Channel Special - Numb Little Bug Animatic (200th Video Special)
5Almost 8 months in the workings, no extra help, no fancy premium animation plan, and absolutely NO consistency in the drawing style (but who cares, that was actually intentional)! All I had was an old (and crusty) Apple Pencil, an animation app that was not as accessible as using Adobe Photoshop, a scattered brain, school, and too many other things to list here that went into the entire journey of making this video!
Some things to note about this video: a good majority of OCs show up in this animatic, and while a good number of them are either random BG characters with no real purpose other than being part of the story or one of my own, there are some that aren’t mine, but instead belong to a few friends on a Discord server. I asked them about adding their OCs to the video, and once I got the go ahead, I got to work on adding them to where they’d go in the video, specifically putting them in depending on who I got the okay from and when (which might be noticeable depending on how close you’d pay attention to the order).
Another thing to note is how close the story here is to an actual real life story about myself. There’s more details hidden in there than just the ones I listed, but then it’d get depressing. While I won’t go into certain details about it, here’s a few points alluding to actual events:
- Xiaomu never telling anyone how she really felt throughout until the end is based on a bad habit of mine that took me forever to drop just because I had trust issues back then (something I’m not comfortable talking about, so please don’t ask)
- The pills that have the number 72 on them (both bottle and actual pills) is the actual number dosage for my ADHD medication; yes, I am aware that I’m giving that info away, but it’s not like anyone plans to rob me :p
- The empty heart segment alludes to how alone I felt while I wasn’t the best person due to how I tried (and failed) to be what everyone wanted me to be, which was mature. The latter half of the video gives a few hints to this, such as Xiaomu simply choosing not to care about some random character’s chatter, her considering to throw away what she believed was the whole reason nobody liked her in her head, and having an emotional meltdown after kicking the trash can and almost hitting Hiryu.
- Ken, Hades’ OC, shows up towards the end for a very specific reason. Let’s just say that if I didn’t have a certain conversation, I’d probably wouldn’t be here today, and if it wasn’t back then that conversation would’ve happened, I don’t know when or if it would’ve happened at all.
- Xiaomu switching from her Alicorn version to how she used to look (without the wings and horn) reflects the indecisive nature of what she wants to be. At the end when the butterfly lands on her nose, she turns back to her Alicorn self, which just so happens to be her true self. The butterfly itself is based on the one that Lucina (from Fire Emblem: Awakening) is usually followed by or depicted with.
Before I forget, friendly reminder that all credits go to their rightful owners, although this time, it’s just the song. Here are all the credits for all the assets used in the video:
OCs:
Ringo - Sam
Kenji - Reo
Hiryu Hinotama - Hippo
Ken Koyomi - Hades
Xiaomu (Panth) - Me
Gypsy Bard Lunatic - Me
America - Me
Lilith Leokumi - Me
Windigo Sonata - Me
Axo the Axodotyl - Me
Music:
Numb Little Bug - Em Beihold