Legends of Rhine Act 01 - Documentation
Legends of Rhine is an animated webseries, portraying a modern take on german folklore and the "Nibelungensage" especially. Concepted and created by Keivan Akbari & Fritz D. Thiel for their Master Thesis at Cologne Game Lab, 2024. Read the full documentation of the production of the webseries first entry here!
Legends of Rhine is an animated webseries, portraying a modern take on german folklore and the "Nibelungensage" especially. Concepted and created by Keivan Akbari & Fritz D. Thiel for their Master Thesis at Cologne Game Lab, 2024.
Read the full documentation of the production of the webseries first entry here!
Transform your PDFs into Flipbooks and boost your revenue!
Leverage SEO-optimized Flipbooks, powerful backlinks, and multimedia content to professionally showcase your products and significantly increase your reach.
MASTER THESIS DOCUMENTATION:
Documentation and explanation of
creative decisions and the practical
work in a collaborative thesis project
Pages 01 - 08
00: MASTER THESIS PROJECT DOCUMENTATION:
DOCUMENTATION STRUCTURE
Table of Contents
01. Project Planning
• 01.1:
• 01.2:
• 01.3:
• 01.4:
Initial Idea
Role Distribution
Research & Scope Setup
Storyboard
02. Conception
• 02.1:
• 02.2:
• 02.3:
• 02.4:
Artstyle Definition
Setting Exploration
Character Design
Creature & Asset Design
03. Production
• 03: CREATIVE PROCESS (Individual Scenes)
- Story Relevance
- Purpose in narrative
- Specialities of certain Scene
- Inspiration + Concept
- Initial Idea - Storyboard - Drawing Progress
- Anecdotes
- Execution + Staging
- Detailed Scene Analysis
- additional Panels
- Animation + VFX
- Detailed AE Setup
- Workflow Description
- Sounddesign Description
04. Post Mortem
• 04.1:
• 04.2:
• 04.3:
Workflow Description + Ressource Overview
Pro & Con Revision
Future Plans
P. 03/72
01: PROJECT PLANNING:
01.1: INITIAL IDEA DESCRIPTION
From game to cinematic:
„Legends of Rhine“ was first imagined by us back in 2020, planned to be the first
game project made within our newfound collaboration group of study colleagues.
Initially we aimed to create it as a full low-poly 3D adventure game, a Prince of Persia
inspired experience with shapeshifting abilities on top - a quite ambitious task for
unexperienced developers like us back then. Three years later our study group has
evolved into an approved Indie studio, our first game is a completely different one
and LoR as a game was completely canceled.
Above: CA for LoR 2020. The initial art style was meant to be realized in lowpoly 3D.
Artwork by Fritz Thiel, showing the party entering the mystic isle of Fafnir.
Before abandoning LoR, the project made it into early concept stage, the low-poly
art style was figured out and a story script was written. But even when canceled in
this very early development stage, for us, Keivan Akbari and Fritz Thiel, it always felt
like quite a tragic decision to abandon LoR and its potential. Thus the idea for our
thesis project was born: A revisualization of the old concept and the script into an
animated cutscene - a project where we both can show off our artistic talents and
give the old project the love it deserves! In the following pages, we will describe this
endeavor in detail.
P. 04/72
01: PROJECT PLANNING:
01.2: DISTRIBUTION OF ROLES
Team & Task Distribution
With a team of only two, both sharing the same profession in Game Arts, we had to
be aware of our limited resources and divide the work between us, to use every
day of the thesis period to our advantage. We worked closely together and created
content nearly every day over the period of four months from October 2023 till
February 2024. We shared progress online via Google-Drive folders and worked in a
virtual office environment with Discord. Although we cannot completely divide the
accomplished tasks between both of us, we can separate it by Keivan Akbari working
on the Animation & VFX department in Adobe After Effects and Adobe Premiere,
while Fritz Thiel being responsible for the Asset Creation and Documentation in
Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Indesign.
In general we distributed our tasks 50/50 between the two of us, while checking in
daily to decide about design choices and scene compositions, as also animation and
sound edits. Thanks to this close collaboration workflow, we successfully avoided
frustration and had enough time in February to revisit and polish our earliest scenes.
Keivan Akbari created many of the characters and creatures which
appear in our story and handled the challenging task of Animation
and Effect Editing on the scenes, to bring life and character into
our screenplay.
- Character Design (Franka, Protagonist & Riverraft)
- Monster Design (Catfish, Tatzelwurm & Mermaids)
- Scene Staging including Lineart & Colouring (50%)
- Scene Layering in PSD for Animation Export (50%)
- Animation & Editing (100%)
- Sound Design (100%)
Fritz Thiel took care of the writing and narration of the project
and incorporated his travel experience into the characteristic
portrayal of the Rhineland and its serene beauty. He monitored
the progress and created this documentation.
