Where I Leave Myself
*A CGI animated short film portrays a single vignette of daily life where ordinary actions create belonging.
* In the street noise of a Sunday morning, disorder spreads across surfaces and dust motes hover listlessly through stale air as familiar rituals begin again. Here, in this borrowed space—not yet fully claimed but no longer entirely strange—she moves with the quiet certainty of someone creating home from memory and hope. Each weekend’s cleaning becomes an archaeology of self—unearthing layers of identity, brushing away the dust of disconnection, arranging and rearranging until the landscape feels true. This is not the dramatic homecoming of hero’s journeys. This is the slow, tender alchemy of belonging—how a space transforms through touch and time, how we anchor ourselves in new soil through the mundane magic of everyday care. The walls that once echoed with emptiness now hold the soft accumulation of lived moments. In these ordinary motions—the hanging of clothes, the wiping of kitchen counters, the careful placement of treasured objects—lies the profound poetry of human attachment. How we rebuild ourselves in new places. How we learn to belong not through grand declarations, but through patient, repeated acts of attention. How home is less a destination than a practice—a conversation between our past and present selves, conducted through the silent language of cherished things and familiar gestures. This is the story of a quiet revolution: making space your own, one Sunday morning at a time.
*The film portrays a single vignette of daily life where subtle details create belonging, presented as a short 3D animated short using stylized realism, with particular attention to environmental storytelling and detailed character animation.
*My own transition between cultures and cities has profoundly shaped this project, revealing how small rituals became essential anchors during periods of displacement and uncertainty. Through countless relocations, I discovered that belonging is fundamentally cumulative rather than instantaneous—a gradual accumulation of repeated micro-moments that slowly transform unfamiliar spaces into personal sanctuaries. This insight drives my creative approach, where I’m passionately exploring the intersection of emotional storytelling with technical CGI execution, finding that digital animation offers unique opportunities to visualize the invisible threads that connect us to places.
*The aesthetic language I’ve developed reflects this philosophy: warm, slightly stylized realism with meticulous attention to lighting and texture that captures both the physical and emotional qualities of spaces. My post-production process carefully edits the rendered clips to create an intimate viewing experience, using subtle transitions and thoughtful pacing that mirror the gradual, almost imperceptible way we build belonging in our daily lives—allowing viewers to recognize their own journey in these quiet moments of place-making.
Watch the film here: