Last summer, I had a colleague named Foster Eber who studied animation and design at Ball State University. Although we had only jokingly mentioned the fact that I could voice some of his animations, that joke became reality later that fall when Foster had animated a simple leaf falling from a tree. I noticed his video uploaded to Facebook and immediately called him. I’m sure my plea sounded a bit foolish at the time, but I desperately wanted to give his leaf a personality. He proceeded to tell me that the project was due that next morning and if I could record the voice that night he would edit it in and present it to the class.

Sure enough, I took Foster up on his offer. It took me some time to decide what a leaf might sound like. I took the liberty to assign it some characteristics before I came up with the final voice. I noticed that the leaf was the first to fall from the tree in autumn. This told me that the leaf was daring. I also noticed that, intentional or not, the leaf did several aerial stunts before landing, which added an adventurous element. Finally, the voice was born and the leaf was personified. I’ll always remember that leaf.