Adrian Bryan
Same Time
Tomorrow
Same Time Tomorrow is a 2D animated therapeutic project as I venture through a transitory period of my life. It is meant to show my personal battle with anxiety and depression, as well as the waves of emotions including fear, sadness, anger, and acceptance. The confrontation between myself and The Phantasm displays the fluctuating strengths we both have and how, in the end, those feelings are always going to be part of who I am.
Artist/Thesis Statement
Growing up, I was terrified of the dark. But as I grew older, I understood more that I was less afraid of the shadows themselves and more afraid of what’s lurking in them. I started feeling a draw towards more macabre tales and horror stories with an increased sense of intrigue in both what creatures looked like and how they acted. I will admit that I do still have some fear of the dark and can get scared from horror stories, but I hold a strange curiosity to see and understand them more, partially due to the fact I have convinced myself for so long that I am a monster myself.
Same Time Tomorrow is an animation that portrays a small glimpse into my own ongoing battle with the monster that lurks within me, a manifestation of my negativity and depression towards the world and existence itself. Although it is a battle I have lost many times, I have started to succeed in overcoming it. However, I also understand very well that it may be something I will have to learn to live with for the rest of my life, and making this work is a way to do that. Over the course of the year working on this project, my battle with these thoughts has both improved in some respects while worsening in others. All around, I have come to realize that I have a lot more growing to do as a person, and a lot more changes to undergo to break through the walls I have built around myself.
This project is not only a glimpse into the kind of thoughts I have but is also a steppingstone in the path I want to take as both an artist and an animator. There is still a lot of misconception that animation is a genre meant for children, when it is a medium meant to express a wide variety of thoughts and expressions. I want to make animations and artwork aimed at older audiences so I can tell the stories I wish to tell and express the ideas I have with more control. I want to be able to show the range of thoughts and emotions in the characters I make without having to conform to a level of comfortability that most general audiences are expecting. This may lead to my work being niche, but I would not mind, I was never one to be in the spotlight anyway.
