Spring Quarter: a Time of Independence

According to Suetonious, a leading source for most of the known history of the emperors of Rome, before his death Caligula had a dream that he went to heaven and met Jupiter. Then Jupiter kicked him back down to Earth. Caligula took this dream to his advisors and together they decided that this was a death omen. Shortly thereafter Caligula was assassinated by Cassius Chaerea.

I chose to base my animation on the assassination of Caligula because I have a deep fondness for ancient civilizations.  His character is represented as a cat due to my lifelong obsession of them.

This piece was done completely digital. The images you see were created in Adobe Photoshop 7 with the aide of a Wacom tablet. I then took those images and put them into Adobe After Effects where I manipulated them through a plethora of ways. I was going for a cartoony feel with my characters and a slightly more realistic feel for the rest.

The research aspect of this production was of particular importance in the initial choosing of the scene I wished to portray and for character development. This research has inspired me to continue the theme of ancient civilization in my work.

Not completely knowing the program I was using was a hindrance on my final outcome as well as time constraints. However if I were to continue this project my next steps would be to add sound and more development of my character and puppets used.

Catligula puppets used in animation

Puppets and imagery I used in my animation

The following is my final rendition of this piece.

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