Panic attack
This explainer animation explores panic attacks, shedding light on their symptoms, emotional and physical responses, and options for treatment.
The narrative centres around a main character who experiences a panic attack while in a car with a friend - a setting chosen for its everyday familiarity and potential for heightened emotional contrast.
The goal was to make the condition both relatable and understandable, especially for those who may never have experienced it first-hand.
Credits
Direction, Animation & Design: Sasan Shekarestan
Voiceover: Zohreh Tabakh
Client: Digipezeshk
Tools Used: Daz Studio, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, After Effects
Challenges & Creative Decisions
A key creative decision was the use of metaphor and perspective to communicate the internal intensity of a panic attack. To represent the sensation of tunnel vision, a commonly reported symptom, I designed a sequence where the character appears inside a long, narrowing tunnel, conveying the loss of peripheral awareness and increasing disorientation.
Creating this required compositing 3D renders with carefully animated visual effects, such as warping edges, light fall-off, and echoing sounds.
Striking the right emotional tone was crucial: the animation had to evoke empathy without overwhelming the viewer. Balancing realism with visual symbolism meant iterating on character expressions, timing, and sound design to effectively capture the experience in a respectful and accessible way.
