Brilliant

I've gotten some great advice from my comments so far. Thank you guys so much. You're so much smarter than I am.

Erm. So. Between my comments, which were right on, and this paper, and the sketching I've been doing, I think I'm starting to get a new handle on my story, and I just wanted to try some new story beats to see what you guys think.

What I realized writing this paper is that I've been fighting against doing the most famous Baba Yaga story, because it's really complicated. There's a magic doll. There are horsemen. There are wicked stepsisters. So I decided to start with a simpler story. But I've made it more complex. And I think that I can use the character sketches I've done for either story.

So. I'm going to try the big one.

Here are story beats for my incredibly condensed Vasilisa the Fair:
1. Vasilisa is kicked out of her home, holding a candle
2. And is told (by someone off-screen) not to come back without a light.
3. She wanders through the forest
4. It's dark and scary.
5. She comes upon her neighbor -- Baba Yaga
6. Baba Yaga's house is lit by glowing skulls, which form a fence around the hut on chicken legs.
7. We see Baba Yaga
8. Vasilisa is scared, but approaches
9. But Baba Yaga uses a glowing skull to light her candle
10. And sends her home.

I think that's about a minute of animation. No exposition, other than that Vasilisa needs a light. Only two characters to animate (three if I want the hut to move). All the reference I've collected still applies. All the sketches I've done still work. All I need is new storyboards and a new animatic and I'm all set.

Anyway! To me, this seems more do-able. What do you think?

Baba Yaga sketch

She flies in a mortar and sweeps the sky with her broom. I've given her a pestle, which makes more sense to me. I was hoping I could leave her in the mortar, so I wouldn't have to give her feet. But I'm not so sure that's going to work. Abandoning this sketch until I figure it out.

Character question

First, I'd just like to join everybody else who's saying, "Midterms! Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!" Scary.

Mostly this week, I've been doing what I said I would and working on my characters. I've done a decent-ish job on Baba Yaga, but here's my question:
Initially, I wanted her to look like a fairly normal old woman at first. But I've just been writing this paper about Baba Yaga's supernatural aspects and antecedents, so now I kind of want to give her a more other-worldly look.

So I'm posting two images here -- my finished sketch and an earlier version where I hadn't put Baba Yaga's eyes in yet. I kind of think she looks more like an ogre in that one. So what do you guys think? Eyes and normal, then she opens her mouth and has shark teeth? Or no eyes and creepy right from the start?

I'll have a full body image of Baba Yaga soon. Sooner than I would like, given my unresolved face issues, but hey, at this point, I figure all drawings are helpful somehow.

Ugh

I was thinking about just starting over completely, then a friend sent me to this lovely little Russian cartoon, and I think I'm getting the faith back.

But this story thing is killing me. I think I can tell a story, but I've been working at it so hard, I can't see the forest for the trees.

It's two weeks til I present again, and I'm going to take that time away from story and start working on something else. I've got these basic characters -- a hero, a mirror, a hut and a witch.

I'd like to try just working on creating these elements. I think if I do a good job realizing them, I won't need to worry about story. Or at least, I won't need to worry about story as much. I've got a hut right now. That's a starting point. The witch is next.

So that's my plan. No storyboards, no animatic, maybe not even any computer work at all. Just drawings, and if I'm happy with my progress, I'll start trying story again. But a written outline, a proposal, something to give me some form before I storyboard again. I hate this mishmash I've gotten into. It's making me punchy. That's no good.

Okay, that's it for now.
Hopefully the next time I post, it'll be fantastic amazing drawings.

Animatic

I've been working on my animatic all week, and it's not the five minute epic I feared. It's 2m38s, which is still long, but not dreadful. Of course. This probably means my timing is terrible. I'll find out the next time I present. Eh, worst comes to worst, I can scrap my entire story idea and just have my thesis be a hut on chicken legs doing a little dance.

Meanwhile! Drawing, painting, modeling, fun.

More logos

Here's this week's iteration of my logo, which will have to double as a title image for now. I really hope to get started modeling my hut on chicken legs today, and do some more drawing. I figure for the characters, I'll start working from photographs, just to get human proportions, but I need a good drawing of my magic mirror, so if I could get going on that, that would be great.

Preliminary sketch

Preliminary sketch for the hut on chicken legs, which is, of course, the driving force behind all this.

Reference

Doing an image search on google for Baba Yaga images. Some of them are quite beautiful! Most of them are somewhat involved with telling the story of Vasilisa the Fair, which isn't the Baba Yaga story I chose -- believe it or not, that one's actually MORE complicated.

Anyway, one site I visited had a very interesting essay about Baba Yaga and how to break down her symbolism (again, it dealt with the Vasilisa story, but I think all of the terms apply). The author of the site was NOT the author of the essay though, so I may have to do a little more research before I can site anyone in a paper.

Here's the essay though. There are some nice illustrations on the page, too.

Mostly, it deals with the idea that the old woman is the personification of Death -- anyone who is sent to Baba Yaga is sent to die. And yet, she can be very helpful. If you can face her, you can always solve whatever problem sent you out to Baba Yaga in the first place. Of course, there's more to it than that (when is there ever not?), but that's my abstraction.

Here are some more pretty pictures:
Russian illustrator
Painting of the house
Very nice sketch, classical western style
More modern, abstract interpretation
Not sure where all the images on this page come from, but I like a couple of them, so I figured I'd keep a link to it.

Welcome!

I've got a lot of posts already!

