The Creator's Play

Charectors Model

Props

Shiva and Shakthi

Color Sample - Shiva and Shakthi

Finalizing Sketches - Child

Finalizing Sketches - Shiva

Finalizing Sketches - Shakthi

The animatics

The creator's play animatics from Shanmugapriya Maruthapillai on Vimeo.

The below is a short sinopsis of my finalized story.

The Creators Play
>
> “The Creators Play” is an artistic interpretation on the journey of life
> inspired from some tenets of eastern philosophy including “Advaita” and
> “The Upanishads”. The purpose of this story is to illustrate the
> philosophy of self realization or surrendering to the greater force. An
> eastern philosophical belief is that an individual can become one with the
> greater force and attain a blissful state once he is devoid of all sins in
> the journey of life.
>
> The story starts with an assumption that the creation has already been
> made. A ball (planet) starts rolling and a hand that’s controlling the
> ball is pushing it. Inside the ball, the central characters of the story
> Shakthi , a young female and Shiva, a young male are stuck in a whirlpool.
> The whirlpool takes them into a river. The river represents the journey
> that Shakthi and Shiva need to take along with several others stuck in the
> whirlpool. The hand drops all of them stuck in the whirlpool in to the
> river with each one getting their own boat to sail.
>
> Every boat contains bags of sins incurred by the sailor. Bags of sins are
> representations of the results of bad karma. In eastern philosophy karma
> means action. All karmas have consequences in controlling life’s destiny.
> Bags of sins are accumulated at birth by getting some from the previous
> generation and from the result of bad karma done from birth until the
> present time.
>
> Individuals start sailing their boats and they throw one bag at a time in
> the river. Meanwhile there are some passing clouds that are delusive, all
> the clouds carry different kinds of Maya elements , that are objects of
> distraction, Maya means illusion. Some of the Maya elements include having
> unrealistic desires, amassing unnecessary wealth, immoral sex, vanity,
> vengeance. These eventually lead them to commit sins. The sins here are
> depicted as bag's , as the boat sails shiva and shakthi are tempted to
> collect more wealth, and so they raise their hands to collect the wealth
> from the passing clouds. But , all they accumulate is bag's of sins. when
> the people are unable to handle the amount of bag's, and when things go
> out of control , the boat capsizes, and the sailors fall inside the
> Whirlpool.
>
> The grater force picks up the people who fall into the whirlpool and puts
> them back in another person’s boat as a child. The child represents the
> rebirth/reincarnation of a person with sins after death. Reincarnation is
> another belief in some eastern philosophies.
>
> At some point of time in his journey Shiva meets Shakthi and she enters
> Shiva’s boat. They sail together. The journey continues as Shakthi and
> Shiva witness the things that are happening around them and continue to
> throw the bags in the river. On their way, they meet a person who's boat
> gets stuck on a rock, Shiva and Shakthi gracefully tries to help him, the
> boat gets released the person thanks Shiva and Shakthi. The person moves
> on, suddenly Shiva and Shakthi realize that some bags of sins reduce from
> their boat. This is due to their doing of Good Karma. It is also in the
> eastern belief that when a good karma is done their sins reduce.
>
> So they move on, and now the greater force pushes the boat that Shakthi
> and Shiva are in and they have a rocky ride. The boat falls from a very
> high water falls, representing the big change that is about to happen.
> Once the boat lands in the river, the greater force drops a child. This
> child is the rebirth of a person who fell in to the whirlpool. As a
> result some extra bags are added to the boat. The boat continues to sail
> as the baby grows. The baby gets his/her own boat when it becomes an
> adult and is separated from Shakthi and Shiva.( depicting some incidents
> that happen just like that without any reasons)
>
> Shakthi and Shiva continue to witness that the place around them is
> chaotic. There are now more people, with more bags and it is making their
> struggle worse. They try to throw the bags as fast as they could.But they
> could not take their eyes off Maya (illusion) elements as they wanted to
> see more of it.
> The Maya elements have not completely gone of their mind yet. So they
> worked really hard, and tried to push the maya elements, still the maya
> elements wont go. Now they concentrated really hard and they got a bow and
> arrow ( depicting, if we really concentrate and target the obstacle it can
> be tackled) , and so they used the bow and arrow to destroy the Maya
> elements.
>
> Finally the Maya elements were gone, and they found themselves in a very
> blissful place. Now as they are sailing they see the hands of the greater
> force appearing in front of them and starts pulling the boat towards it.
> Shakthi and Shiva surrender completely to the greater force and the
> greater force embraces both of them into itself.(Depicting the philosophy
> of , Man + Impurities = Man , Man - Impurities = God ).
>

