alone

Born as a way to express myself during my first year of living abroad, “Alone” encapsulates the emotional and physical detachment from the world induced by loneliness. In moments of loneliness everyone around is nothing but an anonymous shadow fleeting past, and the familiar places become distant, a thousand miles away. Even when managing to reach out for help and the warmth of a loved one, there remains a sense of disconnection, a reminder of the struggle and melancholy that come with navigating life’s challenges alone.



Process

Where did the idea come from?

One day I was having lunch alone in my apartment. Nothing special to it: like every other day I had my plate and glass in front of me and I was looking out of the window. I remember thinking how beutiful Paris was: the sun was out, people were gathering in the bar in front of my apartment and the trees were blooming again. The scenary was so beautiful, but it still made me feel so melancolic. I looked around and realised I was alone. A big white table and one single plate. This image lingered in my mind for some time, I knew I had to try and capture it somewhere, somehow. I started sketching this moment with pencil and paper and, as I was drawing, I recognized a recurring theme in my experiences here: my life was incredibly beautiful but deeply lonely. I sketched all these scenes, one after the other, and started envisioning something bigger. A narrative was developing in front of my eyes, but I had yet to discover how to bring it to life.

Color palette

Once all the scenes were clear in my head I illustrated them on Photoshop to bring them to life. Using my sketches as a fundation, I began refining the drawings and adding more details. As the illustration was coming to life with black ink on white background, I realised that, even if the absence of color was intriguing, black and white felt too emotionless. That is when I got the idea of finding a monochorme color palette to give my scenes some color but still give a lifeless and surreal feeling to them. The idea of using a blue color palette immediately resonated with me. Blue gave my illustrations a sense of melancholy, giving them a timeless and cold atmosphere. It accentuated the isolation of the main character, intensifying the sensation of solitude. I carefully chose multiple shades of blue to help me create defined shadows, higlights and add depth to the illustrations.



Animation and sound design

Even with the illustrations completed and the color palette in place, I still felt like something was missing. While the images created a compelling atmosphere, I wanted to get even more into it. That is when I decided to animate the still images and create a whole world in which the viewer could immerse themselves. I divided my illustrations into layers and animated them drawing frame by frame in Phtotoshop. To accompany the visuals I also included some found audios along with a few that I recorded myself. Incorporating the sounds made my video more communicative and the project seemed more complete overall.
As soon as I finished the first scene, I understood that the animation together with the sound had allowed me to create the immersive experience I wanted for the portrayal of my story.