Sometimes, established artists choose not to disclose the projects they made as students for fear of revealing their immature beginnings. But sometimes, tapping into art school projects can reveal some unexpected surprises. It’s also a good way to track the interesting development of an artist or creative team. Who knows if they might become famous one day?The short animation Rise Up, created by a team from Community University of China, Beijing, is a student project that has the potential to develop into a viral animation phenomenon. Inspired by the steampunk style, Rise Up takes place in a magical factory and tells the tale of a pair of worker robot buddies who ultimately destroy their evil supervisor.Liu Jiahao, one of the creators of Rise Up, explains, “We go by the old saying, ‘the team is bigger than the work.’ We all struggle and work together in one direction and what we’ve derived from this project is the joy of friendship. The characters and their actions are not fully developed in the film. Other improvements, such as audio-visual language which will help tell a more interesting story, will be added in the next stage. We are really just beginning to learn what animation is.”Not bad for a team of beginners. We’re looking forward to the sequel to Rise Up!__Here are some sketches from the creation process.Photo: Liu Jiaohao