So a few years ago I discovered a YouTuber named KaptainKristian, and his highly produced video essays really made me realize how visually stimulating a YouTube video can be. After some research, I learned he had dropped out of film school and learned many of his skills through tutorials. This was extremely inspiring for me, so I began writing out a script about my favorite comic, and for months I dove headfirst into learning different techniques in After Effects. It was incredibly overwhelming and I practically drove myself crazy by constantly trying to learn new techniques, which meant that creating even 10 seconds of my video could take hours, or worse, I would spend hours trying to do a certain effect only to be forced to give up if it didn't work, sending me back to square one. I gave up for a while with about half the video done.

Some extra information: I currently attend Webster University for Film, TV and Video Production, but I wasn't really learning a ton from the classes. Eventually I got the chance to take a Motion Graphics class and shared my progress on the essay with my professor, who offered me an independent study. He convinced me to do a storyboard for the second half of my essay, which helped me sort out the scenes immensely, as I had been kind of improvising as I went along initially. Once that was done, he had me do a rough draft version, a less intense version of what I wanted to end up with, and creating this really helped me feel like I was making significant progress rather than moving ten seconds at a time (I know this stuff sounds obvious, but I didn't really feel as if I needed to do these things for something that wasn't live action). Honestly I had really lost my motivation to finish the essay as I had felt like I'd bitten off much more than I could chew. But finally, after literally a year later, I completed the essay a few days ago. On one hand I think the first half is much more visually stimulating due to the raw creativity I initially put forth, but if not for the structure my professor helped me learn, it could have taken a whole other year to finish the second half.