Yujia Guo

囚QIU

囚(Qiu) is a about two minute 2D digital narrative animation that demystifies the life of a bipolar patient. Due to bipolar disorder symptoms, patients’ emotions fluctuate significantly over time. In the plot, when the protagonist loses control of her emotions, her abnormal behaviours scare her friend away unintentionally, and the patient feels more depressed due to her behaviours after.

“囚(Qiu) is a 2D digital narrative animation that demystifies the life of a bipolar patient. Due to bipolar disorder symptoms, patients’ emotions fluctuate significantly over time. In the plot, when the protagonist loses control of her emotions, her abnormal behaviours scare her friend away unintentionally, and the patient feels more depressed due to her behaviours after. Their unstable mental status is like a cage trapping them, and they are not able to escape. In Chinese, the character “囚” consists of a person (人) inside a cage, which describes their situation. The theme of this animation is to provoke more attention and discussion about how to provide more support to bipolar patients in society. This project was inspired by my experience of getting along with one of my family and my friends with bipolar disordered symptoms. Since I could not deal with this situation properly at the beginning due to a lack of knowledge of this symptom, the goal of my project is to give people a bit more understanding of bipolar patients’ world.Aim of the ProjectEven though mental illness is different from a physical disability visible to people, the symptoms can still heavily affect their lives, relationships, performances, and personal safety. This project is important to me because bipolar disorder bothers the people I deeply care about. In China, the rate of outpatient and diagnosis of mental illness is meagre, and the popularization of relevant knowledge is also not in place. Since there is a lack of attention to mental health problems in my country, I thought it was the person throwing a tantrum and estranging from them when I first encountered this situation. However, after I understood their situation more, I started to learn about this mental health disease and how to respond to this kind of situation. To support them, my understanding and patience can make them feel accepted in their most vulnerable time. However, a physically detailed and effective solution is still a gap in the current society, which is worth me and other people to explore it more and figure it out.ProductionThe extreme emotional swings in patients’ bodies remind me of two incompatible liquid oils coexisting in the same container. In the colour selection of abstract expression, I chose red and blue to represent her mania mood and depressed state respectively. I arranged the red liquid floating in the air to show an energy state higher than the threshold in mania. At the same time, the depression dissolves her body into a shallow energy state. The work engages audiences by showing the protagonist’s bipolar mental state through exaggerated depiction and vivid visuals in a serious tone. In character design, I designed the round shape figure with an orange colour T-shirt and cloud-like hair to indicate her optimistic and outgoing personality. The backgrounds were done in Procreate and animated in Toonbooom Harmony and Adobe AfterEffects.”