The Art of Messy the Maid

Transcript

1. An Animation Senior Thesis Montserrat College of Art Class of 2026
2. FOREWORD & INTRODUCTION - PAGE THE IDEA - PAGE CHARACTER CREATION - PAGE WRITING & STORYBOARDING - PAGE AUDIO - PAGE BACKGROUNDS - PAGE ANIMATION - PAGE OTHER THINGS - PAGE CONCLUSION - PAGE CREDITS & SPECIAL THANKS - PAGE CONTENTS
3. 4 5 Foreword I just want to thank everyone on the team who worked so hard to make this project possible. I reached out to you describing my ambitious project with outrageously low pay, and you still decided to work with me. For that and your kindness, I am forever grateful. This project would’ve never come to fruition if it weren’t for you. Everyone who worked on this project were either Alumni or students here at Montserrat, they are amazingly talented and are open to work! If you’re looking to hire, I strongly encourage you to take a look at the credits and find people there. What you’re about to see is the inner workings of an animated passion project. It’s definitely not perfect or what the standard is to the industry, but all of those imperfections are part of the learning process. Miss Messy herself is all about mistakes, and like Messy, we can only try and learn from them and do our best! Be passionate, and be messy!
4. 6 7 Introduction My love for animation has been around since before I can remember. By the 2nd grade, I knew I wanted to become an animator. My love for shows like The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Gravity Falls, and Steven Universe kept me inspired and motivated to one day work in animation. This persisted into high school, where I started to gravitate toward 90s and 2000s cartoons like Animaniacs, Invader Zim, and Clone High, my interest in traditional animation being the cause of this. Despite me not growing up with said cartoons, the inherent nostalgia I felt from them was something that stuck with me for a while. There was just something so different about how they did cartoons back then that I loved compared to what we have now. In my time here at college, I’ve found myself learning to embrace my ideas and creativity, not overthink, and just make what I want. So when I thought of this little maid struggling to be the best she could, I really wanted to see her come to life. She started out as a small idea, a few sketches, but soon became my whole senior thesis with a growing team of people. My love for animation continues in this project. So, of course, I love artbooks as well. I’ve been collecting artbooks since I was in middle school, and I loved to read the process behind the shows and movies I love. So getting my own art book for my own project was something that the little kid in me was so excited to make. I knew with the amount of effort my team and I put into this project that I needed other people to see all the hard work we put into this. I hope this book fascinates you as much as artbooks do for me as you flip through all the effort and love we put into this project. Please enjoy Messy the Maid and never stop loving what you love. Anneliese Wang : )
5. 8 9 The Idea Imagination is a great entertainer when you’re bored. The idea for Messy came to me over the summer while cat-sitting at my Aunt’s house. It was 2024, and once a week, her cleaning ladies would come in to clean the house while I awkwardly waited in the other rooms until they were done. So I was really bored, and what else do you do but play video games and draw? At the time, I was playing Zenless Zone Zero, and one of my favorite characters in the game was a klutzy “exterminator” who was part of a group whose whole gimmick was pretending to be a maid service. Since I was in the other room with no idea what the cleaning ladies were doing, all I heard was just a bunch of noise, and I just assumed they were cleaning (and of course I knew they were cleaning lol). I was thinking how funny it would be if, when I walked back in, it was a complete wreck instead. That’s when it came to me. A maid who’s bad at her job. I instant- ly found this idea charming and started drawing up sketches later that night. Early concepts of additional characters and Messy by Anneliese Wang (2024) Early concepts of Messy by Anneliese Wang (2024)
6. 10 11 For my Junior Independent Project pitch, one of the two pitches I presented was “Messy the Maid”. Messy had stuck with me since that Summer and I had only expanded upon her story since. It was an idea I really wanted to use for my independent project, but I realized it wouldn’t be possible to complete within the timeframe I was given. So I put Messy aside to work on my other project, “The Yeti”, thinking I wouldn’t see her again. Beatboards by Anneliese Wang (2024)
7. 12 13 When thinking about what I wanted to do for Senior Thesis, returning to Messy was one of the first ideas that came to mind. Messy was some- thing I’d been sitting with for a while, and was ambitious, but not impossible for a thesis. She was perfect. Over the summer, I started think- ing about how I wanted the story to play out and sketched up some super rough thumbnails. That was the jumping-off point of my project, and from then on, it was time to finally actually start working on Messy. Early thumb sketches by Anneliese Wang
