How I escape bad dreams

▶ THE TEAM

AUDIO EDITOR: Hazel

STORYBOARDS + LAYOUT: Cyn

BG ARTIST: Oskar

VIDEO EDITOR: Zade

PROGRAMS USED:
▶ ToonBoom Harmony Premium - to animate
▶ Adobe Photoshop CC - background art / thumbnail
▶ Cintiq 16 Pro - screen tablet (but I recommend basic cheap pen tablets from Wacom)
▶ Adobe Premiere CC - to edit and compile

STAY CONNECTED!

- I'm sorry, I'm not available to do lines for videos anymore; I've gotten really busy :(

- I am NOT looking for animation or video help! I appreciate your kindness. I'm not in a place where I need to hire people, not even for free.

#illymation #shudder

[pleblep]

"sometimes your brain is bad at remembering what hands look like"

As an artist that struggles as much with drawing hands as everyone else, YES

[arandomweeb]

"How do you know you're awake right now, and not dreaming?"
"I can tell because everything’s normal, I can't fly, and I have zero control and the future terrifies me"
So now how do you know that we aren't just in a nightmare?

[sweetiepie]

There is something just so euphoric about seeing King from the Owl House in the background throughout the video as well as other references such as Dana’s social media and Luz sitting next to other cartoon characters it’s just so AHHHH IM SO HAPPY

[theyoutubeplague]

The most terrifying experience with sleep paralysis I've ever had: i had my arm over my face, so I couldn't see what was around me, I could only listen to the horrors beyond my compression that surrounded me... and I haven't slept since

[ViridianMask]

As an Owl House fan, I appreciate all the references, from Luz and King being in the background and the more subtle light glyph in the background

[kittyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy]

My friend sometimes has the sickest dreams ever, here’s the weirdest one yet:

She said she was going to celebrate christmas in mexico at her worst enemy’s house (we live in europe and her worst enemy is literally her neighbor) and when they arrived they ate burritos with live snails in them. She later saw her enemy had a collection of overweight otters as pets...

*wtf did she smoke*

[MusicDecomposer]

I don’t think I’ve ever had a problem with mirrors in dreams. (At least the ones I can remember.) They’ve always been good dreams, not scary.

For example, I remember a dream where I saw Garfield in the mirror instead of myself. And I was just like “Oh okay, I’m Garfield now. Awesome!” :)

[ktlknss]

When I was younger, I was always scared to sleep near a mirror, because I watched a show where someone looked into a mirror and there was an evil version of them, and I was scared it would happen in a nightmare (still kind of scared).
Also top tip for me, when I have a bad dream, I like to turn a light on, because having light stops my brain thinking nightmarish thoughts.

[Draftsman_MC]

I had a disturbingly similar dream as a kid, my reflection came out of the mirror and crawled exorcist style towards me (I’ve never seen the exorcist at that point). Needless to say, mirrors and I don’t get along.

[msthecommentator]

I've only ever had sleep paralysis once, and I do not wish that crap on my worst enemy. It started with a nightmare where I was shot with a shotgun, point blank, in my chest. I woke up crying in a cold sweat, and realized in that instant that I couldn't move my body. My room was hella dark and almost distorted looking, like it stretched on to eternity in the darkness. Thankfully, I'd read up on how to get yourself out of that state (start at your fingers/toes and concentrate on slowly moving them, work your way up your arms/legs until you regain control), and I got back to normal before I saw anything too traumatizing.

[heartstxpper]

I'm so glad she mentioned about mirrors because here's a fun story:

One time in December I had a dream about my friend, I was sitting in my parent's room and talking to them (in my dream) and they have a massive mirror in their room and I have a habit of glancing into the mirror every time I'm in their room so obviously I did it in my dream but I could see myself perfectly. As if I wasn't dreaming, I wasn't distorted or looking peculiar just my normal self

[Okeana_Aster]

Okay so... my worst nightmares are often about having arguments with my toxic mother. And the worst thing about these nightmares is that they're not exagerations. They were exactly like real arguments with my mother. That shows how nightmarish she is.

I've had a few lucid dreams before but there's always a problem. Each time I try doing something that clashes with what the dream was originally about, I start waking up. I try to stay in the dream but I'm always unsuccessful and I wake up.

I had sleep paralysis a few months ago too. When I woke up, my body felt super heavy and I couldn't move, and I felt like something bad could happen if I tried to force it. So I just let my imagination wander like I often do as my body slowly felt lighter and lighter as time passed until I could move.

[JellyJessYT]

Big props to Illy and her team for the amount of effort put into this, it’s insane… honestly blows my mind! Also love all the cheeky references hehe

[iiblissfulsin]

Things I’m just now realizing:
-I’ve had sleep paralysis before
-in my dreams, mirrors don’t hold reflections, and for some reason my brain thought this was normal
-the reason I can’t lucid dream usually is because during the day I look around and go “..how do I know this is real?”

[islandrebelmakeup]

When I found out what lucid dreaming was, I was like “wait, doesn’t everyone do that?” It was quite the revelation to realize I had been lucid dreaming for my ENTIRE life.

[Cat-ocgc]

For some reason in my dreams, I always have horrible vision. My vision in real life isn’t too bad, but in dreams, amplified by a billion percent. And what makes it even scarier is that I can realize I’m dreaming, try to wake up, feel myself trying to wake up, but not being able to wake up and just being trapped in a blurry unfocusy world 😰

[memo]

Illy wearing glasses on her glasses at that therapist scene, its like the glasses are just a special feature of her body

[s_rockgod]

I love how Illy has little references to the owl house, my little poney, pokemon, inside out, and all the little other details I'm her background art. ❤

[livi_bwop]

“Luz id dreaming” could be a cool owl house episode

[JwpGaming]

I still remember my one and only sleep paralysis, I somehow managed to close my eyes so I didn't see anything but I could feel something was in the room with me.
As far as bad dreams go, as a kid I had a lot of them. enough that there was legit lore within them, spanning for years. characters that began haunting me as a 3 year old would do so up until my early teenage years, evolving along the way. I actually finally defeated my dream arch nemesis as a teenager by making lewd remarks at it... weird way to deal with it but it worked, lol.
later in life my dreams have become more of psychological torture than scary monsters.
classics like
-waking up to look at the clock and "realizing" I have "overslept" (not really a proper nightmare but I stress about alarms way too much, to a point where I often hallucinate stuff like this in my dreams)
-the one where right as you fall asleep you fall and rapidly hit the ground (bed), waking up (not really a nightmare, but an annoying quirk non the less, one of the things I'd remove from the human experience, along with that "throwing up a little bit in your mouth every now and then" -feature.)
-teeth falling out in front of the mirror from the lightest touch
- being bitten by dozens of snakes on the ground (I like snakes but I guess there's still the primal fear)
-room/area being very dim or low contrast and turning on the lights don't work or only cause a dim, hollow glow, as you anticipate some unknown force coming to get you
-some artsy horror stuff like a dark figure standing over a frozen lake, under a freezing winter moon and dark sky with a very unsettling "camera angle" (think once used in Ari Aster movies)
among others.
every time I wake up from a nightmare, I curse the fact my mind is so creative at abusing itself while sleeping but during day time, when I could turn that kind of stuff into, I don't know, horror bestsellers, the only thing up there is permanent brain fog, lol.
I have used lucid dreaming to escape nightmares a few times but I've also ruined many cool flying dreams by realizing that I'm dreaming and then loosing the power to do so. must be some kind of an insecurity thing.
Dreams, they are funky.