Introduction
Revenant, a psychological horror animation, follows Celia as she drifts through a crumbling, dreamlike world where reality and illusion blur. With this project, I wanted to explore emotional storytelling without relying on dialogue, mainly using atmosphere, visual symbolism, and sound to guide the audience through Celia’s unravelling mind.
This project was more personal than I expected, pushing me to my creative limits and forcing me to make difficult decisions along the way. It became less about just finishing a film and more about exploring parts of myself I hadn’t really acknowledged in my creative work before. It also challenged how I work under pressure, how I collaborate, and how I problem-solve on a team project with tight deadlines.
In this Critical Reflective Blog, I’ll look back at how Revenant developed from the first ideas to the final animation, the challenges I faced along the way, and what I learned as an animator, producer, and storyteller.
Project Concept and Development
It all started with a very different idea. The first version was titled The Final Dance. It was about a young man who, after being fired from his job, wandered through a grey, lonely world and reconnected with his childhood best friend through dance. Their dance brought colour back into the environment, symbolising hope and emotional healing.
But the feedback I got was that the premise was boring and honestly, I kind of agreed. I found myself more drawn to darker, more complex emotions. So, the story shifted and became Fragments of Our Rhythm. That version was more about rediscovery, but also about time, love, memory, and inevitable loss. I wanted to explore how fleeting moments could create a lifetime of meaning, and how grief reshapes the world around us in subtle and haunting ways.
The idea was again not very well received and was told that I need to tell a story that feels more like me. This shift led me towards Revenant, where the boundaries between reality, memory and hallucination blur completely.
Instead of focusing on a shared romance, the story became about Celia’s internal struggle a solitary journey through a decaying world shaped by her mind. I drew inspiration from psychological horror and gothic storytelling, particularly works like The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Corpse Bride, Silent Hill 2, Black Swan, and Samurai Jack: Jack and the Haunted House. These references helped me understand how visuals and silence could carry deep emotional weight. This new direction allowed the project to feel much more personal, letting me explore themes I was afraid to confront at the start.
Process and Practice
I spent a lot of time trying to get the story perfect, and because of that, I stayed stuck in that stage for much longer than I should have. During this process, I learned that the perfect story doesn’t exist, you just have to write the story you want to tell. Once I accepted that, I had to act fast and plan carefully to make things work in time for the deadline.
I used an Excel sheet to make my Gantt chart, so I could organise everything to be done on time. It was very helpful. Having everything listed and noted down, did help and have I wished I could have done this before and made sure that I would be on tracked with everything.
I started drawing everything, that made sense to me, image by image. Since I wanted to explore more with 3D, I wanted to do my backgrounds 3D and the characters in 2D. So, I started with collaborating with animators, giving them the storyboard and animatic so we could make the keys, the in-betweens and then colouring.
In the meantime, I was helping the 3D artist with the environment and the models. There were a lot of issues, since Blender isn’t an easy software to learn. Asking the technicians was very helpful and they gave me tips on how to do everything much faster.
Challenges and Problem-Solving
With this project, there were a lot of problems: story-wise, team members, software issues and scheduling issues. I had a lot of problems with the story, since I didn’t want to make it boring and more psychological thriller, I needed to gather some research and ask around what would be the best way to do this, until eventually, I wrote a version that worked, but it still wasn’t exactly what I wanted to say. Some people dropped out at the last minute for different reasons. Some had a lot going on in their personal lives, and others left because the project had fallen behind schedule. The software issues were mostly with Blender. I had never used it before, but I chose it because I wanted to learn, and it works well for combining 3D and 2D.
However, it kept breaking or needing constant changes, which slowed things down. In the end, we managed to render everything. We didn’t have any issues with the 2D side, since we were familiar with Toon Boom and knew how to handle problems there. Since working with ADHD is one of my challenges, I needed something visual I could easily update. I used an Excel spreadsheet to keep an eye on everything, and it really helped. So, I used a spreadsheet to keep an eye on everything, which really helped. Some team members weren’t available on certain days but were fine on others, so I had to be flexible which wasn’t always easy. In some cases, I had to politely turn down help if it was slowing the project down. It was always respectful though. There was no drama, and we’re all still friends.
Reflection on Outcomes
This project started out with excitement, but the experience actually became more of a hassle. It got to a point where I just wanted to finish the project, regardless of how it looked. I had hoped to learn a lot more from this experience, but the support I received wasn’t enough.
That said, I’m proud of how I tried to manage the team, and I’m glad I pushed myself to learn Blender especially since it’s a skill a lot of companies are looking for. I also learned how to handle conflict within a team. Every time a task was completed, we made sure to celebrate it. I learned that even the small wins deserve to be celebrated.
Right now, I think the film looks okay. I did my best. I ended up doing more of the 3D work than the 2D, but I managed to render everything, edit it, and add the sound effects. Even if it didn’t turn out exactly how I hoped, I still finished it and that’s something I’m proud of.
Skills and Personal Development
This project taught me a lot about how I handle pressure and how much having the right tools and support matters. I realized that planning ahead and communicating clearly can make a huge difference, especially when working with others. Even though the final result wasn’t perfect, I learned how to adapt, solve problems, and manage expectations. I’ve definitely grown through this process. It might not have turned out exactly how I imagined, but I’m proud I finished it. What I’ve learned will help me in future projects, both creatively and when working with a team.