Year 3 Minor Project: Initial Idea

After spending the summer reading about many myths and legends from I have become quite interested in the stories of Norse mythology, and have decided that for my minor project this year I am going to create a short animation based on the Norse origin story of the universe.

The style of animation I want to create is a 2D animation, based on the idea of wall paintings and engravings similar to that of Egyptian Hieroglyphics, ancient wall engravings and early cave paintings. Stories and tales of great importance would be engraved upon walls and even gold in Egyptian culture, and in the times of the Neanderthals paintings and scriptures would be created inside caves to retell stories of bravery and hunts.

To begin, I started to look at Egyptian Hieroglyphs as they are possibly the most well known form of wall engravings or paintings, along with Aztec runes and Prehistoric cave paintings. The idea that I have for my animation is that the camera pans from one image to the next as the narrative tells the story.

When I began searching for examples of Norse art, it began to drop into a more general categorization of Viking art, which makes sense as both Viking and Norse culture share a common ancestry originating from, as we now know it, Norway and the surrounding regions.

After researching I found that there is a wide range of mediums ranging from metalwork to Leather printing, and so I began to think of how I could implement these styles into animation to give a surface for my engravings to be upon, such as Egyptian gold in which Egyptian tales were scored, or the cave walls our ancestors painted upon.

I have been thinking about how to set the animation up in its own world and I thought that since it was stories of importance which where often engraved upon the more precious surface like a sarcophagus made of gold, the story of how the universe was created would surely be one of great importance. This led me to the idea that this could possibly be the original account of the beginning of the universe, and so would be held in a sacred location, Valhalla.

Valhalla is the majestic hall withing Asgard, the realm of the gods, where Odin resides, and only the bravest warriors who die an honorable death are chosen to enter, where they feast and prepare for Ragnarok, the end of days.

Such a place where only those who are deemed worthy can enter seems like the ideal place for the story of the origin of all things to be displayed, and so this gives me a insight into the material which the story would be engraved. The detailed and intricate metal work of the Nordic style would be a great base material for the story to be engraved upon, emphasized by the magnificence of Valhalla.

I also have a idea to light the animation with the flicker of a flame from a wooden torch, as the light reflects onto the metal surface giving a warm orange and yellow glow to the animation, which I will have to experiment with to see of it is possible and whether it would accompany the style well.