Animation Project 1

Project Idea

Our project is base on 逍遥游 (The Happy excursion) from the Chinese Daoist classic 庄子(Zhuangzi). Many Zhuangzi scholars have debated the philosophy behind the story for the past centuries. This time we want to focus on the idea of contrasts images in the text, the giant Peng bird with a cicada, a pigeon, and a quail. It also mentions that size is relative: "Pour a cup of water into a hollow in the floor, and bits of trash will sail on it like boats. But set the cup there and it will stick fast, for the water is too shallow and the boat too large."

We also want the final animation to be almost dreamlike. The timeline of our story is looping, inspired by another famous work in Zhuangzi called 庄周梦蝶 (Zhuang Zhou Dreams of Being a Butterfly).

Aesthetic

Storyboard

Original Story

逍遥游 (The Happy excursion)

庄周梦蝶 (Zhuang Zhou Dreams of Being a Butterfly)

Once, Zhuang Zhou dreamed he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering about, happy with himself and doing as he pleased. He didn't know that he was Zhuang Zhou.

Suddenly he woke up and there he was, solid and unmistakable Zhuang Zhou. But he didn't know if he was Zhuang Zhou who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming that he was Zhuang Zhou. Between Zhuang Zhou and the butterfly, there must be some distinction! This is called the Transformation of Things.