Art Saved Me
This is the story of how Art Saved Me, How it provided a safe home for my feelings, and how it gave me a place to store all my feelings, big and small, without the relentless fear of being judged. It offered me an embrace where my emotions could reside without the haunting worry of them being stolen away or resurfacing to haunt me. Each stroke of the brush, every blend of color, became a vessel to contain my sadness, anger, love, and the myriad of emotions that overwhelmed my heart and mind. Art became my silent confidant, allowing me to release what was too heavy to carry, and find solace in its presence.
Process & Medium:( AI, 3D)
The creative process began with creating 3D animation inside Unreal Engine. The Frames were then processed in Stable Diffusion using various different ControlNet models. All the frames were later post-processed inside After Effects creating this animation.
2048 × 2048 || 12 FPS || MP4
This animation is really close to my heart. It took me some time to gather the courage to share it online. I was always a very emotional person, often experiencing extreme anger, sadness, and so many more emotions,
but I was never able to tell my feelings to anyone. So, I kept quiet and tried my best to deal with it on my own.
but there was a point in my life when it got too much when this pain, anger, and sadness were just paralyzing me, eating me from the inside. That's when art came into my life. I started making art to let out all these emotions. I put everything into it – how I felt, what I was going through – all of it. Sometimes, I would go to the bathroom, stand in front of a mirror and act like I am holding a gun to my head and shoot it. I don't know, deep down that moment brought a lot of peace inside me, and at this moment I created some pieces that revolve around the same topic, the topic of peace when you are dead. I never dared to talk to anyone so it was always my art I talked these moments with.
One of the pieces I made, showed a guy who had hurt himself in a bathroom. I took the courage to share it but was happy no one understood what was going on in the piece and just commented "beautiful" on it.
another such piece I created to show how peaceful life is when you are free from the shackles
I made a lot more pieces like this, like a secret way of keeping my feelings safe. Every day, I would put my emotions into my art, like locking them away in a treasure chest. It helped me let go of those tough feelings.
Then, one day, something amazing happened. Someone saw one of my artworks and sent me a message. We talked about that voice inside us that we usually keep quiet. Talking to them made that voice feel free. I'm so thankful to that person. They helped me so much, more than they probably realize.
So, this animation is a big part of my story. It's not just a bunch of pictures on a screen. It's about how I found a way to deal with all those big feelings inside me. It's a reminder that even when things are really tough, there's a way to connect with others and heal.
How I created this piece.
The project began with a basic 3D animation created in Unreal Engine 5, which was rendered at 12 fps to achieve a stop-motion effect. As usual, there were multiple variations and adjustments made to the camera angles and movement.
Then I created some textures that represent the Van Gogh style.
Why? Cause the amazing person I mentioned in the tweet above, Van Gogh is their favorite artist.
I created 2 textures, one of which is more clay-like, and one has more intricate details
Then the 3D animation was put into SD img2img and each frame was processed using those 2 textures as input for ControlNet
and it went through various styles, combinations, prompts, and seeds to create this final animation which was then edited in after effects