8. 14 15 Character Creation On top of brainstorming about the story, during the summer, I started to think about ways to most efficiently cut down on production time. Animation takes a lot of time and hard work. I wanted to make a three-minute short film, and that alone would at the very least take a year to create. If I could significant- ly cut down the work somehow, three minutes would look a lot more reasonable. This way of thinking reminded me of the Golden Age and Digital era of animation history. The United Productions of America, or as most people call it, UPA, was famously known during the Golden Age not only for breaking the norms and going against the standardized animation style, but also known for finding practical shortcuts for faster and easier production. This style made a comeback during the 90s and early 2000s during the Digital Dawn of anima- tion; these types of cartoons were called “Cartoon Cartoons”. This gave me an idea: if I were to simplify Messy in the same way UPA stylized their characters, I could cut down on time with intention. Not only did I like this idea for the less demanding workflow, but also because I LOVED early 2000s cartoons. Those cartoons founded the early stepping stones for my obsession with animation. It felt right to use this style for my final project as a student. It was decided. It was time to make some new concepts.
9. 16 17 Messy Messy was the first to be redesigned, and therefore was the guinea pig for this style. I looked at hundreds upon hundreds of characters from Dexter’s Laboratory, The Powerpuff Girls, and other shows that had that UPA-inspired look. My computer was stock-full of open Wiki-Fandom tabs for weeks. I used all of this for reference and research. You’d think it’d be simpler to replicate a simple style, but the truth of the matter is that the simpler your style, the more obvious the mistakes are. Eventually, through lots of trial and error, I had a good basis for what she would look like. Messy’s redesign sketches by Anneliese Wang (Above) Messy redesign concepts by Anneliese Wang (Left Page)
10. 18 19 Finalized design sketches of Messy V.2 by Anneliese Wang (Above) Messy’s final design (Right Page) After finishing up her initial redesign, I presented her new design to my peers to see what they thought. They loved her, but also pointed out that she didn’t look “messy” enough, which I agreed. I got so caught up in the stylization that I forgot about her clumsiness. So I went back and reworked her again, not straying too far from the original design, but gave her some small but noticeable changes. I sketched her again and again until finally, I landed on her actual final design! Giving us our lovable ditzy main character, Messy!
11. 20 21 Fun Fact Messy’s real name is actually Missy! Her nickname came from a spelling error on her nametag. Her co-workers thought it was humorously fitting for her, so the name stuck. Final Messy turnaround by Madison Mendoza
12. 22 23 Mouse When thinking of Messy and her story, it felt kinda lonely. Messy dealing with the chaos all on her own would still be comedic, but the sense of pity is stronger when she’s dealing with all of it herself. Messy needed an ally, a friend. Someone who would stay by her side and help her when times get tough. Another person in the room with her didn’t make sense, so it didn’t take much brainstorming before landing on her mousey companion. I thought it would be cute and ironic for Messy to make friends with a mouse, something maids tend to get rid of. It’s pretty fitting for Mouse turnaround by Anneliese Wang her character as well, since failing to get rid of a mouse would also be her failing at her job. The Mouse was pretty simple to make. I always imagined him to be just a little blob on her shoulder, providing amusing reactions to the au- dience about the hijinks ensuing on screen. The mouse didn’t take much to develop, so this will be a pretty short section, yet, ironically, it is one of the biggest heroes of our story. Mrs.Bosslady The next question was, who was Messy doing this for? Why was she doing it? Why is she so worried about messing up? Messy needed a boss. So, a boss she was going to get. I’ve always had a pretty solid idea of Mrs. Bosslady ever since I first drew her on the beatboards. A strict, yet sorta sweet lady who takes her job deathly seriously. Some inspirations I took when making her were Professor McGonegale from Harry Potter, Mary Poppins, and Headmistress Bloodgood from Monster High. All of them being very orderly ladies, I took lots of inspiration from their looks and per- sonalities. I especially took inspiration from Sara Bellum from The Powerpuff Girls, though not for her looks or her personality, but for her gimmick. Sara was always angled in a way that you could never see her face, giving her an aura of mystery. I really liked that idea and wanted to incorporate it into Mrs. Bosslady. I was hoping that with Mrs.Bosslady’s facelessness, the audience would have a sense of intimidation from her, the same way she intimidates Messy. It’s not until the very end that we get to see her face. Mrs. Bosslady didn’t go through too many changes, only minor details and color changes that were no less important to the story.
