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.

How to Grow Clouds - finished animation

And here it is after several months of making and editing. Accompanied by an original soundtrack composed by the very talented Nick Scott http://www.nickscottmusic.co.uk/

How to Grow Clouds - making

To maintain a sense of unity I wanted everything to be portrayed using only watercolours. In order to achieve this illusion of a Japanese watercolor, the base for everything (puppets, clothes, animals, scenography) had to be watercolour-friendly, white and needed to look like it was made from paper. Therefore as my main materials I used plaster to cover wood/ cardboard constructions, paper-mache and white fabric for background.

I wanted my puppets to have a wide range of movement which would correspond to the fluidity of their environment, so after several trials with wood and wire I choose to make my figures from metal armature with ball and socket joints from metal balls and bicycle chain parts. Even their hands had flexible fingers which allowed for a fluid transition from one frame to the next.

How to Grow Clouds - story

How to Grow Clouds

It takes a lot of work: it is necessary to weed very carefully, to toss out muck and small stones by hand, to kneel on the earth, bend over, dig about in the soil, water profusely, collect caterpillars, exterminate aphids, loosen the ground and serve the earth; when your back hurts from all this and you straighten up and look at the sky, you will have the prettiest clouds. Probatum est.

Philemon, or On Gardening

Karel Capek

No page-turning action or plot twists, this form belongs more in the recipe book than the narrative of a short puppet stop motion animation, but it was in this “recipe” that I found my inspiration..

As an enthusiast of all things Japanese I was attracted to the almost-haiku style atmosphere that inspired me to set my animation in a Japanese-like environment. Like Haiku poetry I wanted the animation to focus on emphasizing the small details, to catch the fleeting moments and glorify the everyday actions of something as simple as the act of gardening while playing on the allegorical meaning of “you reap what you sow.”

After preparing some initial watercolor story boards I decided that I wanted the whole animation to envoke the feel of a 3d watercolour painting.

Welcome to Imaginarium

Alicja Cioch, a native of the distant land of Bydgoszcz, Poland and recent graduate of the Glasgow School of Art.
Her work is a reflection of her unique character which draws her to the magical side of things . Tales, music, black humour and distant Asian cultures have all been the subject of her work which focuses on the nostalgic, the bloody, the poetic and the bizarre.