Dea Vitae

beannadurns
May 12, 2016
3 min read

This book is my final project for my BA in animation.

The Premise

A biologist catalogued creatures and plant life on a planet different from our own; after a substantial amount of time there, she writes a book about what she discovered about the world and how life exists and reacts together; the book with its illustrations is the final product.

I wanted to improve upon my skill in digital painting, and really try to show off what I could be capable of. I also wanted to involve another interest of mine, biology, to an extent. I wanted to apply some science to my work; I wanted to attempt to create a planet that could maybe exist. I know very well that my science isn’t anywhere near up to scratch to fully achieve this, but thankfully for artistic licensing; I could bend the rules. I filled my research with not only artists, and creatures, both existing and created, but with a basic understanding of the science I was trying to apply. I knew from here, I wanted the book to be like an encyclopaedia for the planet I’d created, with plenty of artistic leeway.

Creatures

The creatures I created came from a couple of different sources. Some came from seeing an existing creature and morphing it into something I wanted- for example M. venator and I. crinis. However some came from another process, like spilling ink and trying to find a shape and then a body. This happened for two creatures that didn't make it to the final book, or get named- the desert creatures. One creature however wasn't so clever. It came from a dream. L. Herba.

I considered each creature and their environment and knew I wanted to colour them similarly to their environments, as this would be camouflage, however I still needed them to stand out. So I tried to take all aspects, artistic and biological, into account in my creation of both creatures and the environments.

Further details of each creature can be found in the book.

The Missing Desert

I had intended for there to be four environments; Cliffs, desert, grasslands, and the sea. However, during the project, I found that the other three environments were stronger than the fourth environment. The creatures with the desert environment were also weaker, in my opinion, than the other creatures of the other environments. I had to make a decision to either spend valuable time further working on a chapter of the book that I already felt was weak or remove it and continue to develop my other environments. I felt if I put the chapter in my book with a distinct lack of confidence, I would regret it, and it may be clear to others that it weakens my other chapters. I preferred to go ahead with chapters I had more confidence with than risk it weakening my overall finished product.

If I had more time, and maybe I will in the future, I might consider going back to this, get the chapter up to a standard I am happy with, and add this section to the book.

The Mystery Creature

This creature is hidden in the book, it’s in two “hidden” places, and then regularly mentioned throughout the journal in the final pages. I got this idea from talking about another drawing I did of a giraffe where the legs were just lines. This discussion led on to the Loch Ness Monster, and on to Big Foot and on to an idea that developed into an elusive creature that is always right in front of the biologist/researcher, but she never sees it, or rarely does. And when she attempts to document the sighting, the picture taken is blurred and useless. It was a fun addition.

Final Thought

I’m pleased with the outcome of my project. I feel I have done my best and learnt the basics of book layouts. I know that given more time and knowing what I know now, I could have improved further upon this, and I strive for that improvement, even if it isn’t with this project. There will always be room for improvement for something like this, and things I wish I’d done differently. But, in consideration of everything, I feel I have done my best.

Grade: 2:1 (includes collaboration)

A quick note to Blurb

I used Blurb to print the physical copy of this book, for my university hand in. It came a week before they said (the due date they gave was the day of my deadline!) and honestly it is beautiful, I honestly think it looks better printed than it does on screen. The money is worth it.

The final pages