- Character Design (Captain, Protagonist & Ship)
- Environment Design (Locations, Scene Compositions)
- Scene Staging including Lineart & Colouring (50%)
- Scene Layering in PSD for Animation Export (50%)
- Script Writing & Narration (100%)
- Documentation & Layout (100%)
P. 05/72
01: PROJECT PLANNING:
01.3: RESEARCH & SCOPE SETUP
Strategic Decisions
As already mentioned, our biggest challenge in this project was our resources and
the limited time. Before anything else could be done, we had to sit together to
determine our scope for what the final result should look like. With two artists
being deeply involved in the project from its former iteration, we needed to
streamline our individual visions to something we could accomplish within the given
time. Luckily our beforehand experience from the 3D game days of LoR made it easy
for us to find a compromise between feasibility and a pleasening product.
We wanted to create a project where we both could use our full palette of individual
talents and give a hommage to our beloved franchise, which never saw the light of
day outside of internal conceptions. The existing lore and characters we made back
then, were well-established for us and we felt they deserved to be revisited and
redefined for a new iteration of the idea. Finally we also wanted to publish a loveletter
to the Rhine and its local spirit, an ongoing passion in all the work we do
when collaborating outside of the university. All in all, we can say, that Legends of
Rhine is a passion project.
We knew that we couldn´t realize our vision of a full-motion animated picture within
this thesis scope, so we decided to cut it down. Thus we decided on a roundabout
10 minute cutscene with animations and effect overlays in certain parts of the
individual screens. The narrative is carried by the script and compositions, while
being supported by the subtle use of movement to lead the viewers´ gaze and set
a focus on important aspects of the story in each scene.
Since we both worked together for several years within and outside university
projects, we already had an underlying experience in collaboration. To streamline the
production we decided to do what we are good at and to focus on a satisfying end
result for the viewer. The whole cutscene should breathe atmosphere and directly
lead the player to the shores of the Rhine on a warm summer in 600 AC, a modern
reminiscence of the classic art of Rheinromantik.
P. 06/72
01: PROJECT PLANNING:
01.4: NARRATIVE AND STORYBOARD
Script and Narrative Conception (script included in deliverables)
The initial idea for LoR was born, as a love letter to the serene beauty of the Rheintal
and Siebengebirge, which we both traveled in the past and were left with a lasting
impression by these ancient nature sights. While pondering about an idea, in which
context we may portray these landscapes, we found our second main source of
inspiration in the public library of Cologne: the collection of local west Rhine
folklore tales by H. A. Grueber from 18951.
In his novel, Gruber travels along the Rhine from its source in Switzerland till it´s
final connection at the Northern Sea, while listing and reciting all common folklore
tales when passing their place of origin along the river. The area of Cologne and its
neighboring cities fill a major segment of this book and we were eager to visualize
these stories in a modern reinterpretation and hommage of Gruber´s work.
While studying his source material, we recognized Gruber often reciting parts
of the ancient northern saga of the Nibelungs. We decided to integrate this famous
story as our merging narrative element, by having our cast be on the hunt for the
legendary Rhinegold treasure. While staying faithful to the original storylines, we
focused on single parts and rewrote them into a stage play, currently including the
crew´s first endeavors in finding their leading clue to the treasure location.
Our new plot is separated into three acts, but with the limited resources we have in
our thesis environment, we decided to only visualize the first act - in which our cast
is introduced and set on their journey to find the Rhinegold, a legend they all share
an individual obsession and knowledge about.
While being visually influenced by Richard Wagner´s famous opera play and the
Graphic Novel published by P.C. Russel in 20232, we mixed elements of them with
modern displays from cinema and video games. Since our storyline is mostly told
visually by slightly animated screens, we had to rely a lot on well concepted
compositions and story supporting details in our paintings. To further contextualize
aspects of the script, we integrated lines being read by an off-screen narrator. In this
version Fritz Thiel wrote and acted out this role.
The narrator and the visual representation are both indispensable in helping the
viewer interpreting what is happening on screen, while also providing an engaging
feeling of a mysterious tale being told at a campfire or court.
1: Production, bücher de I. and (n.d.). Legends of the Rhine. [online] bücher.de. Available at: https://www.buecher.de/
shop/historische-romane/legends-of-the-rhine/guerber-h-a-/products_products/detail/prod_id/49213328/#product_description
[Accessed 14 Feb. 2024].
