Project - Animation
Duration - 30 days
Client - Government of Assam
Studio - Pachies Frame
Research - Palak Sharma, Hanoch Samuel
Artwork - Shiek Wahab, Vinay
Storyboarding - Shiek Wahab, Hanoch Samuel
Animation / compositing - Shiek Wahab, Hanoch Samuel
Overview
Commissioned by the state government of Assam, this project was for a documentary celebrating 400th birth anniversary of the legend of north east called Lachit Barphukan. Lachit Borphukan was a commander in the Ahom kingdom, and is known for his leadership in the 1671 battle of Saraighat that thwarted an attempt by Mughals to capture Assam.
Delhi based studio “Pachies frames” approached us for the animation sequences in the documentary to narrate few prominent events of the war. There were 22 shots with the duration ranging from 10sec to 20 sec each which had to be animated. Although the script was great and the project seemed exciting, there were few major constrains.
Firstly, this was a historical event, the details and the facts had to be absolutely accurate and had very less to no margin for errors. As the character and the events had major public sentiments associated with it. Secondly, Lachit Barphukan was a beloved hero among the locals, but there was not reference or record of the characters physical appearance except for a sculpture which was made by Biren Singha in 2016. Although this was a recent creation people had accepted this image as how Barpukan looked. (just like the image of Jesus). Lastly, the major hurdle was the time line. The animation had to completed in 30 days which would then be added to the documentary and aired on national television on 35th day. (which looking back was scary).
However we agreed to take up the project and started by planning. We approached the project in 4 phases
1. Research - Understanding the space, time and the sequence of action
2. Pre-production - Creating a narrative as storyboards and animatic, styling of the animation and client feedback
3. Production - Producing artwork, animation, collecting elements for visual effects and compositing
4. Final result - Rendering in 4k and making minor adjustments if required.
Research
The research began by learning about the battle through google and you tube. Then we moved on to researching the visual elements of the era of Mughals and the Ahoms. Finally, we researched on the protagonist character, the soldiers and the king.
Video explaining battle of Saraighat: Mughal Empire Vs Ahom Kingdom from you tube channel Spirituality
Reference of the Mughal war ships, Mughal soldiers, and Mughal flag
Ahom Battle boats from the museum in Assam.
Ahom battle weapons from the museum in Assam
Lachit Barphukan's character and attire from the sculpture in Brahmaputra river. Ahom soldiers, battle boat and Ahom insignia from the museum in Assam
Preproduction
The preproduction had 3 stages. Styling / artwork, storyboarding and creating assets (backgrounds and characters). First we began by working on the styling
Styling
The client wanted silhouette kind of a treatment. These are some of the style reference the they shared with us
Final style for the animation.
Storyboarding
This is the first story board we shared with the client, which later was refined by adding and subtracting couple of shots
production
Assets
There were tons of assets we created, here are a few
Ahoam soldiers, Lachit and Mughal soldiers
Mughal ships and Ahom boats
Background
The background designs were made referring from the terrain around Brahmaputra river
Animation and compositing
All the animation was done using puppets animation
We used Adobe Aftereffects for the project in which almost all of animation and compositing was done
The process
Final product
