Planning around

When I first entered the animation program, I expected to eventually create a large-scale animated project. From the beginning, I had ideas for potential stories, visual styles, and production approaches.

Initially, I was hesitant to pursue my own project and instead planned to support my classmate, NoahSingka, as his right-hand collaborator. He was passionate about adapting a Sarawakian myth “Bujang Senang” into animation, believing it could gain traction within the Malaysian industry. Given his strong industry connections and his vision of combining local myth with anime-inspired fluid animation, it seemed like a promising direction.

I contributed by drafting three different story outlines and developing sculptural design tests for the Bujang character, which he could later use as animation references.

Last Minute Changes

However, as the final year approached, I realized that my skill set wasn’t aligned with Noah’s 2D-focused pipeline. Eventually, I made the decision to pursue an my own independent project. This wasn’t a difficult pivot, as I was already comfortable with conceptualizing and developing ideas, though I anticipated challenges on the research and academic documentation side.

Since this was now a personal project, I wanted it to distinguish itself from those of my peers and predecessors. Final Year Projects tend to be judged either by how refined they are within a particular style, or by how well they execute something unconventional. I chose to go the latter option.

This decision led to the creation of Project: Precipes later renamed Eidologue. a minimalist experimental short animated entirely using still shots & featuring no characters. It explored themes of self-discovery and philosophy, a story on someone being introspective, having 2 way conversations within the same breath. the focus on hands is deliberate, a play on knowing one’s back hand and the environment is play on what memory you would reminisce during these times.

Expansion?

While navigating the production and all the required documentation, I started thinking about the long-term potential of this project. Could Eidologue be expanded into a personal animated series?

Since the core of Eidologue was about introspection and growth, it seemed like a fitting foundation for an anthology of short narratives exploring related themes—like the struggle of writing about the self, the corruptive simplicity of greed, or the threshold between life and death.

I considered calling the series Prismatic—each entry offering a new hue of human experience and reflection. Eidologue would serve as the first episode and represent the “white” of the spectrum—containing all the other ideas in potential.

as Curtain Closes..

After countless hours, days, and months fueled by minimal sleep, snacks, and constant philosophical deep-dives, the project was completed ahead of schedule. Reception was mixed, as expected. Some viewers described it as a visual treat and praised its pseudo-realistic style. Others found the narrative difficult to interpret, though a few admitted it sparked their curiosity enough to look deeper—which, arguably, was the intended effect. Criticism mostly centered on its abstract nature, making it difficult for evaluators (lecturers and external judge alike) to clearly assess its merit.

I (somewhat disappointedly) expected this to some extent. In the end, I took away two main outcomes:

• Eidologue proved that I am capable of creating abstract and analog horror-adjacent narratives.
• Eidologue fell short in terms of commercial viability. Its experimental nature made it less appealing to recruiters, who often dismissed it as either white noise or just a stylized demo reel—something that may negatively impact my internship prospects.

Still, I have no regrets. This was the kind of project I’ve always wanted to create. I don’t believe the idea was flawed just mistimed and the wrong audience. To quote the project’s production booklet:

“Why not? At best, it will change the status quo. At worst, it would be funny to see what happens. Either way, it’s going to be something cool to see.”

Side note: Eidologue was nominated as one of the top 3 best animations during the Faculty’s CIPTA 2025 event. Neat