My Deer Friend is a piece of 2D hand-drawn animation which investigates themes of loneliness and friendship. The story follows Delia the deer as she attempts to approach her crush, a fox named Francine. This concept is rooted in my own experiences in overcoming my fear of reaching out to others, and the visuals are largely inspired by the animated features coming out around the 1960s and 70s that I grew up with. The characters originate from a previous animation project which I created paper puppets for. I wanted to take myself through the animation process from start to finish, with thumbnails, storyboards, character turnarounds and eventually the final animation.