Ashmolean Museum: A Drinking Party

In June 2023 I got contacted by the Ashmolean Museum, who I had the pleasure of working with on an animation about an Octopus Jar, suggesting we work together again, this time on a short animated loop of a delightful print depicting a drinking party. Being a fan of fishy characters, I had to accept! "A Drinking Party (酒のざしき)" is a nishiki-e woodblock print designed by Kuniyoshi Utagawa, and depicts a group of goldish and frogs dancing and drinking together. The original work can be seen here. The colours of this print are originally much brighter, so I was asked to bring some of that colour back in my animation. We opted to start the loop with the original colours as seen in the museum's print, with some brighter colours fading in as the fish and frogs come to life. 

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I had a lot of fun working on this! I recreated the paper texture to make sure the animation kept as much of the piece's identity as possible. The whole project was animated in Blender, with the characters being animated in Grease Pencil and the environments being a mix of 2D and 3D assets. I built the scene so that it could have a nice sense of depth, and moved the camera around and into the world of the party for an added fun and immersive effect. I'm really proud of it! 

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You can view the complete animation on the Ashmolean Museum's Instagram account: