Cycle of Anxiety
Anxiety is such a wide and important topic that people shyly talk about. Many Anxiety Disorder patients find it hard to describe their anxiety panic experiences, and they are thus often misunderstood and judged easily. So I developed this 2D animation to explain what the cycle of anxiety is and to visualize the experience better.
I first started with some research and wrote a short and clear text that I would use afterwards to record the Voiceover for the animation. I used Audacity to record my voice and then edited it on the same software.
I kept the animation minimalistic since I wanted to see how much I could animate emotions by just focusing on one simple circle.
After being done with the Voiceover, I began working on the Storyboard. The Storyboard had to be simple and fast to read so that it could be referenced easily during the animation process.
My main colors were red and blue. Them being on the opposite side of each other on the color wheel makes them more contrasting when used together. I wanted the elements on the screen to be clear and easy to understand. So the minimal color palette and the lack of overwhelming details helped achieve this goal of mine.
To make sure the viewer understands that this part is about a beating heart, I added an ECG behind the ball. I also animated the red color on the edges of the screen which is a symbol for pumping blood and high blood pressure.
To symbolize the fast movement and to make the animation look more lively I used a Motion Trail effect on the ball. The blurred trail makes it easier for the eye to follow.
Another technique I used in this project is a "Zoom-In Reveal". It allowed the text shown to also be interpreted as an animation element rather than just it appearing randomly on screen.
After animating everything, I then started with the Sound Design. SFX was an important element of this project since the animation itself is pretty abstract, so the audio helped convey the message intended in each shot. I also added some effects to the Voiceover.