Mahi Kakkar

01 Thesis Project- 'Beat It!'

My thesis project is a thank you letter to music. Music has helped me cope through various hardships, deal with complex emotions. It helps me visualise thoughts, find meaning in small nothings, and become a better artist. This film highlights the same.

“My work as an animator focuses on creative storytelling. I love being inspired by my own unique experiences, whether it be regarding identity, my culture, insecurities- the beauty of human experiences. I, as an artist use my work to combine reality with fiction. I enjoy using my skills to share my views and thoughts in an innovative way, incorporating various media. I have studied both animation and filmmaking, and I want to experiment with these two artforms.‘Beat It’ is 2d animated film, which follows a boy stuck in a mental block, who gets transported to a world of music, colour and vibrance. Music becomes a source of escapism, confrontation, and support for him. I wanted to showcase three specific emotions- happiness, sadness, and frustration through a series of abstract animations. The character comes out more confident, assured, and happier- a reflection of how music makes me feel- it just makes everything better. I divided the project into two parts: reality, using rotoscoping based on my storyboard, and a surreal musical world with colorful 2D animations. I used Photoshop and Procreate for animation and effects, drawing inspiration from Take On Me, Anthony Francisco’s psychedelic art, Pixar's Soul, and games like Tomb of the Mask. I also composed an emotional soundtrack in Garageband, using major and minor keys to evoke feelings.”