Subjects revealing a piece of truth about the world, people and the interconnectivity between the two stands at the center of my creative interest. More specifically, subjects that touch and teach while forcing me dive deeper than my current understanding of the world and its ways. That's why, when a person in my close family  suffered from depression, I knew I had to tame and understand it. Since animation and illustration has always been the closest form of expression for me, I had a sense of clarity as to how would i go about visualizing it.

I decided to create an animation that helps to understand the phenomenon of depression, talking about its symptoms, feelings of people closest to the sufferer, but also the possibility of recovery. I based the text of the animation on hours of watched interviews, but also on a conversations I had with a depressed person in my family.

Then I chose the visual language - characters with unified faces and without specific anatomical features suggesting that any of us can get this disease, the plant that symbolizes our fragile mental health, and a terrifying black substance that completely consumes the effected person. As for the animation, I used a combination of frame by frame and after effects. The final sound effects and voiceover were done by Pawel Szymkowiak.

I can't overestimate how much I owe to this project. Not only was it a great visual challenge, but also the process of working on it gave me better understanding of depression itself, while allowing me a peek in the perspective of a suffering person. 

Below you can see some sketches from the storyboard, illustrations and final animation.
Storyboard, illustration and animation made by: me

Sketches, Storyboard
First concept

Final illustrations
Back to Top