This was all made in 2017. I wanted something to illustrate the importance of encouraging creativity. I don't remember how the conflict of stealing arms came about, but I do know I wanted something unxexpected in the story execution.
I remember wanting the main character of this little short to not be too different from me, so I decided on a little Asian girl who was good at drawing. The overall look of her is a rough combination of how I looked in 2017-2018 and how I looked as a kid.
I wanted Mai to be v ery expressive, so I took inspiration from anime with their exagerated expressions
Zen was a variation of another character I thought of as a child. Below was his initial design.
I wanted the look of the story to have more appeal, since I wanted the main story to also appeal to a younger audience. So Zen needed a redesign. The two mouth design lacked personality, and I believe would have been a bit scary for something aimed towards young children. So I gave him bigger roundeer eyes and axed the second mouth. I took inspiration from My Life as Teenage Robot for the look of Zen's eyes.
Fleshing out Zen's emotions didn't prove too dificult because I pictured him behaving not too differently from a typical kid.
I intended the look at the time to be very simple, so I took heavy inspiration from a flash animation I watched when I was younger, Making Fiends (2008-2023). I really liked the simplicty in how the characters looked with the main characters getting a designated main color. So I chose that look for Mai and Zen.
To emphasize the kid like nature in both, I wanted Mai and Zen to be quite small.
This is a story I would like to revisit one day.