Tick Tock

Anxiety is a common topic for my work because of my interest and personal experience with the emotion. I wanted to incorporate anxiety into my honors project by creating an educational portrait that displays what an anxiety attack feels like. I will create a self-portrait and then project anxiety-inducing motion graphics on top of the portrait. Throughout the process, I will grow as a designer by learning more about After Effects and motion graphic creating as well as digital painting using Procreate. I also seek to learn more about anxiety in my peers by learning how other people explain their anxiety attacks in a tactile, visual way. My goal with the project is to give those who haven’t experienced anxiety a better understanding of the emotion through visual explanation. I was able to learn more about motion graphic creation and digital painting techniques throughout the semester by utilizing Lynda.com and through educational YouTube videos. I felt that learning these skills would be the most important part of my research, but throughout the semester, my project evolved into a research project more closely based on learning about other people’s anxiety. I collected data and personal statements via anonymous online surveys that were posted on social media and were given to local counselors to share with their client base as well. Finally, I gained valuable information through meaningful conversations with friends, peers, family, and professors that experience anxiety. By conducting research on animation throughout the semester, I gained valuable knowledge about motion graphics using After Effects that I will continue to apply to my work. I gained knowledge about Procreate and improved my techniques in creating realistic, digital paintings that I will implement in my creation of children’s books. Most importantly, I gained a valuable perspective of anxiety based on other people’s experiences. I felt it was important to explain the feelings of anxiety from the inside out so those who haven’t experienced anxiety directly can have a better understanding. Throughout the semester, my project has evolved from a personal example of my own anxiety to a broader representation of anxiety as a whole. By choosing to showcase other people’s explanation of anxiety in addition to my own, I was better suited to accurately educate my audience about the emotion.