OUAN404 - Study Task 2 - The Monk & The Monkey

The story for the epic short animation, The Monk & The Monkey is quite simple in that a young boy named Ragu is sent on one final quest by his master to become a monk. The task seems simple at first but becomes an unexpected challenge. The short animation was made in 2000 and directed by Brendan Carroll, Shant Ergenian and Francesco Giroldini.

The colours used through out this animation are bold and vibrant, there is a lot of background glow giving it a mysterious and almost mystical feel. There is a mixture of warm and cold tones, with the majority of the scenes being given a very warm feeling reflecting the uplifting score in the background. The lighting used is very comforting in a way, the constant glow from lanterns, candles and various other objects makes the feature quite interesting to look at in terms of lighting, as very little natural light is used. There is little use of detailed texture throughout the animation despite it being set in mostly natural environments. The characters and environments have been designed to be very smooth which works fine due to the consistency of the design choice, giving the animation a very unique and attractive feel. There is however some simple textures on things like fur and rocks, but generally there isn't much in the way of details, I do however like the overall aesthetic of the animation. Furthermore, the forms in the animation are soft, and nothing feels stiff or rigid. The characters faces look smooth when shown up close and even natural objects such as trees or rocks have almost a smooth curvature to their individual components, as well as this despite the inconsistency and irregularities of nature, the natural objects in this animation feel quite uniform. Space is used well when exploring the environments, and because of some well coordinated camera work the setting feels very open and real when the characters are shown moving around in it. There's a lot of heavy action in the animation, such as climbing and running, all fast paced actions and the space is used well to present these quite intense movements on screen. In terms of composition the choice of shots is varied and nothing feels 'overdone'. The animation features a good balance of close up and wide shots to give the audience a good range of details and on screen action. Overall, this animation has an interesting style in terms of colour, lighting and form, with everything feeling soft and rounded but it's generally pleasant to look at, and suits the serious yet youthful tone of the story.