Filming process

 Moving from the "perfect" planning phase to the actual production in Adobe Animate has been, quite honestly, the most challenging part of this entire A-level project. While my shot list and mood board were clear, translating those ideas into a functional 5-minute animation as a beginner was a massive wake-up call. What I thought would take a few days turned into 3 months of trial and error.

The total filming period lasted from January to March.

The Adobe Animate Learning Curve

As a first-time user of professional animation software, the interface was incredibly daunting. I struggled significantly with Layer Hierarchy and the Timeline. Early on, I found myself accidentally drawing on the wrong layers or losing track of my Keyframes, which resulted in "ghosting" effects where assets would appear or disappear randomly.

The biggest technical hurdle was the Classic Tween. I spent hours trying to make the app icons "rain" smoothly, only to realize that if the object isn't converted into a Symbol (F8) first, the animation breaks. This led to a cycle of "Classic Tween" errors (the dreaded dotted line in the timeline) that forced me to restart the entire Void sequence three separate times.

The Struggle with Digital Illustration

Beyond the software, the actual drawing process was much harder than I anticipated. I wanted Maya’s silhouette to be minimalist but anatomically expressive.

• The "Text-Neck" Challenge: Capturing the specific downward tilt of the head to represent phone addiction was difficult to achieve with a mouse. I had to restart Maya’s character design multiple times because the proportions felt "off" or the lines weren't clean enough for a high-quality export.

• Vector Precision: Learning how to use the Pen Tool and Bezier Curves to create the kitchen environment was a slow process. Every time I messed up a curve, I felt the pressure of the deadline increasing.

The Restart Cycle: "Back to Frame 1"

There were several moments where I felt completely overwhelmed. At one point, I accidentally deleted a series of nested symbols in my Library, which corrupted the "Steam" animation for the coffee machine. Because I hadn't properly version-controlled my files, I had to go back to a save from three days prior.

However, looking back, these "mess ups" were actually my best teachers. Each restart allowed me to:

1. Organize my Library more efficiently.

2. Master the F5/F6/F7 shortcuts for faster frame management.

3. Understand the relationship between Frame Rate (12fps) and smooth motion.

Reflective Note: Perseverance in Production

From a Media Studies (9607) perspective, this phase taught me about the Labor of Media Construction. We often consume 5 minutes of media without realizing the hundreds of hours of technical troubleshooting behind it. Even though I felt like an amateur at times, every technical failure pushed me to research solutions, turning me from a complete novice into a much more competent animator.