Finding God in animation

The Ateneo de Manila Senior High School (ASHS) is known for its rich and diverse co-curricular activities and engagements. With over fifty organizations and committees to choose from, there is sure to be at least one org that will cater to every student’s hobbies or interests, however niche these may be. 

Among these many diverse groups is a small gem of an org whose works caught this writer’s attention during the preliminary visit to the ASHS by the Philippine Accrediting Association of Schools, Colleges and Universities (PAASCU) in late January 2024, and again during the Senior High Orientation Seminar (SHOrSem) held on 30 July 2024. A new org that's a home for the community’s student animators, it is the Animation & Creatives Studio Organization, or ACSO. As its name implies, the org serves as the ASHS’ very own digital animation studio, producing captivating videos while nurturing its creators’ love and passion for the artform.

So where did the org spring from? What eventually evolved into ACSO began when ASHS Science faculty Mr Jon Bilog began making stop-motion animated shorts using Lego versions of Harry Potter, Marvel superheroes, and other pop culture figures during the Covid pandemic in School Year 2020-2021. To make his online classes more engaging, he used these famous characters to teach topics like VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) substances and other lessons.  

Encouraged by the positive feedback his mini-movie lessons got from students and co-teachers, Bilog founded ACSO back in SY 2022-2023, when the world cautiously resumed the holding of face-to-face/onsite classes. The org began with 15 members, the bare minimum for an ASHS org to remain “alive” and not be dissolved. Despite its small size, ACSO’s moderator and members managed to eventually set the foundation for the organization, drafting its constitution and declaring its reason-for-being. Says Bilog about that first year, “We were trying to figure out the identity of the org and differentiating ourselves from existing orgs like Grafiction, Video Club, and Zoom.”

Despite successfully launching ACSO in September 2022, however, Bilog and his members had one frustration: they were unable to complete a project that showcased the org’s unique skill set for the ASHS community to see.

This “no output” situation changed dramatically in SY 2023-2024, when ACSO made not one but eight animated videos, a remarkable feat considering the org’s start-up problems and the sheer amount of time and painstaking labor it takes to make a digital animated short. 

On 29-30 January 2024, the org caught the ASHS community’s attention during the inaugural PAASCU preliminary survey. In a beautifully and meticulously animated 80-second video that played in a loop on the ASHS foyer’s led video screen, ACSO visualized the five C’s- Christ-centeredness, Competence, Commitment, Conscience, and Compassion- that the school hopes every Atenean will personify. The video was a true team effort, with the org’s 15 members forming five groups of three members each which were then tasked to present each “C” in purely visual terms. This is why every “C” in the org’s PAASCU video bears a distinct animation style that celebrates its members’ unique artistry. (View the video at the top of this page.)  

Short though the video was, it took ACSO more than a month to finish it, from the time the org took on the assignment until it was submitted to then-ASHS Principal Noel Miranda, who quickly approved it for exhibition without revisions. Asked exactly how many man-hours went into the obra’s creation, Bilog confesses that he has no idea how much time the students devoted to the project, though he is quick to praise their heroic efforts. “Hats off to them,” he beams, “because they spent hours and hours working on the video while dealing with their usual heavy academic workloads as students.”

He adds, “We also had a really good member whose role was to pressure the others to meet their deadlines. ‘Deadline, deadline…you know what’s gonna happen if you don’t make it this week!’ is how he would pressure the others. Galing!”

Another source of bragging rights was the fact that ACSO was the only ASHS org that made a concrete contribution to the PAASCU visit, and it was a work that wonderfully showcased how active and talented ASHS students are.

ACSO’s efforts were rewarded when the video was praised not just by members of the ASHS community, but by the PAASCU accreditors themselves. The “icing on the cake” came in early June 2024, when the ASHS received word that the school had passed the PAASCU preliminary survey and was now eligible to apply for a formal survey visit in 2025. No less than University President Fr Roberto C Yap SJ congratulated the ASHS community for the "important" achievement in a memo dated 10 June 2024, while also acknowledging “all those who contributed diligently in preparing for a successful preliminary survey.” And though Fr Bobby did not single out ACSO in his memo, Bilog and his members know in their hearts that their video was a small but not insignificant contribution to the Senior High's PAASCU success.    

After PAASCU, the org also produced a video to promote the ASHS Youth Research Engagement Forum (YREF) Congress held on 9-10 May 2024. ACSO also made a “best of” compilation video of their SY 2023-2024 works, which they posted on their official Facebook page, Ateneo Animation & Creatives Studio Organization (https://www.facebook.com/ACSOSHS). The highlight reel can also be viewed at the top of this page together with the video the org made for the PAASCU visit.       

Following its banner year, one would think that the org’s future has never been brighter. Bilog, however, worries that ACSO may still be dissolved in School Year 2024-2025 if it doesn’t attract enough members. “Lots of students out there don’t even know that our org exists,” he confesses, “and some of our incoming Grade 12  members won’t come back even though we had a good year last school year. Ganyan talaga sa senior high school. Since the students only have two years here, many of them want to try other orgs.” 

Bilog emphasizes that ACSO is not only looking for animators. Aside from students who can animate, ACSO will also welcome writers, storyboard artists, voice actors, and even anime fans with open arms. “If you are very knowledgeable about anime, you can critique the works of the organization and give inputs about how something should and should not be done,” he explains. “Animation experience is not a must, but a passion and love for animation certainly is.” 

To promote ACSO this school year, Mr Bilog and his returning org members (now officers) made full use of the SHOrSem, putting on a charming puppet show and showing a highlight reel of the members’ works to incoming Grade 11 students during the mini org fair. After showcasing ACSO to 40 groups of students in one long and hectic day, officers Hunter Arellano (12-Evans), Luni Pedralvez (12-Kibe), and Sean Yu (12-Navarro) were exhausted and spent.  

Bilog was also pleasantly surprised when it was reported that ACSO’s giveaway, a sticker depicting their cute org mascot, was quickly snapped up until not one was left. The news made him cautiously optimistic that the popularity of the sticker will translate to a good number of members signing up for ACSO. “My hope is that animation fans will join the org and have their ‘St. Ignatius Cannonball Moment’ here," says Bilog. "I hope they have that eureka experience that will make them realize, ‘Woah! This is something that can change my life.’ ”