The Lost
On a rainy day, Li, a careless middle school student, accidentally leaves behind her umbrella at the bus stop. Then the umbrella began its marvelous journey: a naughty girl picked up the umbrella and used it as a sword to play with her friend; an elderly lady picked up the umbrella and used it as a walking stick to walk slowly up the stairs, the umbrella accompanies different people to different places, to the convenience store, to the beach, on the train, and on the bus. After passing through the hands of many individuals, the journey of the umbrella ends with it being left at the bus stop where it was originally forgotten. Li, who had finished her day and was ready to sit down at the bus stop, turned her head and realized that her umbrella had stayed there as if it had never moved.
Inspiration
My inspiration comes from a news story in 2023, where a three-year-old boy accidentally left his beloved monkey doll on a train. By the time he realized, the train was already on its way to Edinburgh. Eventually, after being passed through four different companies, the toy was successfully returned to its owner. Similar stories are not uncommon. In 2022, a 10-year-old girl lost her toy dog on an airplane. As the airline worked to return the toy dog to her, they captured its travel adventure along the way. I was very touched by the story, so I wanted to create an animation that also revolve around someone who lost something but eventually retrieved it. Umbrellas are very common daily objects that people tend to lose sometimes, such items may go through their journeys after being lost, while the owner might never know.
Pre-production
Character design
Li is a thirteen-year-old junior high school student who is very energetic but sometimes careless. I wanted the design of her outfit to reflect her youthful nature, so I dressed her in a Chinese school uniform in a blue and white color scheme which is very commonly seen in real life worn by Chinese middle schoolers. I designed her hair to be short and red, which echoed with her lively and energetic personality. The shape of her face is slightly rounded, and combined with her fan-shaped eyes and narrow double eyelid, it gives her a lively and adorable appearance. The overall body shape of the character is chubby and charming, additionally, I designed the shape of the arms and legs to be larger at the ends to make the character more stylized and also help with enhancing the body language of the character.
