Saana Herranen: Making of the first hand-drawn short films

We second year animation students are currently working on our first hand-drawn short films. We were given the topic of immigration – a meeting of different cultures. When promising animators are faced with a somewhat limiting subject, their imaginations are bound to come up with interesting ideas. And so, with some guidance from teachers, we started working on our scripts and storyboards last spring.  During this time we also visited an immigration centre. When the fall semester started, after a long period of planning and writing multiple scripts and storyboards, we were finally ready to start animating. Now everyone is diligently working on their projects, determined to do their best. It is hard work – especially considering how little experience we have – but the final result is going to be worth it. A slightly nervous anticipation is floating in the animation classroom.

However, this is not all. Along with animating, we students are also holding a versatile campaign for our upcoming movies. The campaign’s main interest – beside our movies – is a colouring book, The Värityskirijja. The pictures are going to be key frames from our animations, making  it possible to get a glimpse of the process of animating. The book has its own Facebook page, and as a part of our campaign we also have our own blog, animaatioluokka. The colouring books are going to be self-printed, so if you’re interested in purchasing one of the books, please contact us via Facebook or come straight to Taideakatemia’s Christmas sale! In the upcoming weeks those living in Turku might also get to spot some of our posters and stickers around the city.

Creating a short animated film all by oneself is hard work and sometimes even frustrating, but at the same time it is a very instructive and fantastic experience. When our finished movies see daylight in spring 2014, we all deserve to be sincerely proud of ourselves. There are extremely imaginative animations coming up, by truly talented students!