THE TERRACOTTA TALES Syamantak Bhuyan
The Terracotta Tales The Documentation Book
Syamantak Bhuyan 1
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CONTENTS Initial concept
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Terracotta in the North-east
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Folk tales of Assam
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Developed concept note
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Multi-narrative concept
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Working on the Script
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Storyboarding and Sketching
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Building the Sets and Props - Molding - Firing - Painting
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Character development - Anatomy and Structure - Iterations - The Villager and the Tiger
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The Animation style - Initial Animation - Final Scenes
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Acknowlegement
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INITIAL CONCEPT
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This project started off with an idea of creating a platform where kids today are able to connect better to Assamese Folktales.
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TERRACOTTA IN THE NORTH EAST
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Terracotta communities in the North-East are slowly becoming extinct. These talented artists lack a steady flow of income, hence are shutting down business and taking to other livelihoods. Alongside, their traditional folklores are also gradually being forgotten. In the olden days, these artisans used miniature characters (Putolas), which were inspired from the Indus Valley terracotta communities to narrate tales and stories (Bhauna, Naas). The Putolas they make are called Hatima Putolas.
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(top) - A Hatima Putola with diyas and a reimagination of Ganesha by a terracotta artisan. (opposite page) - A miniature well.
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FOLKTALES OF ASSAM
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(right) - Laxminath Bezbaruah, author. (bottom) - Cover page of a Burhi Aai’r Xaadhu storybook.
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Folk tales are stories or legends handed down from generation to generation usually by oral retelling. Folk tales often explain something that happens in nature or convey a certain truth about life. But in recent times, significance of folk tales have been mowed to only a handful of people. Likewise, Assamese folk tales are considered as a lost art, practiced or narrated by only certain people. I’ve grown up listening to such wonderful intriguing stories that it pains to see such an art form lose its hold on the Assamese society. Burhi Aai’r Xaahu is one of the main folkores of Assam. There are numerous others like Sikorpoti-nikorpoti, Xiyaali Palegoi Rotonpur. Laxminath Bezbaruah was first to document all these floklores in written format.
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DEVELOPED CONCEPT NOTE
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My concept revolves around working with a community of terracotta artists to create miniature sets and characters to narrate scenes from Assamese folklores using stop motion, to be developed into a user interactive storybook application for tablets. The application will be targeted towards a younger crowd who will appreciate the visual style of the application and also relate to these folklores at a more personal level.
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MULTI-NARRATIVE CONCEPT
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The folklores follow the multiple narrative technique. Rather than a linear narration, the readers from time to time, will have a choice to make; the fate of the main character lies in your hands and will differ from one reader to reader.
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WORKING ON THE SCRIPT
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The script required a lot of refining before it was finalized completely. In the beginning, there were only two stories and trying to intertwine them was becoming a tricky task. Hence two more stories were introduced, making the script much more diverse and exciting.
Scene 1 Dhan, the villager, needed money. That night he goes to steal a cow from the Mahajan’s Gohali. Suddenly he hears a voices from inside the house. ‘Sleep my dearest, or the Dighol Thengiya will take you away” A hungry tiger in search of a meal also hears the voice. Dhan was so scared that he was in two minds: should he steal the cow or go back home. Scene 2 In the dark, he bumps into the tiger and they both fall down. Dhan mistakes the tiger to be Dighol Thengiya. He can either try to kill the demon or hide in the Gohali. 29
Scene 3 and 4 Dhan crawls and hides behind three big rug sacks the whole night. Next day, Dhan gets out of the hiding place. He trips over one of the sacks. It spills out gold coins. He decides to run off with one of the sacks. That very moment, a passerby notices Dhan. ‘Thief, thief!’ he exclaims. ‘No Dada.’ Dhan lies. ‘That special cow drops gold coins every morning.’ Dhan offers the passerby one cow to keep the secret to himself. He agrees immediately and walks away with the cow. Dhan continues home with the sack of coins. Scene 5 Dhan was so scared that he decided to go back home. Next day, while taking a stroll he notices a little boy sitting in a mithai shop. He decides to trick him. He walks up to the counter and starts eating all the mithais. ‘Who are you? Stop eating the mithais’ the boy screams. ‘I am Maakhi (Housefly)’ Dhan tells him The boy calls out to his father that Maakhi is eating all the mithais. ‘Don’t worry. It won’t each much.’ Says the father. The boys calls out again, only to get the same response. He runs inside to call his father out. “What is it?” his father mumbles He walks out to see his son pointing at a man running away with all the money He runs after the trickster. They both run into the forest. Dhan stops and wonders if he should trick the owner or hide. Scene 6 Dhan picks up a rabbit and starts spinning with it. All the coins in his pocket spill out. The owner sees Dhan and gets confused. He looks down to see coins piling up at the bottom. He confronts Dhan. ‘This rabbit spits out coins when you spin it around’ Dhan lies. He gives the rabbit to the owner. Too baffled to react, the owner walks away with it. Dhan walks back home happily.
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Scene 7 Dhan climbs up a tree and hides. The owner searches around for Dhan. After a while the owner goes away. Dhan falls asleep on the tree. The tiger still shaken with fear of meeting Dighol Thengiya walks up to the tree. Dhan slides down and falls on top of the tiger. The tiger jumps up and runs into the jungle with Dhan holding onto its neck. After a while, he stops running and realizes his mistake. Dhan threatens to tell everyone of the tiger’s stupidity. ‘Oh please don’t.’, begs the tiger. ‘I will give you a deer everyday’ Dhan agrees and walks away happily. Scene 8 Dhan grabs hold of the tiger’s throat! The tiger jumps up and runs into the forest. After a while, he stops running and realizes his mistake. Dhan threatens to tell everyone of the tiger’s stupidity. ‘Oh please don’t.’, begs the tiger. ‘I will give you a deer everyday’ Dhan agrees and walks away happily.