13. 24 25 Mrs.Bosslady’s color concepts and final turnaround by Madison Mendoza (Above) Mrs. Bosslady’s design concepts by Anneliese Wang (Left Page)
14. 26 27 Avery In every good story, there’s always a bad guy. I needed to create someone the audience roots against, someone that’s satisfying to defeat when the hero emerges victorious. Avery was that someone. Avery is Messy’s main bully, the Heather Chandler of the Heathers, putting someone weaker down to lift themselves up. She’s the main source of Messy’s motivation, the one Messy wants to prove wrong. Since she only appears briefly in the film, I wanted to make sure that when looking at her, right off the bat, you got the sense that she was sorta a bitch. So, of course, I took inspiration from the best, Asuka from Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Candace from Phineas and Ferb. Though I couldn’t design all these characters on my own. Avery & Bosslady Final Character Design side-by-side Mrs.Bosslady’s final turnaround
15. 28 29 Avery design concepts by Madison Mendoza After her first initial concept sketches were done, I passed Avery along to Madison Mendoza and asked her to take anything she thought could be improved upon and draw up some Avery concepts herself. Madi came up with some great concepts, shaping Avery to be sharper and more precise than the original sketches. I especially loved the small detail of her headpiece being shaped like devil-horns. I was so happy with the designs! Final Avery design concepts by Anneliese Wang After that, I took the character into one final round of refining based on the concepts Madi had sent back to me, and finally ended up with our final version of Avery! Despite not showing up much in the film, she was easily one of my favorites to design. (Don’t tell the other characters, but I think she’s my favorite out of all of them.) Original Avery designs by Anneliese Wang Fun Fact Madi was also the one to suggest the name Avery! Avery didn’t have a name before Madi’s suggestion. (This is because I’m awful at naming things.)
16. 30 31 Avery color concepts and turnaround by Madison Mendoza Jade Having a boss and one other coworker besides yourself would be kinda an awkward setup to have, and Messy should have someone who doesn’t totally hate her. We needed a new charac- ter. Enter: Jade. There’s always that person at work who just does not care about the job at all. They’re there to get paid, and that’s it, and that’s what I wanted to encapsulate in Jade. Along with Avery, she also makes a very brief appearance in the film, so translating her apathetic attitude to her design needed to be just right. One of my main inspira- tions for her was Ellen from Zenless Zone Zero and Buttercup from The Powerpuff Girls. Both tough characters that are too cool to care. She doesn’t take part in any of the bullying that Avery does, but she doesn’t really do anything about it either; she can’t really find herself to care, just trying to do her job. Original Jade design concepts by Anneliese Wang
17. 32 33 Similar to the process with Avery, after drawing up her initial concepts, I passed Jade along to Oliver Johnson to further her conception. Oliver had some great ideas, rounding out Jade’s design through personality and shape language, which gave her more personality. I took the concepts back and did some final designing based on Oliver’s concepts, and created who we now know as Jade! Jade design concepts by Oliver Johnson Final Jade design concepts by Anneliese Wang Jade color concepts and turnaround by Oliver Johnson Fun Fact Oliver, like Madi, was also responsible for Jade’s name, taking the burden of naming characters off of me once again!
18. 34 35 The comedic relief. Something that isn’t neces- sarily essential to every story, but is so essential to all of my stories, simply because I love come- dic relief characters. Max was one of the first characters I had thought up after I initially had the idea of Messy. A creepy sorta nutcase maid, who is way too into cleaning up, and knows a little too much about how to properly clean up blood stains. The idea made me laugh. That’s the moment when I knew I had to include co-workers for Messy. I knew that this character was a trope, but I couldn’t put my finger on what trope it was specifically. The closest examples I could think of were Nifty from Hazbin Hotel and Toga from My Hero Academia, who also served as heavy inspirations as well. I had somewhat of an idea of what they would look like, small, a little creepy looking, sharp teeth, but still needed to figure out how to bring all those ideas together. Jade’s final design Crazyface (Max) Original CF design concepts by Anneliese Wang
19. 36 37 Like the last two, after drawing up my initial concept designs, I had passed Max along to Penelope McDonald for them to further conceptualize. Pen did a great job testing and eliminating what would and wouldn’t work for the design. The hair was a tricky one, so Pen taking that off my plate was a huge help. After that, the concepts came back to me, and I polished up what I thought at the time to be the final design. CF design concepts by Penelope McDonald
20. 38 39 After showing my peers the designs, someone had pointed out how they all looked a bit uniform since they all had such sharp shape language, another thing I didn’t realize until they were all standing next to each other. This made me change Max’s hair from straight to curly, giving them some more round and bubbly features, which helped break up the characters more solidly. Once that was done, Max was finished and ready for animation! Crazyface’s final design Final CF design concepts by Anneliese Wang CF turnaround by Penelope McDonald
21. 40 41 Unfortunately, I had to cut the beginning of the film due to time constraints. This will be expanded upon later on when talking about the animatic. But if I hadn’t, we would’ve got to see a lot more of these characters and their personalities. But I’m glad that they’re in the film regardless. I’m so happy with how all the characters came out and how much personality they add to the film. Everyone I ask always has a different favorite, and I think that speaks to how impactful their designs are. Early lineup by Anneliese Wang Crazyface’s final design
22. 42 43 The Final Lineup
23. 44 45 Writing & Storyboarding The plan Now that we had our characters, it was time for the real work. The story. I had a pretty good idea of how I wanted the story to start and end; those two things remained pretty much unchanged. The tough part was figur- ing out what happened in the middle. I knew I wanted chaos to happen, but how? And in what order, and what would trigger what? It was a lot trickier to figure out than I thought it’d be. After lots of thinking, I had finally thought up a sequence. One thing in the room would fall over, something that Messy would try to catch, Messy trying to catch it would trigger something else to start to fall, and so on and so on. Sort of like a more complex domino effect. This would serve as my template for the middle of the story. I wrote up a list of situations that could happen in an attempt to sort out my ideas more clearly, but this only brought up my next problem. List of ideas for the story
24. 46 47 How would I know how the scene should play out if I didn’t even know what the room looked like yet? Or where everything in the room would be? I presented this problem to my peers, and someone suggested that I create a mockup of the room in The Sims. It was a great idea. I created the room as closely as I could to the idea in my head, and it instantly helped a bunch. I went back and forth between the room and the list, making sure ev- erything made sense, until finally, I had the story. Room layout and plan concepts Room concept created in The Sims 4
25. 48 49 Thumbs made after room creation (Above) Final thumbnails (Right Page) Marvin Britt, a storyboard artist and my mentor at the time, was also teaching me a lot of valuable things for storyboarding. He taught me how to properly create thumbs, making it way easier than what I was doing before, and saved me a lot of time. I had finally created my final thumbs with a proper story and set up in mind, but the hardest part had yet to come.
26. 50 51 Storyboarding My first mistake was doing the animatic be- fore getting my sound and audio. This made it difficult to see how the timing in certain shots would play out, and story beats were less clear. The second problem was making way too many scenes. I did initially end up cutting from my thumbs, but even with that, I still had so many scenes in the original animatic, scenes that we just didn’t have time for. The third and most crucial mistake was doing the animatic at the same time as my other Pre-production stuff. Environments were still being developed, and character designs were still being fleshed out. Take my mistakes and learn from them. Out of everything you do from pre-production, always do your animatic last! Once I was done with the thumbs, it was time to move on to the animatic. This animatic was my problem child. I have no idea how many times I had to come back to this thing before I could finally leave it alone. But honestly, I was a bit to blame for that. End of animatic V.04
27. 52 53 Beginning sequence of animatic V.10 One cut to mention was the whole beginning sequence, much to me and my peers' disap- pointment. Because time was running out, the sacrifice had to be made, and it made a world of difference, saving us a whole minute of animating we didn’t have to do.
