A Trip To ______

The following is a collaboration entry for a class project involving the communication of a story beginning and ending with the same image - a white ball in the center of a black screen. Using any technique alongside the program After Effects, I resorted to mixed media: photography and stop-motion animation, in which I recalled a personal experience taking a trip to the woods with my siblings and grandfather to pick mushrooms as part of Russian culture. Using a simple, cartoony look, each frame was drawn, outlined, and colored by hand as they were placed against a panoramic backdrop that established the atmosphere. The mushroom figure with the googly became a fun motif that gave the story a sense of adventure, as we would set off and come back home with a ton of mushrooms ready for stew.