In this collaborative project with the second-year graduate student, Xingzhou Liu, I had the opportunity to assist our senior schoolmate, Ark, with her graduation design. We met at school and watched Ark’s storyboard animation together, where she explained her graduation design’s theme based on Chinese style and how to express the picture according to music.

As Xingzhou and I both come from China, we are very familiar with this theme. Ark assigned us the task of helping her with some research work, and my responsibility was to search for the evolution of calligraphy, mainly cursive script, semi-cursive script, seal script, official script, and regular script. Additionally, I researched a series of tools that are often seen on a Chinese calligraphy desk, such as brushes, ink, paper, inkstone, brush washers, a ruler, and a brush rack. Lastly, I researched Chinese tea sets.

I organized this detailed information and added annotations to the paper before sending it to Ark, who approved of it. She thought that the information I found was comprehensive and could provide her with excellent references, inspiring her animation and supporting the background. I am very proud of my performance in this project. I provided as much help as possible to Ark and actively communicated with her. After the end of our collaboration, we agreed that we would continue to help her if she needed any further assistance.

My role in this project was mainly focused on the preliminary research work for the animation project. I enjoyed this experience very much as it was my first time participating in someone else’s project. I was able to understand the design process, learn about storyboard creation, scene design, character design, and the continuity of shots. Through this experience, I realized that every prop in an animation carries symbolic meaning or reflects a character’s personality, and it is essential to research and understand each object before incorporating it into the animation.

Furthermore, I learned that during the research process, one can gain more inspiration and transform their imagination into a concrete idea, making the animation’s thought process more clear and streamlined. Therefore, the preliminary work is equally as important as the actual animation creation process. It sets the foundation for the animation and ensures that every detail is meaningful and accurately represents the design’s intended message.

In conclusion, this collaboration has allowed me to gain valuable experience in preliminary research work and taught me the importance of research when designing an animation. I have also learned that every detail and prop in an animation carries meaning and must be carefully considered before being included in the final product. I am grateful for this opportunity and look forward to applying these valuable lessons to my future work.

Finally, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Ark. Despite her busy work schedule, she was still willing to teach me how to use two animation software programs, CSP and TVPaint. She also provided valuable feedback on my lip sync practice assignments. Ark showed me her daily sketchbook, which greatly inspired me. I usually draw on my iPad and have not done traditional hand drawing in a long time. Her sketchbook reminded me of the unique and captivating texture of hand-drawn artwork. During our meetings, we also went to see the works of other senior students, and I enjoyed the learning atmosphere where we discussed how to improve our works. I am very grateful for this collaborative project at school, which gave me the opportunity to interact with many outstanding senior students.