28. 54 55 The beginning sequence would’ve established our characters more solidly and given us more insight into their personalities. I’m hoping that after the thesis showcase, I’ll be able to work on the beginning to show at MASh.
29. 56 57 Painting sequence in animatic V.12 The painting section was originally much longer than what we ended up going with. Messy was going to have to catch about 12 paintings instead of five, but again, time needed to be saved, so we went with the five instead.
30. 58 59 Knife sequence in animatic V.12 Despite the trials I faced along the way, the animatic was done! The original cut ended up being around 4 minutes long (excluding the credits scene). I eventually cut it all the way down to a whopping 2 and a half minutes long, to make it in time for the March 25th show reception date. Marvin Britt continued to give me great advice beyond my thumbs into my storyboards, improving them a lot! Despite begrudgingly having to go back to the animatic and change and cut and change again, I still really like how the final animatic came out. Another scene that got changed was the knives scene. The knives scene was one of my personal favorites, so chang- ing it was a tough decision. Originally, the knife rack was never supposed to fall down, instead Messy would’ve had to dodge falling knives from the ceiling while catching the falling china from the china closet. Again, cut for time.
31. 60 61 The Final Animatic Cut Storyplanning is a lot tougher than I think most people realize. It was a tough trial and error for me, but I’m also glad that it went through so many revisions, it just means we made it the best it could be! Without the help of my mentor and peers, I definitely wouldn't have been able to do it on my own.
32. 62 63
33. 64 65 Audio Earlier in the year, I saw a film at MASh called "A Maid in a Mess" (that was also conveniently about a maid!) and remembered being super impressed by the sound design. I knew I needed to get this person on my team. That person was Scott Homer, I was so ecstatic when he agreed to be my audio and edit designer. I sent him my cobbled-together audio I was using temporarily for the animatic so he could get an idea of what it would sound like. Scott’s been doing amaz- ing work and has a real understanding of how an early 2000s cartoon should sound. Hearing one of the full versions of the audio for the first time with the animatic was so awesome! It re- ally felt like things were coming to life!
34. 66 67 As for the music, I knew exactly who to ask. My good friend Arcadia Doughty and I had been in many classes together before, and often incorporated her own music into her projects, and they always sounded amazing. Cady and I had worked together on animated projects before, so I knew working with her would be a breeze. Cady and I would have multiple in-person meetings to work on the soundtrack. I would tell her the mood and feeling I’m going for, offering my input on what works and what doesn’t, while Cady would work her magic, offering her own feedback. I knew I had wanted the tracks to feel regal, classical, and rich, but also at the same time feel clumsy, uncoordinated, and panicked. I had imagined tracks like “Pandora Palace” by Toby Fox, or “World’s End Valentine” from Omori, and the soundtrack from Star vs. the Forces of Evil. And I think Cady definitely nailed those vibes. Hearing the soundtrack slowly come together, session after session, made me so happy! Scott’s Premiere Pro timeline for MtM
35. 68 69 Messy doesn’t speak during the film. People usually assume that because there is no speaking, how she sounds doesn’t matter as much. But because she doesn’t talk, when she does make a noise, it will be more noticeable to the audience. That’s why it was important to figure out who would sound the best for our main character. Early on, I had the idea to reach out to Lizzie Freeman, a well-known voice actress, known for her role as Pomni from The Amazing Digital Circus. Her performance of Pomni was what I imagined Messy would sound like, so it just made sense to get the actress herself. I quickly realized, because of multiple factors like time, money, and likelihood, that it probably wouldn’t be possible, so the idea was scrapped. It was the best choice since the person I got instead suited Messy much, much better. When thinking of other potential candidates, it didn’t take me long to know who would be great. I reached out to my friend, and producer Cady’s Logic timeline for the soundtrack of this project, Ariana Barillas, and asked if she would voice Messy. She enthusiastically said yes! As soon as we started the session in the recording booth, I knew that Ari was perfect for this role. It had felt like Messy had come to life, like she had a voice of her own! It was very exciting recording with her, she did such an amazing job portraying Messy, and I couldn’t have asked for a better casting. Cady’s Logic timeline for the soundtrack
36. 70 71 Me messaging Ariana to ask about voicing Messy Messaging Cady about meeting up for music and voice acting for Jade Once Messy was done, I needed to get voices for the others. I had a pretty good idea of how they should sound in my head; now all I had to do was find people who sounded the way I imagined. Contrary to Messy, Mrs.Bosslady is the only one who does speak, making her another important role. I heard my professor, Hannah O’Neal, voice act in other people’s thesises before, so I asked if she would be willing to take on the task, and she very enthusiastically agreed! When recording, I was super stoked, she was sounding exactly how I’d imagined her, and Hannah was the perfect person to ask!