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STORYBORDING AND SKETCHING
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One of the main points that had to be addressed while storyboarding was the camera angles. The angles had to be fixed first beacuse once the sets were constructed, it would be physically impossible to adjust them afterwards.
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BUILDING THE SETS AND PROPS
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MOLDING Creating the sets was the the first and foremost task that had to be executed perfectly. A special type of clay was used to mold them. This clay was only found in specific regions of Assam. Most of the props were kept hollow in order to prevent them from bursting during the firing process.
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(top) - Cows and their Gohali (cow shed) and one of the three rug sacks.
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(far top) - Attaching the pillers for the ceiling. (top) - Detailing on the windows of the house.
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(far top) - Beating the clay to make it flat (top) - Making the hollow tree bark.
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(far top) - The roots were made seperately and attached to the bark later. (top) - Final touches to the tree.
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(clockwise from top) - The calf. - A bird sitting on a tree. - The shelf to keep the methai.
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(clockwise from top) - The cow. - The bed. - Two small piras (stools)
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FIRING Once all the sets and the props were made, it was finally time to bake them. For that we made a large furnace. It took close to 8 hours to fully bake the sets. The entire process was tedious and there was always a risk of the sets bursting when using a make-shift furnace.
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(far top) - Constructing the furnace by layering mud in a circular manner keeping the center hollow. (top) - The furnace was created on the edge of a platform.
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(far top) - The furnace was supported on a pile of bricks which acted as legs. (top) - This hollow space is where the ‘khori’ or dried sticks are kept for the fire to burn easily.
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(clockwise from top) - The furnace started to crack due to excessive heating. - Controling the fire using different layers. - The sets were packed inside the furnace. (opposite) - Khori being used to keep the burning process running.
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PAINTING Asharikandi artisans have a traditional way of painting their motifs. It was usually coated with the terracotta red which a form of color extracted from the sap of a plant. Afterwars, they use white to intricately detail the designs.
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(clockwise from top) - Fixing the cracks with a mixture of ‘atta’ (flour) and glue. - Coating the props with a new layer of paint. - Detailing the sets.
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(top) - Close up shot of how the first base color is coated on to the props (far top) - The cow after it has been thoroughly coated with paint.
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(top) - Applying muddy textures on the sets. A fully detailed Hatima cow. (opposite page) - Detailing the Hatima cow
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(top) - Detailing the bed in one of the sets. (opposite page) - Close up shot of the mud texture on the set.
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CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
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ANATOMY AND STRUCTURE Developing the character itself was a daunting task, making it run, sit, jump and climb was another league altogether. We had to contruct a lot of figures in order to get the exact size and proportion without compromising on the motion style.
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(far top) - Making the frame of the body. (top) - Using plastic take to further strengthen the wire frame.
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(clockwise from top) - Attaching wires for the hands and legs to the main body frame. - Coating clay onto the wireframe to shape out the body - Using plastic sheets to seperate out the wet clay from each other.
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(top) - The movement of the joints.
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(top) - The movement of the joints with the cloth texture on it.
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ITERATIONS Experimenting with different character models was the most exciting part of this project. We had close to a dozen different models, ranging from tall ones to short ones and some were thin while others were abnormally huge. We had to experiment with how the actions would be executed and zone in on the most effective technique.
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(Top and opposite page) - The countless number of figures that were created as a part of the iteration process. Most of these figures were destroyed.
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(Top and opposite page) - More iterations of the character and the Tiger.
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THE VILLAGER AND THE TIGER The protagonist Dhan, was by far the most experimented character in terms of form and structure. It took a while for us to figure out how the tiger would be finally molded. Once both of them were done, we moved on to the other characters keeping in mind the same technique.
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(top) - The main character being molded. (opposite page) - Painting the character in Asharikandi style.
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(top) - Attaching the tiger’s leg to the main body.
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(Top) - Close up shots of the tiger’s head before it was attached to the body.
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(Top) - The different parts that make up the tiger. (Opposite page) - The completed character.
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THE ANIMATION STYLE
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I chose to make the entire animation using the stop motion animation technique. I had to make multiple models of the same character because most of them had a life span of maximum two days before they either broke off or were rendered unusable.
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INITIAL ANIMATION These are some of the initial walkcycles that I had worked on before finalizing on the right walkcycle. Most of my initial walkcycles had a full body shot of the character. It was only later that I decided to crop out the legs from all the shots.
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(Top and opposite page) - Experimenting with a dummy character. Here the character is engaged in doing a complete walk cycle.
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(Top) - Another walk cycle using the main character. (Opposite page) - A dummy tiger trying out different head movements.
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FINAL SCENES These are few final shots in comparision to the storyboarding. All these shots had to be finalized and made without any room for error as re-making the sets would take too much time. The lighting of the scenes were later adjusted.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
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Thank you mother, for believing in me. You are the greatest inspiration in my world. I acknowledge, with gratitude, my debt of thanks to my panelists Sandeep and Ayisha for their advice and encouragement and to Dr. Neeti Bose her aid and foresight. I thank my father for aiding me throughout the project and setting up the studio in Guwahati. I would like to thank my grandfather for his patience in answering those countless number of questions regarding Assamese culture and traditions. I thank Raeesha, Hari and Kanika for putting up with my nonsense everyday. Special thanks to Athreya and Akash for all those midnight tea sessions. You guys are the best. And to all my friends for their selfless love and support. Thank you Gopal and Bhanu Da for teaching me this beautiful art.
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Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology