such as a sound test and a few
more animation style tests.
• I think we are doing problem solving because its an essential part of the production planning for any project like this. For example
its good to find out what things work and what don’t and its also a good time to think of how to overcome problems if they may be
encountered. For example I have planned for all of the problems I could think of that could possibly go wrong during the
production stage of my FMP. This means that if my work were to get corrupt or a screen size be different I already know how to
overcome this problem as soon as it happens, because I have planned for each of these events happening. Its also a good time to
practice and learn on what some of the outcomes may be. For example if I were to try a brand new technique now as one of my
practical experiments, I could either use it in my FMP or rule it out. Which would save time in the production and planning phases,
as I wouldn't have to test out lots of methods or styles.
• I think one of my greatest strengths in this entire project is that I'm comfortable with most of the software I am using. This means
that I will be able to get quite a good amount of work done which may allow me to go for a more detailed or tricky art and
animation style. This also means that I may be able to use some advanced techniques within my animation. So far I think that my
project is going quite well and I think if I keep on like this I will be heading for a good final piece. One of the things that concerns
me is that I think I will struggle to get it out there for the presentation stage of the project. I’ve not decided on how I'm going to
present my project yet but I guess I will have more time to think about this before I get to the actual presentation stage. Another
thing that slightly concerns me is my skills in After Effects. Although I know my way around After Effects, my skills are a lot more
limited as I don’t know how to work it as much as I do on Photoshop and Illustrator. Although, I have saved and seen many good
YouTube tutorials which will help me learn a bit better. I can watch these in this stage to save time during my production but I can
also go back and watch certain clips during production to refresh myself on certain aspects, or learn new skills.

6. Week 5
• This week was my second week of problem solving and I also did lot of practical experiments. I started off by
testing a graphics tablet. After thinking that I wouldn't want to use one the results of my test may have
swayed my mind. Although after the other tests that I conducted I don’t think I will have to use a graphics
tablet as I have settles on an art style that is made purely out of shapes. I started to conduct a lot of
experiments o the way I could make my characters move. I started off by looking at a lot of YouTube tutorials
of how to create a character rig and all of the videos I looked at used a program called Duik so I decided to
download it. After I got the program downloaded I did tests with and without it and found out that it is a lot
easier, quicker and looks better.
• The experiments I did consisted of 2 small Photoshop animation tests, 2 non rigged After Effects animation
tests, a total of 4 After Effects animations that used the Duik rigging tool and 2 that used a 3d depth of
perception technique. After conducting all of these I wrote in detail about each one and its strengths and
weaknesses, explaining why it is or isn’t worth using for my practice piece. These will influence my project
massively because they have changed the way I was thinking of animating my whole project. I am glad I
conducted the experiments with the rigging devices as it is going to allow me to achieve movements I didn’t
think I could before, therefore making the choices for my product a lot more open. I also think that this will
allow me to make my product slightly longer which could lead to me being able to create a better overall
story.
• If I were to learn anything before I started on my production I would try creating background animations or
prop movement as I haven't tried anything like that yet. I don’t feel like its essential to do that as I already
know how to do simple movements and I doubt it will be very hard to complete, although a little practice
wouldn't hurt. Overall I think that it was quite a good to work on a few of these areas especially in After
Effects as I needed a bit more practice in that area.

7. Week 6
• This week I started on my FMP planning I started of by looking into the fonts I might have
to use and explaining why I think each font would work within my product. I found these
fonts on dafont and selected ones that I could potentially use. I then looked at the color
scheme and designed my characters. To find the correct sound for my project was quite a
tricky one to decide on myself so I got some help from my peers. The results I found from
this small experiment helped me find out the answer to my problem which was to create
a mixture between two tracks as none of them fit the happy to sad tone of my
animation. I then started on my storyboard. I didn’t think my pictures were the most
clear so I decided to do an analysis of each box on the following slides.
• I think my first week of planning went quite well as I managed to get my project pretty
well mapped out. I think this has been very good for the overall project as I have most of
it planned out perfectly. I plan to do a schedule this week to make sure I can have it
planned out as perfect as possible. One of the biggest things that could go wrong with
my project is the fact that I may have bitten off more then I can handle. I have made my
project quite ambitious but I believe its better to aim high and fall slightly short than aim
low and just get it done. I think some of the strengths of my planning are the more in
depth storyboard analysis I think it makes it very clear.

8. Week 7
• This week I added a schedule to my planning and I also finished explaining the storyboard. I also
went back to my problem solving and added a small section at the end about Covid-19. The
hardest part of my planning was trying to think of a story idea that I could intergrade these early
signs of depression into without making them stick out too much and ruin the flow of the story.
Although, the point of my animation is to highlight the signs of depression so it was a hard one to
plan for. In the end I think I am happy with my storyboard.
• I think my planning went quite well and I have a good idea of what I am going to create and when
I will do it. I have also taken into consideration the whole Covid019 situation and tried to plan
around that the best I could.
• If I were to try improve my planning I think I would try and write a little more about how my
research links to the production of my final piece and how it helped my with my planning for it.
Although I think I have done quite a lot of planning and the schedule will definitely help me a lot
when I'm actually creating my final piece.
• In the light of the current situation I will try to complete as much of the work as I can possibly due
with the drawbacks I have to face. I have written about the problems I will face and the solutions I
will try to use although I am not 100% sure all of the solutions I wrote will be possible. I am also
going to go back to my research and add some small improvements as I have received feedback. I
will write up how I have improved it withing my next diary entry.

9. Diary Update (12/05/2020)
• This week I have managed to start some work on my new character designing mini-project I have taken on.
The reason I have decided to start doing character design in particular is because when I went to the
Sheffield Hallam open day one thing on the agenda was character design and life drawings. I also though
that it would be a bit more of a fun and creative project to keep me in the mood and ready for uni. So far I
have done a small bit of idea generation for animated show ideas and then picked my favourite and created
character profiles and mood boards for each character. The reason these are not in immense detail is
because I want to focus more on the actual visual representation of the character although I think they need
at least something for me to go off.
• I think it went quite well. Although I haven’t uploaded any of the characters I created yet (because there
unfinished) I am getting somewhere with a few of them. I have found it hard to make them stand out among
other cartoon characters so trying to find outstanding features or an original style is the trickiest part. I
watched a YouTube video on original character design and one way to see if you can guess the character is
by making the whole thing a black silhouette and seeing if you would be able to tell your character apart
from others. At the moment I haven’t achieved this and this is the hardest part in my opinion.
• One of the problems I have encountered is that I can only use Illustrator so I cannot add colour as easily as I
would like to as I usually do that in Photoshop. This means that the colours will most likely end up being very
flat or there will be none at all.
• This week I am planning to continue with the development of my characters within Illustrator and if I get this
completed I might try transferring some of them onto paper so I can add colour a little better or at all.