Storytelling is a magical skill that can literally place you anywhere. Adam Bryant, a graduate of our Character Animation Program, walks you through his Showcase shot and the range of emotions you experience when you find yourself in some place new. And, after reading Adam’s background story — we encourage you to explore the storyteller in you. Start by sharing the story of Student Showcase 2013. Then get ready to tell yours.

— The Animation Mentor Crew
@AnimationMentor #storyteller

I put “Carl” in the year 1986
I didn’t see the movie where my chosen audio clip came from. This worked to my advantage as I could only be influenced by the audio itself. I decided on a background story which put the character “Carl” in the year 1986. His parents had always kept him away from technology as much as possible while growing up — but when he moved out to attend university, his new roommates couldn’t wait to show him what he had been missing out on.

After listening to the audio over and over, it occurred to me that there was a slight feeling of confidence/cockiness in the voice of the speaking character — almost as if he wasn’t being genuine when claiming to not realize what was going on. I decided with my animation that I wanted to go in the opposite direction and aimed to convey a genuine feeling of innocence and panic.

My best advice to you
Never give up on your animation. Whether a certain part of your shot takes two minutes or two days to get right, you’ll be able to carry all that experience over onto your next shot. I often thought to myself that I was wasting so much time when I would work on my shot, only for me to start over again three hours later. I never realized how much I had learned in that time until I came across similar challenges again.

I am a storyteller
I am a storyteller who hopes one day that maybe I will inspire someone as much as I have been inspired by others.

Initially when I first started at Animation Mentor, I wasn’t aware of the importance of storytelling and the part it played within animation. As the courses progressed and we had a solid understanding of the fundamentals of animation, we started to experiment with acting and created individual personalities for our characters. It was around this time that I began to understand the importance of storytelling within animation and the part it played.

My personal thoughts are that anyone can be impressed and consumed by beautiful animation and pretty rendering — but if you can incorporate creative storytelling into your work, you can captivate your audience on a whole new level. That being said, it’s not just the audience who benefits from storytelling, it helps in the whole animation process from storyboarding to the final piece. One example is that it allows us as animators to get into our characters’ minds and imagine how they would be feeling at that particular time, we can then translate this into our animation.

— Adam