FeatherBall
For Zhirong’s senior year, she focused on her solo thesis, Featherball.
The story is about Lauren, a seven-year-old girl who a rescued bird named the bird Lili. While taking care of Lili, they developed an amicable relationship together. Lauren taught Lili how to fly, but she was unwilling to set Lili free, resulting in dire consequences. Zhirong was responsible for all the roles for her thesis, including modeling, rigging, animation, texture, lighting, and rendering.
It was difficult. So she transformed into an eight-legged octopus with panda eyes for one whole year. However, with this experience, she had the chance to explore many roles, and she discovered things she liked and disliked. She improved her time management because she had to spend the right amount of time on her thesis to keep her schedule on track. Fortunately, she does have friends who were also solo for the thesis to accompany her. They encouraged and helped each other. They lifted each other positively.
