왕의 행차 (The King’s Parade)
Personal project
Working period: 5 months
Over the span of 5 months, I worked on this animation whenever I had time in between projects. The idea was to bring traditional Korean paintings to life.
Inspiration
I have lived and worked in South Korea for almost 6 years (2019-2024). During the first four years, my home was nearby the National Museum of Korea. This became my favorite museum in the country and I frequently visited it to see the beautiful artifacts of Korea’s rich history.
Photo of 평안감사향연도 (welcoming banquet for the governor of Pyeongan)
What particularly stood out to me were these massive canvasses on which large scale gatherings/crowds were depicted. This style of painting was popular during Korea’s Joseon Dynasty (1392–1910).
Detail of 평안감사향연도 (welcoming banquet for the governor of Pyeongan)
These paintings portrayed historical events while at the same time showing scenes of mundane life. The paintings were commissioned by wealthy nobles celebrating events that were of certain importance to them.
Photo of 평안감사향연도 (welcoming banquet for the governor of Pyeongan)
I ended up using elements from three paintings. Two paintings of the same series called ”평안감사향연도” (see references above) and one which is called ”원행을묘정리의궤”. The latter is recreated on a long wall located in 청계천 (a stream in the center of Seoul).
The recreation of the painting called ”원행을묘정리의궤” depicts a royal procession. The painting was commissioned by King Jeongjo the 22nd (조선왕조 제 22대).
The king, accompanied by his mother, visits the tomb of his father to commemorate his father’s 60th birthday (second lunar month of 1795). The entourage of 1,779 people and 779 horses is definitely a flex.
The pictures from the book ”아주 특별한 순간 그림으로 남기다/Capturing treasured moments in paintings” were very helpful.
I’m Inspired! But where should I begin…?
At first, I didn’t know where to begin. I had an idea of how I wanted to visualize these characters, but I also didn’t want to stick to a storyboard. I liked the idea of having a lot of freedom when compositing.
The core concept was based around parading, which implies a lot walking. I concluded that the following order was the best approach for the process:
1. design a character in the desired style and do test animations
2. make all characters that perform looping animations
3. create the environment (surroundings, buildings, etc)
4. composite them together
5. create a visual narrative
First character test.
Made with the Rubberhose 3 plugin for After Effects.
Rigging characters
I created a ”base rig” (or skeleton) for all characters and made them perform the same walking cycle (some faster, some slower). In this way I would only have to replace their cloths and facial features to create variety. The latter saves a lot of time and headaches.
Once the characters started to get their final look, I became more confident and began with designing the environment.
Environment and 3D compositing
The buildings were going to be background elements so I figured that details wouldn’t be noticed as much. The houses were all designed the same with the exception of the gate-tower.
The buildings were all set, from this moment on I was able to start with placing the characters inside this new world.
After playing around were different layouts, I made a rough storyboard and started creating the scenes. I won’t share my sketches because I’m too embarrassed of my drawing skills >.<
And the rest is history! If you made it this far, thanks for reading! I appreciate it ^^
Bastiaan van Benthem 