In February 2022, (on valentine’s day to be exact), I had an idea that would soon become a turning point in my animation journey. The idea for the short 24 second animation really just popped into my head while thinking about my original characters Ash and Z and after listening to the song “Mr. Fox in the Fields” from the movie Fantastic Mr. Fox. The music was super cute, and had such a charming change in melody that definitely helped in the storytelling of the short. I played with the fact that Ash liked lollipops and tried to see how I could use that to make a story. I’m pretty sure I didn’t even storyboard the whole thing out before jumping in. I started doing some rough animation of Z in the beginning of the short and ended up finishing all the backgrounds and clean animation within the span of 14 days. 

When I posted the process videos on Instagram, it wasn’t long before it gained traction. Followers and comments started pouring in and the growth of my small account suddenly blew up. I was super surprised by the feedback I was getting for what I thought was a little animation I did for fun. Now, a year later, the Instagram post has reached over 19 million accounts and 700K likes. Since posting it to Youtube, it’s gained over 5.1 million views. I’m so grateful for all of the support I’ve received on this animation and all of my content following it. “Sucker” was overall super fun to make and has inspired many, which I could not be more happy about.