Child Character Research

Child Character

Soft

curious

Kind

gullible

cute


This Character must have :

Round face

Spongy/ Chubby

Expressive Eyes

Hight : 3 feet

Ten Visual cues :

1.Chubby
2. Rosy lips
3.Sharp big eyes
4.Jumping
5.keeps rubbing his belly - just a habit
6.cute smile
7.Has wings
8.Attempts to be adventurous
9. sneaks his way to explore new things
10.likes to look around

Shopping list :

Dhothi

crown

belt

Shiva Character Research

Shiva Character

Greedy
Confused
gullable
Curious
Very adventures
Spirited person
Strong

This Character must have:

Expressive and attractive eyes
Height : 6 feet
Like long chains for the neck
active
seeks people for advice

Ten Visual cues :

1.Tall
2.Sharp face
3.Broad
4.long hair
5.Mustache
6.Likes to grin at things
7.Goes after Shakthi she does not come to him.
8.Knows what he wants
9.very emotional
10.Hunched back

Shopping list :

Turban
Dhoti
Long Chain
Shoes

Weapon

bow and arrow

Shakthi Character Research

Shakthi Character


Very Greedy

Very strong but confused

Happy and highly spirited person

Energetic

Like to explore new things

Has Kleptomania

likes to dress up

cute smile

always up-to something

Things that are necessary to fulfill the story goals.
The charecter must have a long arm to throw the bag of sins in the river.

This Character must have :

Expressive eyes, that shows all her excitement.

long eye lashes

Hight : 5 feet 6 inches

Dressed up well

active

gives ideas to people


Ten Visual cues :

1.Slim and attractive

2.Expressive eyes

3.Smiling all the time

4.Always goes after expensive things

5.Combs her hair all the time

6.Loves to wear lots of jewelery

7.Jumps up and down all the time

8.Likes to have big hair do's

9.Long and wave hair

10. has a little bit of hunched back


Shopping list :

Bangles

Chain

Belt

Rich cloths

Hair bands and flowers

Character Breakdown

Character Mass drawing

Project Statement

Name: Shanmugapriya Maruthapillai

Title: The Creator’s Play: An artistic interpretation of the influence of Eastern philosophy


PROJECT STATEMENT


In recent years, I have been doing a lot of soul-searching and questioning about the happenings in my life. Whether they are planned or accidental. My mother’s recent death has led me to wonder whether everything in my life has been pre-planned and controlled by a greater force.

For my final project, I will create an animated story about the Creator’s influence on the journey of human life. “The Creators Play” is an artistic interpretation on the journey of life inspired from some tenets of Eastern philosophy. The purpose of this story is to illustrate the philosophy of self-realization or surrendering to the greater force. An Eastern philosophical belief is that an individual can surrender to the greater force and attain a blissful state once he is devoid of all sins in the journey of life.

The story starts with an assumption that the creation has already been made. A ball (planet) starts rolling and a hand that’s controlling the ball is pushing it. Inside the ball, the central characters of the story Shakthi, a young female, and Shiva, a young male are stuck in a whirlpool. The whirlpool takes them into a river. The river represents the journey that Shakthi and Shiva need to take, along with several others stuck in the whirlpool. The hand drops all of them stuck in the whirlpool in to the river with each one getting their own boat to sail.

Every boat contains bags of sins incurred by the sailor. Bags of sins are representations of the results of bad karma. In Eastern philosophy, karma means “action”. All karmas have consequences in controlling life’s destiny. Bags of sins are accumulated at birth by getting some from the previous generation and from the result of bad karma done from birth until the present time.

The characters for this animation are partially inspired from a mixture of Indian art forms like traditional Indian paintings. I want to interpret the classical Indian aesthetic with contemporary animation techniques. Through this fusion I hope to allow people to reflect on their deepest understanding of life.
This project will involve research on the characteristics of Indian art and an understanding of the theories of the Eastern philosophy. Through this project I hope to create an identity and style for myself that will lead me toward my dream of establishing my own animation company.