That’s exactly how it was for me — I had to complete a group project single-handedly a week before the deadline. In my view, the reason is that in a team everyone is responsible for their own part, but no one is responsible for the overall result. Since then, I structure my work so that one person leads the entire visual cycle in a single style, without coordinating multiple contributors.

Next, I’d like to show three of my projects where this principle works.

It was my first animation project, and my first encounter with complete uncertainty. There was no brief, the story had to be created from scratch. The concept changed several times: technical difficulties, academic workload and tight deadlines got in the way. In the end I had only one month to finish it.

I took a sober look at my resources and chose a short, simple film I could definitely make on my own. The idea came by chance: I saw a picture of a cat whose face is comically distorted through an aquarium. That was enough to build a humorous story with a tragic ending about a fish named Josephine and a cat.

I wrote the script, made the storyboard and did the frame-by-frame 2D animation in Toon Boom Harmony myself, working through the nights to meet the deadline. The film was finished in a month. Grade: 9/10.

It was my first experience working with a client. As part of an open call, I could choose almost any brief, and I picked the charity foundation «Dom Dobroty.» I was driven by a desire to help: museums and musicians still have more resources than a foundation that runs on donations and volunteers. I knew I was taking on a project with religious restrictions: no depicting eyes, plus requirements for the palette, the nature of movement and even the sound design. To be honest, I kept putting it off and was afraid to write first.

When communicating with the client, I tried to be tactful and to learn as much as possible about their specific requirements, so that I wouldn’t accidentally miss anything. The hardest part was finding a compromise: to tell the story without violating what mattered to them. We conveyed emotions through poses, gestures and characteristic sounds, and we discovered that the face could partly be shown, as long as there were no eyes. I had to try different ways of visualising the characters, get on calls and show references to the client, and search for the right style for a long time. By the time I moved on to animation, I already had a clear picture of what the client needed.

Perhaps if more people had worked on this animation, it would have been difficult to explain the requirements to each of them without missing anything. I learned a lot myself by asking the client questions directly, and without those clarifications the result would have been completely different.

The client liked it, and the animation was even posted on the foundation’s social media. The academic panel noted that the emotions were conveyed well given the restrictions.

This is my graduation project, and at the same time a very personal one. I write fiction, and «Legend of Zirikhan» is one of the myths of a fantasy universe I invented. Zirikhan is a once-great kingdom that fell under the wrath of the Great Creator. The idea was born many years ago, and only now has there been a chance to bring it to life as a 3–4 minute animated short.

At the moment, the script, sketches that define the visual style, and character concept art are ready. I’m finishing the dialogue and moving on to the animatic. The animation is frame-by-frame 2D. This is also the first project where I’m taking on voice-over: I plan to find real actors among students of the acting department. It’s turning into a multi-layered project where I’m bringing all the elements together for the first time.

By the defence, I plan to have a full animated film. This is the first project I’m fully committing myself to.