The digital animation Depression During the Pandemic aims to help viewers identify signs of depression in themselves and others, and how to seek treatment during a global pandemic. The stress caused by quarantines, job-loss, and fear of infection has caused a significant rise in depression around the world. A recent medical research journal anticipates suicide and other mental disorders including depression, anxiety, and PTSD are likely to increase as a result ¹.

As cases of depression have drastically increased throughout 2020, it felt necessary to create a project depicting this mental health crisis, which has struck close to home. A person may not even realize they are personally suffering with depression or how to ask for help for themselves or for their loved ones. Depression During the Pandemic may help to open the eyes and hearts of those around us during a time of immense distress and turmoil by discussing what warning signs to lookout for in a brief animation and to illustrate how many people suffer with this disorder daily.

I opted for a hand drawn style to help the piece feel a little more personal as the nature of the topic is rather grim and isolating. Throughout the animation, a young woman is shown to be in a depressive state as the pandemic continues to loom over the world. Once the narrator discusses ways to seek help, the young woman becomes hopeful even though her current mental state is poor. My animation stays monochromatic and moody to illustrate how isolating and dark depression can make a person feel—until the end, where lighter shades are used to express that there is indeed a light at the end of the tunnel.

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