JULY || Warrior Cats OC animatic / pmv

CW for graphic animal death, blood, minor flash warning, possibly unsetteling themes

It's the biggest project I've ever made, and I'm incredibly happy to finally show it! Thank you so much for watching it ❤
took me five months of everyday work to complete, there's nothing human left in me

It's been really long since I started drawing it, so some shots may vary in render quality; sorry for it!

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Story:
With "Froggyheart's lullaby" showing the reasons and "Bird song" - what follows, "July" is about the results of this part of Birdheart's story.
The opening scene is the death of Froggyheart: Birdheart is determined to move on, as her clan still needs her, and this is what Froggyheart would want her to do. She helps to bury the body. However, after some time, the healer Blacksilk notices that Birdheart started having serious problems with coordination of movement, and finds out that due to the stress caused by the death of her best friend, Birdheart's head trauma made itself known, and Birdheart's eyesight became even worse than before.
Blacksilk asks her to retire, but Birdheart is reluctant to do so. Her whole life has been built on being useful to the clan cats, and Blacksilk's request is perceived by her as an attempt of ShadowClan to get rid of her.

Birdheart becomes increasingly distant from her clanmates and begins to avoid them. One of the apprentices named Padpaw starts mocking her, and seeing this, Birdheart starts to feel like the whole clan is gossiping about her. She compares their voices to the singing of kingfishers.
Birdheart's weird behavior gradually turns her into an outcast. In her dreams, Birdheart is haunted by nightmares of hundreds of kingfishers chasing her away, and when awake, Padpaw taunts her for Froggyheart's death.
Slowly after, Padpaw in Birdheart's eyes begins to acquire bird features; and Birdheart, frightened by her previous nightmare, decides to get rid of her before it's too late. Birdheart stalks and kills the apprentice on the territory border, where Padpaw was waiting for her brother from different clan to arrive.
Padpaw's death only made it worse. Birdheart seemed to get away with murder, but then she notices Blacksilk being suspicious about her. Her mental problems start to develop into physical.
At one moment Birdheart wakes up and sees a kingfisher - not in a dream, but in reality. She flees from ShadowClan territory, where, confronted with her worst nightmares, she dies.
(some events of the video are portrayed via character eyes and might be at odds with what really happened)

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My socials:

[marshmoss]

WHEN THE BIRDS FIRST CAME IN MY JAW DROPPED THIS IS MAZING

[squiddiot]

ShadowClan: Wow, look at all those kingfishers! Must be migrating :)
Birdheart: 👁‍🗨👄👁

[minicrisps]

2:21 love the detail that the birds still cast cat shadows

[Beansprout_]

I saw "Animatic" and clicked on it, wondering "Huh! Lets see how it is.." and then i audibly SHOUT "OH GOD. THIS PERSON IS GOD"

[Marispider]

For anyone who loves good symbolism as much as I do - the birds here are kingfishers, who symbolize nostalgia and good fortune. But they're also well known for their rattling calls that can sound like laughter. Both the Halcyon and the Laughing Kookaburra are types of kingfishers. Absolutely perfect for a character who's haunted by both memories/incidents of the past and the idea that she's being mocked and gossiped about.
(I'll also echo everyone else and say this is GORGEOUS, this was done so well that even though I knew nothing about Birdheart before this I still understood the themes of her story before even checking the description for context, and the scenes with the flock of birds haunting/hunting her?? FULL body shivers. I just wanted to nerd out over the symbolism)

[toby]

I haven't ever seen a warriors oc downfall centering around a head trauma and I've been in the fandom for 10+ years!!! Absolutely makes so much sense, head injuries can cause dramatic personality changes (along with vision loss). It's very cool and pretty accurate

[lef]

You can’t even call it animatic anymore. This is a full on music video.

It’s so pretty and detailed I‘m just in awe. Every shot looks perfect and is filled with so much emotion and life! Your work is amazing, every time!

[pantherbeastly]

Birdsong's story makes me sad. She was a bright warrior with a lot of ambition and a strong work ethic who was greatly disadvantaged due to something out of her control. Her turning to murder came as a result of a worsening mental state due to her trauma, and it was only made worse by being asked to retire. I understand that her head trauma was effecting her health, but I honestly don't think telling her to retire was the right thing to do. What she really needed, aside from rest of course, was the support of her clanmates when she was clearly suffering from grief. Maybe then, she could've had her sadness and feeling of inadequacy soothed through the clear care from her clan, and made more friends. But instead, everyone chalked up her distress as "weird behavior", and her grief and disability were ignored and mocked respectively. I understand that she too is flawed, but I still feel that her clan holds *some* responsibility for not really reaching out to her and only perpetuating her insecurities. Great animation!

[bigfrog]

i love that the kingfisher's cast cat shadows at 2:21, such gorgeous attention to detail !!!

[ADragonAmongRoses]

Fun Fact! Your video single-handedly moved July from #11 to #5 on the AMS Spotify play numbers.
I'm a spreadsheet dork, so I know this song was neck in neck with Unwed Henry (now 250k) before you posted this, and now July's around 450k. That's wild! Congratulations on your art's success! 🎉

[purplepawdraws]

Woah, rewatching this for the 20th time I realized a cool detail- at 2:22 the kingfishers have the shadows of cats, showing that the birds that Birdsong sees are all in her head.

[peachykeen]

I feel bad for birdheart, isolation combined with brain damage can cause a false perception of the world. It seems like no one stepped in when they were spiraling, showing how alone she was.

[scooterscones]

THIS. IS ABSOLUTELY. AND UTTERLY. MINDBLOWING.

Every single shot looks like a shot from a professionally made movie, the scenes with all the kingfishers gave me CHILLS just holy crappp words cannot sum up how stunning this is

[Starcheopteryx]

When I saw the song choice I was cautiously optimistic- I love the album but outside of the context of its theme it can be… unpleasant. So I appreciate the extra step of removing that particular word. The art itself is absolutely stunning, and totally above and beyond what’s needed for the storytelling. There’s a really good use of depth of field to make certain parts really pop. This video has made me want to go back and rewatch all the oc videos with these characters. Well done!

[phantomcat]

Oh I love how the kingfishers are used here. The shots of them swarming around Birdheart and diving for her, and how she starts to see Padpaw as a kingfisher, then her reaction to seeing a real kingfisher after the nightmares, it’s so well done. And the visuals, going back and watching the Bird song and Froggyheart’s lullaby its incredible how much you’ve improved! Both were beautiful animatics of their own but they just keep getting prettier! Your wrists must hate you but your eyes sure don’t!

[dattoad]

FINALLY WE HAVE A COMPLETE BIRDHEART'S LORE--
I was incredibly excited throughout the video, it's such a painstaking job, I'm sure you're proud of yourself (just as I'm proud of u)

AND THE CUTSCENE MY GOD I GOT GOSELS THIS IS AWESOME!!

[arachnits]

wow your talent is absolutely astonishing?? the painted realistic looking style with the black and white fits the song and themes so well it lends an almost horrory-eerie feel to it, adding to birdheart's emotions.... im so invested in this story and your art gosh this is just beautiful

[numaix]

this is so visually incredible! i love the painted look and the expressiveness of the characters, and of course the birds were amazing

[Nymitri]

I didnt know animation like this could be accomplished by just one person. WOW. Your values and backgrounds are amazing, im literally speechless

[VelvetyBlood]

On the final scene, the way the music just outright stops when birdheart is not there anymore is so ominous!