2: www.cross-cult.de. (n.d.). Ring des Nibelungen - Cross Cult - Comics & Romane. [online] Available at: https://www.
cross-cult.de/titel/ring-des-nibelungen.html [Accessed 14 Feb. 2024].
P. 07/72
Storyboard
The storyboard was our first milestone and realized in the software tool
„Storyboarder“. In the final product we ended up with 14 scenes on separate
screens, since we integrated some scenes below into each other by panel overlays.
P. 08/72
02: CONCEPTION:
A hommage to the Rheinromantik
and the Franco-Belgium comic school
in modern media
Pages 09 - 26
02: CONCEPTION:
02.1: ART STYLE DEFINITION
Franco-Belgian comic art in historical setting
To define our art style for this project, we meticulously analyzed existing media from
medieval and modern Europe, to determine a coherent appearance. Our lineart was
majorly influenced by the franco-belgian comic school, with their clear, dark outlines
and flattened, lesser saturated colors. To recreate this handcrafted and print progressed
look in our digital software, we stuck to a brush size of 6 to 9 pixels with
hard edges, to emulate a real-life inkpen. Additionally we mostly abstained from using
strong highlights with shading and gradients in general, to avoid the typical highly
saturated colors apparent in digital illustration.
The second major inspiration was historical wood carving prints from medieval
period Europe, used as printing tools for book illustrations and posters. Both styles
merged create an impression of antiquity, while still allowing us enough modern
aesthetics for our desired designs.
The „antique comic book“ style was enhanced by working with texture brushes to
give the screens the appearance to be printed on old, mottled paper. We are quite
satisfied with the end results grounded aesthetics, which still allows modern
composition tricks like sudden perspective changes and popup-panels
within the scenes.
Paper-Theatre and Shadowplay as animation
To maintain consistency with the old-school handcrafted charme of our art stlye, the
animations needed to be designed in a similar manner. To achieve this, we took a
closer look at European 18th-century paper theatres, a technique where papercut
dolls on strings or attached to sticks are used as actors. In combination with clever
usage of lights and mechanical craftmanship, this ancestry of animation has the exact
look and feel we were searching for.
Our second inspiration was the Asian counterpart, the Chinese Shadow Puppet Play,
where papercut dolls are illuminated from behind a screen and thus throw dramatic
shadows on the surface. The limited but charming movement of these puppets
felt fitting.
As stated before, in our story, animations will be used sparsely but effectively to
enhance the mood and lead the audience focus to certain spots in the frames.
P. 11/72
Above: Luckily the franco-belgian comic school consists of several prominent
examples of rural and medieval European settings, which allowed close inspection.
Our art style supports our ambition with LoR to be a hommage to the Nibelungs,
folktales and Rheinromantik in general. All sources evoke a feeling of PHYSICALITY
AND PRESENCE, which we want to transport into our chosen digital medium.
Below: Chinese Shadow Play and classical papercut theatre are charmingly beautiful
forms of art and provided us with a fitting stylistic appearance to adapt for LoR.
P. 12/72
02: CONCEPTION:
02.2: ART STYLE & UNIVERSE EXPLANATION
The Rhine portrayed in fantastic reality
Our story takes place in late medieval Europe at an undefined location along the
west-german section of the river Rhine. We kept our locations intentionally vague to
leave it up to the viewer to interpret the scenes of action. However we integrated
several landmarks of the real-life area around the Siebengebirge and the Rheinkurve in
Boppard, so an attentive audience might be able to locate some spots.
The general design direction is faithful to historical accuracy, with some creative
freedom here and there influenced by modern fantasy visuals from video games
and comics. A valuable source of inspiration was our books with collections of
drawings by Albrecht Dürer and Peter Bruegel, the Elder3. Their meticulous portrayal
of medieval Europe helped us immensely to design outfits, items and even the landscapes
in general. As an interesting anecdote, we want to visit some less rural areas
of the Rhine later in the story, where surprisingly, in these times, nearly all forests
were cut down for fabrication along the Rhine´s shores.
A fantasy universe needs to be grounded in realism, to allow identification with the
setting. A world where everything is unreal and fantastic loses its fascination, but in
a setting that resembles our real world, any speculative and fantastic element will
stand out and support worldbuilding in its unique details.
For example: In a world where magic is real and everywhere available, there still will
be bakeries. However, the fires in this bakery might be summoned by magic and thus
no fuel is needed to be transported and stored there. A subtle but already intriguing
detail, which makes the fantastic world more interesting and approachable. A great
example of this mixture is the „Dinotopia“ series by James Gurney4.
This approach is resembled in our underlying topic of folklore tales - stories based on
the everyday life of their audience, spiced with mythical legends to explain the unexplainable.
An approach of informative explanation but also a welcomed distraction
from the grim reality.
3: www.zvab.com. (n.d.). ALBRECHT DÜRER. Aquarelle und Zeichnungen von Piel, Friedrich: (1983)
www.abebooks.com. (n.d.). graphic worlds of peter bruegel the elder by h. arthur klein ( peter bruegel )
4: James Gurney. (n.d.). James Gurney - Official Website. [online] Available at: https://jamesgurney.com/.
P. 13/72
Revival of the Rheinromantik
The second major factor defining our setting is the „Rheinromantik“, a cultural
phenomenon from Europe in the turn of the 18th to the 19th century.
Rheinromantik became a common term for the longing and romantical idealization of
the Mittelrhein region in Germany, especially the area between the two major cities
of Mainz and Cologne. This trend created a whole new direction in the arts of
painting and writing and plays a prominent role in German tourism around the Rhein
valley even until today in 2024.
In our digital medium we wanted to revive this period and style in a modernized way,
by mixing it with the aforementioned franco-belgian comic art style, which in many
cases correlate with the Rheinromantik portrayals of nature and vast sceneries. A
major inspiration was the art from Caspar David Friedrich5, who traveled the areas
around the Rhine extensively and portrayed many of its locations in a mystical and
evocative manner.
In the Rheinromantik, the display of nature is mixed with subtle fantastical elements
to evoke the mystical, ancient feeling of a long forgotten romanticized past. The
sceneries are often shrouded in fog or portray ancient, isolated ruins, long recaptured
and overgrown by nature. A reminiscence of times when these lands were still
wild and unexplored and humans coexisted in close harmony with nature.
In LoR we want to evoke the same feelings in our audience. Rheinromantic paintings
or texts focus on the meticulous visualization of the scenery, the viewer feels like
they can step into the pictures frame and enter the scene. For us we went with our
inhouse established rule of 50/50 when we created our screens: 50% information for
the storyline with 50% mood to set the right tone in the stages of the play.
5: Booklooker.de. (2024). Caspar David Friedrich - Epochen - Künstler - Meisterwerke. [online] Available at:
https://www.booklooker.de/B%C3%BCcher/Heinz-Spielmann-Hrsg+Caspar-David-Friedrich-Epochen-
K%C3%BCnstler-Meisterwerke/id/A02yd4QI01ZZC [Accessed 21 Feb. 2024].
P. 14/72
02: CONCEPTION:
02.2: ART STYLE & UNIVERSE EXPLANATION
Moodboard & Inspiration Examples
Several examples of sceneries and European medieval environments by Peter Bruegel,
Albrecht Dürer and Caspar David Friedrich, photographed from the aforementioned
books. Working with these physical resources proved useful and helped us to better
analyze the overall look and feel of LoR, Although the usual online image gallery
search is useful, studying physical prints or even the paintings themselves, reveals
more details and conveys the artist‘s intended mood way more impactful.
P. 15/72
Some further examples of direct inspiration. Bruegel‘s „Big fish ate small fish“ is a
good example of exaggerated fishermen‘s tales about weird beasts spotted in the
open seas, a folktale variant present until today. C.D. Frierichs painting of „Arminius
Gravesite“ down below was a major influence on our mystical island‘s design. The
vast scenery and sense of the island‘s insignificance against the landscape are the
elements, that we wanted to transport into our screenplay.
P. 16/72
02: CONCEPTION:
02.3: CHARACTER DESIGN: PROTAGONIST / JAMAL
Jamal - fortune seeker with bad luck
The protagonist of our story, from here on called „Jamal“ for writing convenience,
is a far traveled opportunist with the ambition, to become a rich man without loosing
his independence. Initially planned as a blank face to allow character customization
in the videogame version of LoR, we had to further flesh out his background
and motivations for our new iteration.
The overall topic of our collaborative thesis project is the union of Middle Eastern
and German folklore. Jamal is the literal embodiment of this combination, he comes
to a foreign nation with his own cultural heritage and meets his German companions.
Both sides have to adapt to each other to survive on their journey, an allegory of
the benefits of integration.
Jamal has an undefined Arabic background and came to Germany on his hunt for
fortune, hoping to explore unknown rich ground to somehow profit from it. He
entered the Rhineland from the Northern Sea and traveled the cities along the
stream until he heard about a rumor of several cargo-loaded ships mysteriously
vanishing. Sensing his opportunity to plunder these lost wares, he took his outdoor
survival skills to use to search the area where these ships were last seen. That‘s when
the viewer first meets our protagonist, on a misty morning along the shore, ready to
set off to investigate the area.
