Rebel zen
Client
Rebel Zen
Year
2023
my part
- Illustration
- Storyboarding
- Animation
Type
Educational animations
Together with the lovely people from Rebel Zen I worked on creating the animated educational videos for their “Meditation for Business people” course. The animations explain meditation techniques that can be done in and outside of an office setting and talk about the benefits of integrating meditation practices in your day to day life.
I was trusted to design the two main characters from the ground up. They are based on historical Buddhist characters. Damo, also known as the legendary Bodhidharma, and one of his students, the first recorded woman Zen master, Zongchi.
More on the character development below>>
Process
This is the time line of the character development for the main character Damo. I started out with the characters in an Ukiyo-e style, because that was just something I always wanted to do and thought fitting for the subject. But that was not something the client was looking for.
In the early stages we focussed on Damo being silly. But after learning his character was based on the Bodhidharma, who amongst other things is the founding father of many martial arts, we took a more intense and strong angle on his physique. I also started out with him being too white, while in reality he most likely had a very dark skin tone.
I use Joy Sticks 'N Sliders for most of my face rigs. It's pretty easy to set up and reuse in different scenes. I usually make a different one for the side-view that can seamlessly be switched to when the need arises.
From wonky sketch to final screen.
A Scene set-up before doing the compositing and camera movement.