SHOWREEL 2011

A short compilation of my work from last two years of studying animation.

design, models, textures, animation - Alicja Cioch
soundtrack - Yoko Kanno Incomplete Love Story
Youtube address: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gET_O08eqyg

Raven and the Whale's soul - animation

A finished animation with soundtrack composed by Nick Scott ( http://www.nickscott.co.uk/ )
Youtube address: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBDSL7i8nAI

Character - Humans & Raven-human

Human characters on boats are the closest in the appearance to the origin of the story. Their Eskimo clothes are made from my photograph of frozen fields. I also used their design for Raven’s transformation into his human form.

Character - Whale's Soul

This character is spiritually bonded with the Whale, so they share similar colour theme, textures and movement. She was supposed to intimidate the Raven, but still seem kind, friendly.
I wanted to portray the ephemerality of the Soul by building her from separate, floating parts.

Character - Whale

He was one of the most interesting characters I worked on, because I had to design his appearance both on the outside and inside.
The idea was to give the Whale a majestic feel. To make him terrifying, but at the same time beautiful and decorative. I decided on a cathedral-like structure inside and used Zbrush to sculpt a character, that would match that shape.
Whale’s form was simple, so I varied his texture a lot. I mixed photos of fabrics and embroidery with painting and bump mapping in maya.

Character - Raven

Raven is a very complicated creature. Over-confident, proud and foolish, seems more like anti-hero than a main character. His anatomical build was constructed to allow him to both fly like a bird and walk like a human.
For his looks I experimented with sculpting and scribbling different kinds of birds. Combining these drawings with collages of clothes’ photographs created an appearance I was looking for – a ragged vagabond. too cowardly to take responsibility for his mistakes but too curious to stay away from troubles.

Raven and The Whale’s Soul - story

For my next project I wanted to create an animation emphasizing the character design. For the story I chose an Inuit tale "Raven and The Whale’s Soul". It presents a cast of very distinctive characters: Raven, Whale, his Soul and a crowd of people arriving at the end. In my version of the story I wanted to concentrate on complexity of Raven’s personality and his disturbing transformation.

On The Roofs - animation

During the production it was important to me to balance the reality and fiction. Violinist’s movements were exaggerated and the setting stylized, but the playing itself was a correct execution of the music piece.
The animation was created in maya 2011. The music from the movie "Red Violin" is composed by John Corigliano, played by Joshua Bell.
Youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJfmnpY2i1c&

On The Roofs - inspiration & character

Fiddler on the Roofs was to become my first 3d animation containing a whole character.
For my initial idea I chose a solo violin piece from the movie Red Violin . I wanted to capture its bohemian mood with a character’s movement and design.
The “Fiddler” character’s appearance and behaviour were a vital part of this project . I wanted him to portray all the qualities of the soundtrack – bravery, playfulness, poetry, nostalgia. The sketches combined a look of a vagabond gypsy with a decadent gentleman.











To add the romantic magic to the film I created for him a colourful night town in which very few windows are lit and everyone seemed to be asleep.