The Glass Cage
A 2D Animation story
Almost every child in Bangladesh is familiar with a cartoon character named Meena. Meena’s adventures, along with her family and pet parrot, used to revolve around issues of education, health, gender equity etc. in South Asia. Originally developed as part of UNICEF’s campaign to raise awareness about the needs of female children in our society, Meena was an incredibly successful advocate for adopting hygienic sanitation and health habits, family planning, schooling etc.
Understanding this need for reaching communities, I realized inventions and engineering solutions for development are only effective when it is embraced by the people for whom it was designed for. Alongside coming up with material solutions, I learned animation to tell visual stories that could also be just as impactful.
Concept behind The Glass Cage:
This piece is a statement addressing the rising mental health problems such as depression, anxiety, and the various disorders that affect our generation to a crippling degree. The feeling of isolation, of not being heard from a corner of the world that renders us powerless against its natural tides, can make us feel like we are slaves in a prison created by our own minds.
Character Design:
The character represents the innocence of a child’s mind. It is through their dream world we can glimpse the simplicity, serenity, and the creativity we desire to express. The child transforms into the hollowed out husk of a person as they realize that reality is grim and grey, that is the complete opposite of the world he desires to live in.
Developing the storyboard:
The Glass Cage storyboard.pdf
Click to view the pdf. This storyboard was created using Celtx
Animating from the storyboard:
Using Adobe Animate, I was able to animate scene 1.17 from the storyboard.
I remember developing this story over two semesters in my undergrad, realizing how much time an animator would need to complete even a short story. Even though it would require me to be far more resourceful to take on an independent animation project, I hope to find opportunities in my future work where I can grow my skills and incorporate these concepts into crafting inventions for human stories.