Seeking to popularise important, but overlooked, literature from China's Tang Dynasty, Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang transforms folklore stories into animation.
Major project
Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang
Behind The Scenes: The Dancers
Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang is an ancient, Tang Dynasty (618 to 907 AD) book that inspired the famous Chinese collection of unusual stories: Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio (1679). But due to its widespread popularity, its predecessor remains relatively unknown. The unusual stories still arouse attention in contemporary audience as they to be records of real events. But whether the stories were truly inspired by dreams, folklore or genuine reports is unknown.
Post-Render: The Dancer Models
The Dancer story describes an alleged report of a drunken scholar, who woke up at midnight and saw dancers come to life from a wooden screen in his bedroom. Singing a strange song, five dancers rhythmically move whilst their dancing leader sings about her sorrows of growing old. Her song explains how, in time, her special, youthful dance moves were forgotten by her era's dancers. The story ends with the dancers fleeing back into the wooden screen when the scholar shouts out in shock.
Behind The Scenes: The Black Gold
Part of the project's aim is the preservation of culture, retaining the magic of spiritual beliefs that have been pushed aside in the wake of industrial revolutions and rationalisation. Though many might question the plausibility of the Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang's stories, their retellings point towards time where such stories were believable, entertaining the idea of invisible worlds temporarily breaching our own. The Dancers story is one such example.
Post-Render: The Two Dragons
The images titled 'The Black Gold' and 'The Two Dragons' depict key elements of one of the stories. In an auspicious night, a spectator witnesses the meeting of 2 dragons. As the dragons approach each other, their breath coalesces producing a shining object that falls to earth. The spectator, caught in the profound moment, notifies the local government sector to investigate the scene. Digging up the ground, they discover black gold whose attributes are never described or expanded on.
Behind The Scenes: The Mountain
The Behind The Scenes images on this page provide technical snapshots of the modelling and animation processes within Cinema 4D before they were textured, lit up, and rendered in their respective environments. The Post-Render images show the finished models in various stages of the animation process. For example, The Two Dragons image shows the compositing that takes place in After Effects whereby illustrations drawn in Adobe Photoshop and vector art created in Adobe Illustrator are combined with effects and models for Cinema 4D. The patterns that feature throughout the work were taken directly from the decorative artefacts of Tang Dynasty, tying the visuals of the stories to their origins more closely.
Post-Render: Bi - The Eyed Mountain
The final story is that of The Mountain where a Tang Dynasty doctor suddenly dies from which his spirit is free to wonder. During his death he visits a palace, finding a sick man with a lump on his arm, whom he is tasked to heal. Succeeding in caring for the man, the doctor is led by another person to the Mountain Bi in a garden where radiant lights pulsate. Upon seeing Bi, a mountain made from eyes, the doctor asks what it is, and is told the place of all those who die. 2 workers fanning the mountain appear, before the mountain unexpectedly explodes. Upon hearing this the doctor's spirit returns to the body, and he wakes up, and is left with more questions than answers.
Joline Cui
Major project
Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang