Opening shot from The Tale of Corsa the Jackal. The animated short was digitally hand-painted and styled on classic children’s programming from the Canadian National Film Board.
A Passion Project
When BioWare released a series of children’s stories as part of Dragon Age: The World of Thedas Volume 2, I saw it as an opportunity to make something special. I’ve always loved animation, and have fond memories of simple storybook shows like Reading Rainbow.
With The Tale of Corsa the Jackal, I wanted to recreate the feeling of a bedtime story. Using the original illustrations of BioWare artist Nick Thornborrow as inspiration, I set out to create fun, bouncy animation with idyllic landscapes and scenes.
While I have a background in video production and illustration, this was my first ever attempt at animation. As such, I ended up having to teach myself the necessary skills from tutorials and good old fashioned trial and error. Because this was a personal passion project, I completed the majority of work during my spare time and off-hours. I was required to travel a significant amount as part of my job, so I used much of my time in airports, planes, and hotels to work on the piece.
The short consisted of 33 individual scenes and hundreds of hand-keyed frames. In addition to storyboarding and animation, I did all of the initial sound design for the piece.
And to complete the nostalgia on this personal piece, I also had my father record the final narration.
