Welcome to:
Potion-Maker!
An animated short film by Avrey Acken
In the animated short film Potion-Maker by Avrey Acken, Forrest, a renowned potion-brewing witch, becomes fed up with her work and reaches her breaking point when a potion recipe she had been working on for ages fails to work yet again. After her emotional breakdown, she comes to realize that she is more important than her work and chooses to take a step back to take care of herself instead, abandoning the project all together. She finds peace and enjoyment from picking up the pieces of her outburst and turning it into something new instead.
Still Frame Renders
About Forrest:
Our main character, Forrest, is a young adult female swamp-dwelling witch who makes potions for a living. She once enjoyed potion-making, working her way up in her community as a professional in her field. It was her dream job. Because of her expertise and passion, she has become quite a popular potion-seller too. Her recipes are in high demand. However, now she is overwhelmed by her work. Since this was her dream job, she figures she should be happy about all of this traffic, right? So she pushes through the chaos in spite of her condition, losing sight of why this hobby made her happy in the first place. Until the events of Potion-Maker take place, anyway.
Animation
Inspiration:
For my senior project, I felt it only fitting to create a story about the only takeaway I got from college that truly matters: you are more important than your work. Take the time to prioritize your mental, physical, and emotional health over external obligations because if you can't take care of yourself, how can you be expected to take care of anything else?
I chose to make this the story of my film because I think it's such an important message that more people need to hear. The goal of this animation is to encourage the importance of self care and putting yourself above your work, as well as encouraging people to allow themselves to honestly feel their emotions. They’re there for a reason, after all. Emotions like frustration and burnout don’t deserve to be hidden for the sake of appearances, to others nor to yourself. Let yourself feel them. These feelings are a part of you too, just as any of the other ones are. This is symbolized through Forrest making the choice to keep the broken bottle and repurpose the hole in the wall, the patched up cracks reflecting her growth. It serves as a reminder to be mindful of her work-life balance in the future and that sometimes, bad things can turn into something beautiful.
Pre-Production Materials
Takeaways:
I have learned a lot over the course of this project. Namely, I feel like this project has taught me a lot more about the process of creating a production than it did about actual animation. While that may seem a bit bleak, it was actually loads of useful information that I had never considered before now. Coming out of this, I feel much more prepared to create my own projects. I'm very excited to start creating on my own time so I can give each shot the time it deserves to be the highest quality it can be. I can't wait to see how much improvement I'll see in my next animation!
Animatic
Dedication:
This animation is for anybody that has ever suffered from burnout and/or needs a reminder that you are not just your work. More importantly, you are more important than your work. This can especially resonate with artists and others who have turned their passions into their livelihoods as I have. If you're going through a tough time right now, don't worry. We'll get through this together!
Poster
