Echoes of Balance by ruixue zhu

Software Learning

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-02 01:34:02 UTC

In the first week of class in IC.77, I started to try to use this software, and through the videos uploaded by the teacher on the bb and the on-site consultation with the teacher, I began to get started with the software.

However, I couldn't get used to learning this software, so after trying it, I decided to use my iPad to draw my animations.

10s Animation Text Storyboarding

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-02 01:37:58 UTC

In this week, I started to have some plan about this my animation.

Because the 10s animation is the role of the trailer, I intend to focus on the three identities and the process of constantly switching between the three identities.

Loop Reference

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-02 01:40:56 UTC

I found some videos as reference to have some craft about walk loop.

Style Choice

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-11 03:25:59 UTC

And also i need make sure my animation is 2D, stop-motion, or a combination of both.

For the time being, I'm still setting the tone of the animation style to be 2D, but I'm not averse to incorporating some stop-motion elements in post to improve my animation better. And also add some experimental effect.

and also, i watched this animation. The overall style of this animation is what I would like to have, there is a strong brushstroke style, and there are different styles to try in his animation, and I will also try some different effects in the later stage to make my animation expression more vivid. I also like the structure of his narrative.

Loop Plan

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-11 06:05:39 UTC

At the same time, i have a plan about loop.

WEEK 3 : Walk loop

WEEK 4 : Run loop

WEEK 5 : Wave loop

WEEK 6：Facial loop

Loop Reference

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-11 06:12:05 UTC

I watched the video and tried to draw some wave animations, and since there were no animations in my initial animation, I chose the paper fluttering and flag fluttering that I often see in my life.

Loop Reference

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-11 06:12:42 UTC

I didn't think there would be too many facial expressions in my animation, so I mainly chose a sleepy expression and a surprised exaggerated expression.

One of the more sleepy expressions, I wanted to add some other drooling animation to his mouth, so I went to find a reference GIF to help me achieve this looping animation.

Sleepy Facial Loop

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-11 06:12:54 UTC

Heavy eyelids, big bags under the eyes, I think it can be an exaggeration to express the state of sleepiness, and the act of drooling makes people feel sleepy when they see it directly.

Acting

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-11 06:13:18 UTC

At the beginning of the class, I played the role of a walking passerby, and while taking my own route, I also added a play to myself as a passerby who wanted to ask for directions. In the process, I found that there were other students who would add the setting of taking pictures while walking, which also surprised me because I didn't expect it at all. Each passerby has their own setting.

Part 1

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-11 06:13:36 UTC

Because there is already a walking loop animation of the characters in the early stage, the important thing for me in this link is to draw the scenes later.

The environment of the university is mainly drawn by the teaching buildings and vegetation.

Part 3

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-11 06:14:12 UTC

Since the scene has already been set before, I will mainly portray Mike's act of holding books here to strengthen his identity as a library volunteer.

Walk Loop Draft

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-11 06:28:21 UTC

I'll give you a rough draft first, because the character walks in a loop that I can use in my final film, so I need to combine it with my character.

Pr Studying

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 00:14:31 UTC

I imported some of my own videos that I had shot in the past, hoping to edit a short video of the tourist card point.

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 01:59:23 UTC

I made a three-part intro by giving the video K position frames and entering the frame one by one, so that everyone can understand the content of the whole small clip.

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 02:00:43 UTC

At the same time, a transition animation is added between each piece of footage to make the picture more vivid and more in line with the tone of some short videos.

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 02:03:12 UTC

At the same time, I also added the name of the place to each video shooting location to enrich the rhythm of the video.

Walk Loop final

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 02:12:42 UTC

When I combined my character with my draft, I found that because my character was not proportioned to normal, I needed to do some control and contrast over the length of my limbs to prevent it from making the picture weird.

Walk Loop Test

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 02:13:41 UTC

10s Animation Plan

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 02:17:08 UTC

WEEK 8 : 10s animatic

WEEK 9 : Finish part 1 + Finish part 2

WEEK 10 : Finish part 3 + Finish part 4

WEEK 11：Edit

Loop Reference

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 02:35:14 UTC

I found some videos as reference to have some craft about run loop.