37. 72 73 Lyss recording for Crazyface in the recording booth For the other three, I had gotten my good friends Echo VanBenschoten to voice Avery, Arcadia Doughty to voice Jade, and Lyss Lentini to voice Crazyface. I had all heard them voice act to some extent before and felt like they all had the perfect vocal range for each of their characters. And they all knocked it out of the park! Despite most of them not having actual voice lines, I was super excited recording with all of them, and appreciate them helping me bring these characters to life!
38. 74 75 Backgrounds Backgrounds help others understand where we are in a story and bring the aesthetic style of the animation together. So bringing on the right people to get them right was important. In the original cut, there were going to be three locations. The opening shot (The outside of the house), the garden, and the room. Of course, we never see this in the film because we had to (say it with me!) cut it for time. I had cobbled together a couple of moodboards and asked each of my background artists to give me some concepts for what the settings would look like.
39. 76 77 The outer house would have been a large mansion-like house at the top of a hill, very rich, very fancy. It would’ve been our establishing shot in the story, giving the audience a sense of regal-ness, while also being slightly intimidating. House and color concepts by Lyss Lentini Garden Concept sketches & Color compositions (unused)
40. 78 79 Garden and color concepts by Aikira Taylor
41. 80 81 The garden is where our characters would first appear; this would’ve been the location for our beginning sequence if we didn’t cut for time. Room and color concept by Anneliese Wang (Right Page) Room and color concepts by Luca Lewis The room, however, is something we do get to see! The place we spend most of our time. As soon as Luca sent me their concepts, I knew this would be the perfect direction to go for our general look.
42. 82 83 Final garden and color concepts by Aikira Taylor Final room and color concepts by Luca Lewis
43. 84 85 Final house concept by Lyss Lentini Final house colors by Aikira Taylor Once the concepts and animatic were done, it was time to make the actual backgrounds. To keep the backgrounds looking consistent, my Art Lead, Madi Mendoza, had provided hex codes and a color sheet to work from. I had also created a small style guide for them to reference for consistency.
44. 86 87 Backgrounds are currently in the process of being done at the same time as the animation, so not all of them will be in this book. I’m so blown away by all of the backgrounds that we were given! I couldn’t have asked for a better background team! Example color palette using Luca’s backgorund as an example Background 21 by Luca Lewis
45. 88 89 Background 10 by Luca Lewis
46. 90 91 Background 19 by Aidan Kitt Background 7 and variants by Lyss Lentini Background 14 by Luca Lewis Background 11 by Aikira Taylor
47. 92 93 Animation And finally, after all that pre-production, we finally get to my favorite part, the animation. As of writing this, production is currently still ongoing. I’m currently doing all of the key ani- mation while slowly handing it off to my in-between animators. Once I’m done with keys, I’ll join the in-betweeners and then join my clean-up team. Messy’s expression and reference sheets by Anneliese Wang
48. 94 95 Thanks to the proof of concept I did before Winter break, I got an idea of how long every- thing will take and how everyone's work-ethic differs. The only changes I wanted to make based on the proof were minor changes in col- ors and adding a shadow-box effect to the an- imation. We’ll see how it turns out in the end. If somehow I end up dying and never finishing this, that’ll be really funny. Reference sheets for other characters by Anneliese Wang
49. 96 97
50. 98 99
51. 100 101 Scene 09_B_1 in-betweens by Beck Gibson
52. 102 103 Scene 04_F inbetweens by Wendy Morrison (Left Page) Scene 04_F near-final cuts
53. 104 105 Scene 06_A_1 rough animation spread by Anneliese Wang Scene 05_B near-final cuts (Far Right)
