A draft animation of one of ghost stories in my One Hundred Ghost Stories book installation (Studio One project).
The story I've chosen here is about the kabuki ghost of Kohada Koheiji:
"Kohada Koheiji was one of the few male ghosts popular during the Edo period. Koheiji was a struggling kabuki actor who, through lack of talent, was only ever cast in the roles of ghosts. His wife Otsuka was embarrassed by her husband’s career and switched her affections to Koheiji’s fellow actor Adachi Sakurō. While on tour, Sakurō and Otsuka killed Koheiji and dumped his body in a swamp. Rising from the swamp, Koheiji returned to Edo as a ghost to terrorise the devious couple. Otsuka and her lover wake at night to see the skeletal apparition of Koheiji slowly claw back their mosquito net and peer down at them with vengeful intent." (reference)
After having done my animation test in Week 4, I found creating the assets and animating this ghost story much less daunting. However, as I'm not from an illustration or animation background, I still wasn't 100% happy with the character design and animation. After my consultation with Kate, she gave some really constructive feedback, such as making the ghost more vague and obscure, including pauses in between moments, making the animation less mechanical, and have the eyes focused on the couple in bed. I also learnt how to use track mattes in order to mask out the fingers and skull from the bed net, and the mesh warp to distort the bed net.
Temp music score credits: The Ring soundtrack by Kenji Kawai
About This Work
By Helen Kwok
Email Helen Kwok
Published On: 27/04/2019