Kaoove ki kahani

This week in Khoya, the crows.


and some inspiration + fresh air while my imac gets repaired.

also with a new and shiny canon 550d!

misty mountain, this is the view from Shaala's cliff

and this is a microforest of moss.

we live in a beautiful world.


work in progress from the Kaoova spread

The crows! and their nest

Padma

Padma, the apsara of the lotuses. 

Back in Black

Lets do a Recap Shall we? :)

Khoya is an interactive fantasy novel for children Illustrated, Animated, Conceptualized
and partly written by me.
What makes it interactive is that is uses a technology called Augmented Reality to bridge the gap between the tangible (a book) and the technological.
It also bridges my two loves (amongst many)- animation and print.
How it does this is that the book has a variety of 'markers' or symbols with limericks on how to use them, the reader, while reading a page, picks up these markers and brings it to their webcam, and using visual recognition the marker triggers off an animation in real time. So in a sense one 'brings the book to life'.

Using this technology one can become different characters in the book, unlock riddles or simply watch as the illustrations in the book start to move. :)
A User-interaction Video coming soon. But here are some spreads from chapter 1 for now.
It's designed for children above the age of 12.


Credit Roll:

Original concept, Illustration, Animation and Design by Shilo Shiv Suleman

Augmented Reality, programming and further conceptualization
Dhruv Nawani
Anders Sandell

Written by Shilo Shiv Suleman and Avijit Michael with inputs from Hari Adivarekar.

Contributers and Conceptualizers

Nilofer Suleman, Arshia Sattar, Molly and Maya, Anders Sandell, Ampat Varghese, Gayatri Ganju, Kunal Sen, Vani Sreekanta, Mana Dhanraj and the Toys Lab

Spread 2- Draft1 :)

text to be added-

However, if one is to try and rediscover 'What-once-was'

If one is to attempt to pinpoint when Khoya was lost- it was possibly when the glass sphere was built around the earth.

Before, when the world was a spirit of itself, at first man lived in Harmony with other spirit (because he was intouch with his own).

He saw the network of light. He spoke the language of love, a language without words but only truth.

Everyday on earth was a celebration of this love. And man's voice (strong and sweet then) was part of this great cosmic orchestra.

They would sing in crystal voices about this love. they would spin round and round with the stars. Whirling in ecstacy. Everything was magical.

And I don't mean the mumbo-jumbo sort of magic. I mean Bliss.

one day men and women were distracted while singing. While looking up at the skies and his heart was connected to this great network when suddenly his eye caught something flying glimmering.

It was a firefly. 

'Light that is worn by something apart from the stars' he thought...the idea of having light was interesting to him and he thought about it for days on end.

He wanted it. And then on, when he sang with the orchestra, it wasn't a celebration of love. It was a song of longing.

Having always lived by his need- this 'want' was new and exciting to him. 

7 days and 7 nights later he saw Fire again. One day when all the world creatures were asleep, he snuck up behind the firefly and trapped it in a small glass box.

He labelled this box and it gave him great pleasure that he could see it whenever he wished and it would never ever go away (it had no choice).

Soon he collected more creatures like this. He no longer sang in praise with the rest but instead arranged his collection meticulously in rows.

When the other spirits approached him to ask him why he didn't sing and why he was trapping these creatures and plants he said

'Don't you see? I discovered them and so they are mine'

The spirits didn't understand this logic at all.

But the truth is- that before any pandora's box was opened...it was first sealed up.

and this incessant want to label and claim ownership over was called greed.

More Concept sketches/compositions

Moodboard-earth-natural world.

moodboard and concept sketch- Dark lands of Khoya.