AE Studying 1

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 02:46:12 UTC

Because I wanted to make a combination of a short background transition and path animation, I started with two scenes and transitioned through paper airplanes.

So I started by using the paper airplane materials I already had and moving them along the path I had planned.

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 02:49:26 UTC

I drew this smiley face with AE's pen tool and K-framed it to move and rotate to my rhythm.

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 02:51:29 UTC

Finally, when the two scenes are combined, there is the effect of different scenes transitioning through paper airplanes.

AE Studying 2

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 02:55:54 UTC

To tie in with the ability to use AE to change the pacing of some animations, I did some more exercises.

This is how I started by creating a circle, planning her path, and changing the keyframes to ease to make his movements more silky and rhythmic, and less rigid.

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 02:58:46 UTC

Later, I also created a rounded rectangle, also planned her path, and changed the keyframes to easing.

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 02:59:49 UTC

In the end, I added rounded triangles, the same operation, and combined the three segments, different color changes and rhythm changes, which gave me a deep memory of the rhythm of AE animation.

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 03:25:23 UTC

Since I don't use a running loop in my animation, I chose a simpler character to complete the running loop.

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 03:56:35 UTC

Since I didn't resize the canvas at the beginning, the paper couldn't float too far, so I increased the camera movement to make the picture look complete.

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 04:04:26 UTC

I used the flagpole as a fixed point and let the flag sway with the wind.

Voice Thinking

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 04:13:55 UTC

I thought about the white noise of my four main scenes, and I also went to campuses, cafes, and libraries to record the related white noise, although I can also find it online, but I think my recordings will be more suitable and there are no copyright issues.

In the inner world, I wanted to use the sound of tinnitus similar to the deep seabed, but I haven't found a suitable sound source yet.

Acting

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 04:20:20 UTC

Participating in the acting class gave me a deeper understanding of the rules of human body movement.

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 04:29:00 UTC

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 04:29:43 UTC

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 04:30:06 UTC

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 04:30:18 UTC

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 04:45:47 UTC

Sleepy Facial Loop

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 04:45:56 UTC

Heavy eyelids, big bags under the eyes, I think it can be an exaggeration to express the state of sleepiness, and the act of drooling makes people feel sleepy when they see it directly.

Surprised Facial Loop

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 04:47:34 UTC

It's a small line drawing of a surprised facial expression

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 05:04:00 UTC

At the same time, because the teacher's topic requires me not to speak to achieve the goal, watching my classmates' performances also allows me to observe more physical details from a third perspective, and at the same time, my performance style will be different from everyone else's understanding of a theme, which also promotes the diversity of my way of thinking.

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 05:06:30 UTC

At the same time, Zey and I also performed a quiet attack on the scene of the kidnapping case that day, my role is an attacker, and the cooperation with Zey also made me more substituted for this role, my classmates are joking that it doesn't feel like acting hahahahaha, but unfortunately there is no video record of this performance.

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 05:23:58 UTC

At the same time, in a subsequent garden scene, I play a flower, swaying in the wind, and when a human visitor approaches me, I interact with her, adding life to a flower that may normally just be immobile.

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 05:43:40 UTC

That day, according to the script, I watched the directorial works of two classmates, which also benefited me a lot. Later, when I returned home, I also reconsidered the script and added my own understanding.

10s Animatic

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 06:08:40 UTC

Mike are walking in a path in university campus in the morning.

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 06:09:08 UTC

Mike makes coffee in the coffee shop.

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 06:09:30 UTC

Mike organizes books in the library.

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 06:10:03 UTC

Mike's inner world has three identities rotating and reversing.

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 06:10:14 UTC

Mike's inner world has three identities rotating and reversing.

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 06:23:25 UTC

Looping my character's walk into AE while moving the scene at the bottom for K-frame movement resulted in the first scene of Mike walking around the schoolyard.

Part 2

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 06:29:36 UTC

Based on my previous character design, I first drew the appearance of the character making coffee.

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 06:31:50 UTC

The picture is of Mike holding latte art for coffee, and a series of animations are drawn based on the action of latte art.