54. 106 107 Scene 08_A animation Keys by Anneliese Wang (Left page) Scene 09_C_1 in-betweens by Brooke Bates
55. 108 109 Other Things Some extra things that were done in relation to Messy. Things like the title card, the promotional image, and the promotional trinket were for things like our midway and final shows. Title card for the Midway show by Madison Mendoza
56. 110 111 Background for slideshow presentation by Anneliese Wang (Top Left) Screenshot of Messy from one of the animatics (Top right) Trinket for Thesis show postcard by Anneliese Wang (Left) TV box promo for the midway show by Anneliese Wang
57. 112 113 Conclusion When working on something like Messy for so long, it no longer becomes work or a passion project; in a weird way it becomes a way of life. And to see it come to an end, to be finished, it’s a bit surreal. Like, “Oh right, this is what I’ve been working towards…” and it’s incredible. But then you’re also like, “What do I do now?” When pitching it at the time, I just simply wanted to make something silly. But I began to marinate on my idea of cartoons in high school, my love for animation growing up, and why I was so intent on doing this in the first place. It made me realize that Messy was much more than a silly project for me. Messy was the cartoons that raised me, the passion that motivated me, my love for living, everything I had been working toward my entire life. As cheesy as it is, in a lot of ways, Messy was me. This project has certainly inspired me, and I definitely will be making more projects like this in the future. This project’s only elevated my desire to create, so I won’t stop now! It’s been an incredibly long journey, and I’ve had the absolute privilege of working alongside a wonderfully talented and hard-working team, and I couldn’t be happi- er with how Messy the Maid has turned out. Remember to never stop doing what you love!
58. 114 115 Credits & SpecIal Thanks PRODUCERS Ariana Barillas and Anneliese Wang ART DIRECTOR Anneliese Wang ART LEAD Madison Mendoza WRITING AND STORYBOARDS Anneliese Wang STORYBOARD CONSULTANT Marvin Britt CHARACTER DESIGN Anneliese Wang, Madison Mendoza, Oliver Johnson, and Penelope McDonald PROP DESIGN Madison Mendoza ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS Anneliese Wang BACKGROUND DESIGN Anneliese Wang, Lyss Lentini, Aikira Taylor, and Luca Lewis BACKGROUND ARTISTS Lyss Lentini, Aikira Taylor, Luca Lewis, and Aidan Kitt KEY ANIMATION Anneliese Wang FEATURED VOICES Ariana Barillas, Hannah O’Neal, Echo VanBenschoten, Arcadia Doughty, and Lyss Lentini INBETWEEN ANIMATORS Anneliese Wang, Emma Devers, Cassandra Elizabeth, Brooke Bates, Beck Gibson, & Wendy Morrison ADDITIONAL ANIMATION Madison Mendoza RETAKE/DRAWOVER ANIMATION Anneliese Wang CLEAN-UP ANIMATION Anneliese Wang, Kaylee Blandin, Ariana Barillas, Scott Homer, Nina Nichols, and Catherine Cardenas MUSIC COMPOSER Arcadia Doughty SOUND EDITOR/ARTIST Scott Homer VIDEO EDITOR Scott Homer and Anneliese Wang 3D DESIGN Anneliese Wang 3D MODELING Samantha Wilkinson CREATED BY Anneliese Wang
59. 116 117 ARTBOOK DESIGNER Jorielle Arlock ARTBOOK WRITTEN BY Anneliese Wang EDITED BY Lyss Lentini BOOK COVER ART BY Madison Mendoza Thank you to the team once again. Wahoo!!! We did it! Give yourselves a big pat on the back! I cannot thank you enough for helping me make this happen. You’re all amazing artists that I’m so honored to have worked with! You all have great futures ahead of you! Thank you to my friends who’ve listened to every insane sleep-deprived ramble and supported me every step of the way. Every second I had to spare playing DND or Mario Party helped me stay just a little bit more sane before I descended back to my animator's cave. I love you all! And of course, thank you to my family. Mom, Helen, Lara, and Mush, thank you for the phone calls and texts that would brighten my day, feeling your love and support even from miles away. Thank you for always making me laugh and supporting my dreams throughout the many, many years. I could not be where I am and who I am without you. I love you to the moon and back. Anneliese Wang, March 2026