I actually started this blog at the beginning of the semester to help me narrow down my thesis topic. And if you feel like reading a whole lot about that, go right ahead and skip back to my first post! It's quite long!

More recently, I've added some rough storyboards and logo designs.

I have this scary feeling like I'm incredibly far behind and I need to produce prodigious amounts of work just to catch up. This blog is probably going to be very reflective of that fear.

Well, with that being said. Welcome to my blog!

Storyboards

I like storyboards. I like the way they make you think. These are very rough and my story is clearly still way too long, but here's my first stab. Storyboards

Logos?

Logos for my working title. I think I like the second one best, since it's got my lacquer box feel. I like the little fowl guy too. I assume I'll change out the clip art for my own work once I've got my own goose. If I go with that logo. Meanwhile, I'll take what Illustrator gives me.

I've actually got a whole bunch of other potential logos to go with this title. But it's really just variations on a theme at this point. I assume that as I start working on character and set design, I'll be able to get more specific.

Story beats

My story, as bullet points.

1. Svieta checks herself out in mirror
2. Loses her geese
3. Follows them into forest, gets lost
4. Finds hut, curls up for night
5. Baba Yaga is a scary old woman
6. Svieta tricks her, escapes
7. Baba Yaga chases
8. Svieta throws her mirror behind her
9. Mirror turns into lake
10. Lake stops Baba Yaga
11. Svieta can find her way home now

New story

Here's my new story -- it still needs some condensing, I think. But it's better.

We start with a girl looking in a mirror. We'll call her Svetlana -- Svieta. It's a hand mirror she's looking into, and she clearly enjoys her reflection. She's playing with her hair. A voice off-screen calls, "Svieta, pay attention!" Svieta looks up suddenly and we see that we're in a field and the sun is setting. As Svieta looks up, she sees that the flock of geese she's supposed to be tending are flying away. She gets up to chase them and runs into the forest.

In the forest, it's very dark -- the sun is setting, after all. Svieta wanders around for a while, not paying attention to where she's going and getting herself completely lost, and eventually comes upon a hut. It's very dark at this point, so she goes inside. With nothing to do until morning, she gets out her mirror and tries peering into it again.

The hut is Baba Yaga's hut, and before too long, it stands up on its chicken legs and starts running, with Svieta inside. When it stops again, its door opens and Baba Yaga walks in, lighting candles and a cooking fire, illuminating the inside.

Baba Yaga sees Svieta and walks towards her, menacing. Baba Yaga is an old, crooked woman with very sharp teeth. She is terrifying. Svieta holds her mirror up as if it was a shield and Baba Yaga is momentarily entranced by her reflection.

The back of the mirror has a face -- it winks at Svieta.

Between the wink and Baba Yaga's pause, Svieta regains some confidence. Baba Yaga gently pushes the mirror away and points Svieta towards the cooking fire, above which is a large pot. As Svieta looks over, she sees human bones -- skulls, etc. She says, as bravely as she can, "Baba Yaga, you can't eat me now." Baba Yaga stares at her. "Baba Yaga, you're an old woman. It's too late for you to eat. Think of your digestion." Baba Yaga's expession changes. "Baba Yaga, I'm completely lost, there's no where for me to go. Don't worry about me, you can eat me in the morning." Baba Yaga smiles, delighted.

Baba Yaga goes and sits by the fire, eventually falling asleep. Svieta, too scared to sleep, goes over to the window and watches for dawn.

As soon as it is light out, Svieta very quietly climbs out of the hut on chicken legs and starts running. "The sun rises in the east and moss grows on the north side of the tree," she tells herself, checking her bearings. She keeps running.

Behind her, Baba Yaga has woken up. She looks around, and very quietly leaves her hut. She sniffs the air and starts running as well.

Svieta keeps repeating her lines about direction to find her way home. She pauses to breath and hears a noise behind her. It is Baba Yaga, who is tireless. Svieta starts running, in a panic.

As she is running, she takes her mirror out and throws it behind her. It's a magic mirror. Maybe it'll help, she thinks. It's hard for her to part with the mirror, but maybe it'll help.

Without looking back, she keeps running.

The mirror hits the ground without breaking. It starts growing and turns to water. Very rapidly, it turns into a lake. Svieta realizes this when the ground beneath her turns to mud and her feet are suddenly wet. She looks behind her, and she can barely see Baba Yaga in the distance, across the lake. Baba Yaga can't run over the water and is giving up. Svieta gives a sigh of relief and goes home.

Focus and moving forward (sort of)

I took a week off from this class to see if I could clear my head a little. The conclusion I came up with was that both my ideas were awful and that I didn't want to do either of them. So BAH.

Then in class, I kind of calmed down. I think that I sort of have to do the fairy tale idea. I know I can't do it alone. And I know I can't do the whole thing. Not in a year. But this is the only time I'm ever going to get to have help with narrowing it down and focusing on the important parts. So I'm going to try it. Scary, but good, I think.

Plus at the end of class, I got to sit down with Gabriel and talk about ideas, and I sort of feel better about compressing the thing now. I'll post that later.

Some feedback

I was talking with some friends about my thesis ideas (my friends LOVE hearing about my thesis! Many of them are still talking to me!) and here's my summary -- the prince has to go. Any purpose he can serve (by my interpretation) is negative. Plus he's useless. I need to get rid of him. But the hut on chicken legs could be really interesting.

If I go with this fairy tale thing, I can also give it a really special look/feel -- I've been thinking about lacquer. Like a box. I'll get a picture. Here.

If I go with my planets, I'll be sticking with a more realistic look.