Alyssa Case

Caitlin Corley

There are many different ways to express oneself through art and there are many different ways to create masterpieces of art. Music is one way of doing this, physical art can be another and visual art through technology is also something that can be used to express something we want to say without actually saying it.

Junior animation major Alyssa Case talked about her start in animation and what got her into it.

“It was just something I’ve always wanted. I would watch Disney movies as a kid and I just really wanted to make something like that. As I got older, the dream deepened into more of a desire to ‘create childhoods’ since many people describe an old animated movie as part of their childhood, so my dream shifted into hoping to create something that builds childhoods and inspires other people like myself.”

She continued by describing how she first got into animation.

“My first animations were simple little two-frame doodles in my notes where you flip a page back and forth and the character moves. Eventually, those turned into several page semi-flip-books [that are] still stuck in my notebooks since that was all I had. This was sometime between eighth grade and tenth grade.”

Case described her start in digital art to continue learning animation.

“Eventually, I got my hands on a drawing tablet, which opened up the ability to make digital art. As every [animation] artist does, I started with a bouncing ball – which honestly isn’t that hard to make. However, it being my first real animation, I was all kinds of proud of myself.”

Case then described her first few animations.

“After that, I made simple little gif animations like a blinking eye and a sneezing cat at one point. However, my first real in-depth animations started once I came to OBU since my dream felt much more feasible and added motivation to keep trying.”

Case shared a story about one animation she made that sticks with her to this day. “There’s one dancing man animation I made freshman year of high school. It’s stuck as a forever rough animation now, but that’s only because I’d cleaned it up once before and lost all of the progress,” Case said. “I’d confessed my feelings to someone and been rejected. So to distract myself, I worked on cleaning up the dancing man. It turned out really nice and I was super proud of it. Then, I forgot to [click] save and my progress was lost when I accidentally closed the program. So now my dancy man is stuck in perpetual roughness. Moral of the story: don’t forget to save.”

Case also shared her plans for her animation.

“Honestly, that’s still something I’m not certain about. Like, the most obvious goal would be working at Disney or Dreamworks. However, I am aware that the market is super competitive, so it’s good to have options available,” Case said. “And let me tell you, animators have options: video game development, advertising, website design, cartooning and then plenty of related options in the graphic design field – all aside from making Disney movies. I also know that YouTube animators are starting to get some recognition and making profits out of that as well.”

Case also talked about her favorite thing about the fine arts.

 “I love how it gives people so many different ways to express themselves. I have friends who make music that helps themselves vent and at the same time resonates with other people, potentially inspiring those people to create something of their own, which in turn could resonate with someone else,” Case said. “I, personally, enjoy writing and it has inspired some of my friends to do some writing of their own. I just love how expressing yourself can help others to do the same. It’s such a broad spectrum of what you can do with your creativity. You’re not just stuck to one thing. You don’t have to be just an artist, musician or poet. You can be all three. Nothings stops you aside from yourself.”

Case offered some advice for anyone going into fine arts.

“Don’t be afraid to fail,” Case said.  “I know that’s hard. I still struggle with that myself, but you have to remember that perfection isn’t an immediate thing. Don’t let the fear of doing something ‘badly’ stop you from trying at all. Also, if you’re doing anything digitally, don’t forget to save and do it often.”