Men of Circumstance is a project which I never would have time to complete under normal circumstances. The COVID-19 lockdowns opened my life to more free time than I knew what to do with, awakening my creative spirit. In high school I dreamed of being a storyboard artist for animation, but by this time my goals had quite evolved. By now I wanted to be a showrunner, taking on more of a leadership role in the creative process. However, there was still a part of me that wanted to challenge myself. I wanted to see if I had it in me to create an animatic the length of a short film.
Thus came Men of Circumstance. For nine months I poured my heart into this project, sketching over 800 individual frames. Concepts like inter-dimensional travel, the entertainment industry, brotherhood, animation as a medium, and trust embody the heart and intentions of this pitch. I hope to someday turn this animatic into a full-fledged adult animated production. In the meantime, it serves as a testament to my creative endeavors from this period of my life.
Clockwise, from top left: The first storyboards featuring Harvey from June 2020; an early scan of the diner scene which would be replaced by a higher quality scan in the final cut; the only boards with full coloring, giving us a rough glimpse of what a final product could look like; some of my personal favorite boards from January 2021, arguably the strongest in the entire short film.