Part 2 Final

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 06:33:34 UTC

Part 1 Final

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 06:34:12 UTC

Cafe Reference

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 06:36:07 UTC

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 06:42:07 UTC

And the action of holding the book becomes an animation

Part 3 Final

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 06:42:51 UTC

Part 4

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 06:43:21 UTC

I started with three characters fixed, but the camera revolved around them.

Later, the results achieved were a bit unsatisfactory, so I decided to choose to go with three people.

Style Reference

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 06:50:56 UTC

The style of my script is a thriller and psychological intimidation style, because when I read this script, I thought of a Japanese film Perfect Blue, the multi-perspective narrative of that film, the unforeshadowed camera transitions, and even the nesting of dreams and reality in each other, the voice on the phone is the complaint of the undead, and the pendant is a curse, symbolizing her unfinished sins and remorse.

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 12:11:44 UTC

This week, I went to Tromsø, Norway, and by chance, a Norwegian native's sister interacted with us while we were waiting for the bus, and we experienced the interaction between people based on the identity of "strangers" - and it is the empathy and mutual help outside of this identity that reveals the common humanity under multiple identities. This experience translates into an emotional base and symbolic element in animated content.

The stranger and I came from different countries and cultures, but there was a real emotional connection in snowballing and communicating together, which went beyond the superficial identity label. At the same time, I was a traveler and stranger in Norway, and the person who taught me how to make snowballs was originally a passer-by, but turned into a helper and teacher. People's identities in society are not fixed, but dynamically generated in interactions.

My Directing Part

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 12:22:23 UTC

Since that week, I went to London to apply for a visa and did not make an appointment for a place in another classroom, I filmed a clip of this style in London, the heroine who had a nervous breakdown, and I also deliberately darkened the shooting environment, which further set off the coldness, guilt, and oppression.

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 12:27:36 UTC

In order to make the rotation of the characters look more silky, I added characters from different perspectives here, and I kept transposing, but I didn't think there was much change in rhythm, so after the rotation, I added a few still frames to make this section a little stagnant, so that the pace would not be too fast.

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 12:31:05 UTC

First of all, inner time is a very abstract scene, so I decided to use a black and white gradient as the background, the simpler the more it can bring out the atmosphere of the three characters, and because sometimes the inner voice, for me, is like the sound of a deep seabed, there is that feeling of time passing, so in the inner world, the background changes every frame.

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 12:33:00 UTC

At the same time, I want to add some close-ups of the characters in the animation to show some of the characters' inner struggles.

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 12:33:55 UTC

In the second half of the animation where the camera moves up, I want to add some understanding of God's perspective.

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 12:35:11 UTC

The heads of the next three characters keep rotating, one to represent that his identity in society has been changing, and at the same time to deepen the impression of this symbol.

Edit

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 12:40:46 UTC

First, I imported the video into the Jianying App and stitched together the footage I already had.

At the same time, since I struggled a little with the last paragraph myself for both versions, I kept both for now.

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 12:43:06 UTC

I didn't think there was a need for a transition between the first three scenes, so I just stitched them together, but because the last one was another dimension, I thought it was another dimension, so I added a blink transition to make the whole animation more coherent.

At the same time, for the sake of the overall rhythm, I also accelerated some of the materials.

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 12:45:29 UTC

Since the animation duration will be a bit long after adding close-ups, which is not conducive to group editing and compositing videos, I will submit close-ups in my submission channel, but when everyone is together, this part will be eliminated to ensure the unity of everyone's overall video.

Voice

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 12:57:18 UTC

I've already recorded the sound footage, I just need to add the track.

Also, I looked for and downloaded the sounds of the bottom of the sea and the sounds of the computer's snowflake screen to express Mike's state of mind down.

ruixuezhu_1005 — 2025-05-12 13:09:59 UTC

With the sound effects, I wanted the final soundtrack to be not too emotional, not too light and not too sad, so I chose the pure music of this seto. But he has the copyright, so I can only place it here temporarily, and I won't place it in everyone's finished film.

At the same time, for the overall effect, I adjusted the volume ripple of the music to about the same, and added a fade-out effect at the end.