how i made this | animated poem | variation on the word sleep

 

this is a process post about how I made the animation: variation on the word sleep - which was a wedding gift for an old friend. it is a 1 min 22 sec animation that took me 31 hours over (basically) 3 days.

overview of process & timeline

active time: 3 days
total time: 6 weeks

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you know how when you bake, there’s the “active” time, and the total prep time - which includes incubation, fermentation, resting, etc? that part of the process is REALLY important. i think sometimes I procrastinate on purpose to shorten the active time, and allow incubation energy to build up - so that it’s ready for release.

she gave me the poem on nov 15th, 2021.

i gave myself a hard deadline - she was getting married on dec 29th, 6pm CST time. i wanted it done by 10pm CST time the night of her wedding, so that was 7am thursday morning, dec 30th, istanbul time. (thank you time difference - it’s like a built in deadline extension).

so, here’s what happened…

 

this is the app tyme. i’ve been using this app since 2016 to track my hours - for my own documentation urges.

 

how it happened | incubation time

  • nov 15th | she sent me the poem recording via whatsapp voicenote. i listen to it 2-3 times when i recieve it, then i forget about it. life happens. i turn 30. change countries 3 times.

  • dec 18th | i see her wedding countdown on instagram. i’m like shit, i need to start thinking about this poem. i listen to the poem 10 times and read the text, paying attention to imagery. i think i do some doodling.

  • dec 24th/25th | i listen to the poem another 50 times, and focus on ONE simple image, and make one animated still. it’s christmas and i feel lazy. i watch her instagram stories and see her wedding countdown with increasing creative anxiety. i take deep breaths and tell myself it’s all gonna be okay.

  • dec 27th | i spend 4.5 hrs doing thumbnail sketches in two sittings. i go to a milonga (tango) that night and stay up way too late. my creative anxiety is at a 7/10, which, in retrospect, is quite optimal. before sleeping, i look at my thumbnail sketches and tell myself - this is the part of the 6km run where i tell myself, i’m done. momentum will carry me the rest of the way.

 
 

everything in two days

  • dec 28th | i wake up in state-of-creative-emergency mode, which means i’m super focused. i divide my day into 90 minute blocks. my strategy is to work iteratively — complete one circle, then repeat and refine. so, my first goal is to do all of the drawings as still images. i do that in 5 hours. then i think i spend 3 hours animating them all - in as few frames as possible.

  • dec 29th |

    i export all my animated images as gifs. i piece them all together in adobe rush - and look at the transitions, which feel super rough. i see how many holes are missing in the visual narrative. i think i end up with only 58 seconds of animation. so i go back through each segment and repeat the process again:

    • draw thumbnails

    • draw still images

    • animate them

    • put it into adobe rush

    • edit for timing

    except this time, the process is faster. i’m repeating this circular process over and over again, until at a certain point, it just feels… done. like the milk has suddenly turned into cream, and i can stop beating now, or it will turn into butter.

    around 2am, i start thinking about sound. after toying around with different options, i look through my soundscape archives and piece together clips from my travels: wood creaking sounds are from my tatami mat room in japan, trees rustling are from santorini island, windchimes are from the mountains of japan.

    at 3:30am, i’m finished. i upload and send her a link, and go to sleep.

 
 

end notes

the next day, i wake up at 11:30am (which is VERY not me) with that fuzzy, after-glow, half-dazed feeling - like i just danced tango for 10 hours straight, or had a 48 hour romance (…with myself…) i think i allow myself to be very lazy for two days, then i started making this 2021 in 119” film.

this process — an animation sprint in 3 days — is most definitely my ideal way of working, but this is the first time i’ve been intentional about structuring it (or maybe not; you could see it as deliberate procrastination — getting myself to a state of SOS mode, which means i’m operating at my sharpest.)

(and i won’t lie, the emotional process of animating this love poem was hard and painful, after the traumatic year i had. i think i would start crying out of nowhere, multiple times, mid—late night-drawing - which made the experience all the more poignant and bittersweet).

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distilled insights on process

  • work iteratively, in circles

  • complete your first circle as soon as possible

  • procrastinate deliberately

  • find the momentum, then ride it

  • divide in milestones. time block.

  • find optimal adrenaline levels - create conditions to simulate a creative crisis, but not TOO much

  • daily exercises are SO important - like doing daily runs to train for a marathon. i don’t think i could have completed this if i weren’t doing animated drawings regularly (nearly everyday some weeks).

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that’s it. i made a labor of love i’m truly proud of, for a friend i love, and enjoyed every step of the process along the way. it was my first extensive “real” animation of my own imagination, and i expect i’ll be repeating this process again very shortly.

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other animations:
do you want anything from afghanistan?
a forest grows in berlin
tempelhof in fog

 
Kening Zhucreative process, animation, animated poem