TED-ED | The myth of the original star-crossed lovers
In the court of the Jade Emperor, a young princess had a special skill: she could pluck clouds from the sky and spin them into the softest robes. But her craft was the same day after day, and she longed for new inspiration. So the Queen Mother granted her permission to visit Earth. The weaver soon fell in love with the land— and a cowherd.
TED-Ed commissioned us to make a video to accompany their lesson about this Chinese mythological tale.
Year : 2022
Client : TED-ED
Educator : Shannon Zhao
Directed by : Brume
Creative Direction : Valentin Nouvel, Benoit Drigny
Art Direction : Benoit Drigny
Animation Direction : Valentin Nouvel
Animators : Valentin Nouvel, Basile Krasnopolsky, Sebastien Vincent
Cel Animators : Florent Tailhades, Marine Hennes
Compositor : Valentin Nouvel
Music : Alexis Dehimi
Mix and Sound Design : Mars Octobre Music
Director of Production : Gerta Xhelo
Editorial Director : Alex Rosenthal
Producer : Bethany Cutmore-Scott
Editorial Producer : Dan Kwartler
Script Editor : Iseult Gillespie
Fact-Checker : Jennifer Nam
Style frames
Preliminary research
From the costumes, to the headdresses, sets and colorful atmosphere, this preliminary research allowed us to enrich our visual library.
Story Rhythm
Before getting into the creative part, it was important for us to establish the rhythm of the story by alternating with calm and more intense parts to create contrast. This graphic allowed us to communicate with both the client and the rest of the team about our animation intentions.
Animation Process
From the start, we knew that we wanted the piece to feel both emotive and real. That's why we used a lot of shooted references. How to transcribe the hesitation and shyness in a walking cycle or the reluctance in a handshake while making it as human as possible? This is the kind of challenge we met through this project.
