30 year old Will is a commercial artist, trapped in the "Los Angeles rat race" trying to support his parents. He works late every night, leaving no social time. He holds onto things in his past, causing depression, and he worries too much about the future - causing his anxiety. He’s emotionally unable to finish his own art. Until one day, he’s suddenly thrown into a world he created, but has not finished. His muse makes a cameo appearance in his journey and helps him see his recent progress. The payoff comes in Act III, which includes a music video that manifests the moral of the story.

The spark for my story comes from a 12"x12" fused glass panel I recently completed, of Frida Kahlo (see my Thumbnail photo). As a child, she suffered from polio and, combined with a bus accident, she was forced to wear a corset her entire life to support her spine. Her art expresses her pain, one of the universal stories many artists share. From this starting point I created Will and his world, full of challenges, with little hope...until one day he's unexplainably thrown into a world he created, but has not finished. He goes on a journey, through challenges where his non-yet recognized spirit (played by the butterflies, and some red roses) help him fight his demons and climb to a new height, where he meets his muse, Freda. He studied Freda in Mexican museums and galleries, and thinks of her as his role model.

You can decide if this is a dream, or some other mystery of the universe... I created a music video to express the moral of the story. The moral may have different messages for each of us, since we bring our on pasts and present to this animated story.

Production Notes: I set a number of serious goals for this project, and then decided I needed at art department to help me achieve a cinematic reel. I turned to the nascent tools of Artificial Intelligence (AI) which I learned over 4 weeks, including how to create detailed art and technical direction to produce the reference images I was dreaming up. One scene I created is over 16,000 pixels wide (500 high), which I panned over to produce the final part of Will's journey.

My goal to improve my sound design got into surround sound, and my lighting design got into motion tracking to active gallery lights, and to turn off the "Freda portrait light" as a metaphor for Will moving on from his muse... I put Easter Eggs in the reel, discovery is always fun! My environmentals are an antagonist, along with the licensed music and SFX. Low Frequency Effects (LFE's) are included for those with headphones or AirPod-like devices. I added floating dust in the cave to suggest disturbing the status quo... And I used yellow and blue as a theme to tie the story together. Much more will be done to edit this down to 12-13 minutes, but that will take another week of editing, after our class. I want to thank XP, the XP alumni and Pixar artists that have inspired me to get this far, and to continue.