Later in the story he becomes obsessed with the Rhinegold, after the mermaids save
him from drowning and implement a fading vision of the legendary treasure in his
mind, sending him on a mythical quest like in the tales of old. From the hero group,
he will have to face the biggest threats and will overcome his own boundaries and
fears, growing more mature and hardened over it - until the story ends he endures
the classical hero‘s journey. Even though he risks his dear life for his ambitions, he
keeps a clear mind and a positive attitude against his surroundings, making him a
little bit of a medieval version of Indiana Jones.
Jamal wears tattered self-made clothes, arranged in Arabic fashion and adorned with
purple and red dyes. His brighter color palette reflects his positive attitude and urge
to stand out against his surroundings. They also provide a good contrast with the
generally more earthy and grey color palette of the scenes.
His body is athletic but not muscular, Jamal is not a fighter like a classical fantasy hero
would probably be portrayed as. Although traveling the roads and rivers, he styles
himself and wears some expensive amulets and belts, to further emphasize on his
cunning and skittish behavior.
P. 17/72
P. 18/72
02: CONCEPTION:
02.3: CHARACTER DESIGN: FRANKA
Franka - the beauty of the muscle
Franka was initially planned as the cunning love interest of our protagonist. But we
realized her waisted potential of our „male gaze“ and reconceptualized her: being the
single female actor in our play, we wanted her to become the muscle of the group,
while still not just acting as the brave and ruthless warrior girl. A too common
trope to portray female warriors in fantasy media.
For Franka‘s visual appearance we took inspiration from Richard Wagner‘s
„Valkyries“- women of athletic shape in service of the god Odin, capable to overcome
any male warrior they might come across on the battlefield. We also adapted
baroque depictions of valkyries and Nordic goddesses - their bulkier silhouettes were
another welcome change to modern female warrior portrayal, which often tends
towards tender and more filigree body types.
Red hair emphasizes her fiery temperament and her high cheekbones and strong
jawline give her a default stern expression, which still can change her character‘s
impression completely, when smiling. In our script she acts as a force of nature, a
frightening and merciless opponent but also a symbol of maternity and femininity.
Her outfit underlines her practical nature, she wears sturdy and protective leather
gear, together with a warm fur cloak. Both keep her warm and safe when she works
the exhausting and dangerous tasks of a sailor on the deck, while the older and fragile
Captain navigates and plans. She uses tools like a ship‘s axe or lance as weapons, but
is no trained warrior with her own battle gear. While she appears as a classical Viking
soldier at first, all her belongings are rather used for manual labor than battle,
emphasizing that she fills the gap for the Captain‘s missing strength,
rather than being a mere guard.
In the beginning of our story, Franka will be suspicious and openly antagonistic
towards our protagonist (and thus the viewer), while her sly accomplice, the Captain,
will act more welcoming. This Bad-and-Good-Cop situation will change later on, but
is part of Act 1 to further emphasize Jamal‘s situation of having to adapt to a foreign
and hostile world, where it is unclear who is a friend or foe.
However, they both save the protagonist and while being more interested in his
connection to the Rhinemaidens, they still keep him around. In the future of the
narrative they become companions and friends finally, but in the beginning, Franka will
not even allow Jamal to hold a weapon and will constantly keep an eye on him, both
being worried about his true nature and her position within the trio.
P. 19/72
Right:
01: Valkyrie costume by
C.E. Doepler 1876
02: „The Valkyrie by
Hans Makart, 1877
P. 20/72
02: CONCEPTION:
02.3: CHARACTER DESIGN: CAPTAIN
The Captain - old sly fox of the sea
The Captain is designed as our mentoring figure, providing profound knowledge of
local culture and tales. When LoR was still planned a game, he would have been used
as an in-game encyclopedia to provide players with background lore and the real-life
ínformation behind aspects of the setting. In our story now, he acts as the brain and
cohesive force of the group, leading the two younger and more hot-headed
characters with a calm and fatherly hand. However, he is not be underestimated
and has a cunning and selfish character, he knows he needs the crew to fulfill his
goal of grabbing the Rhinemaidens‘ treasure for himself.
Captain is our most ambiguous character in the play. He acts as a guiding hand and
drives the story forward with his input and knowledge about legendary locations and
lore from the Nibelungs and other folktales. His behavior reminds of a humble
mentor, not unlike Gandalf from Lord of the Rings, but on the other hand his actions
also show his manipulative and imperious side. He is dependent on the other
protagonists and thus keeps their bond united, but he sometimes acts solely out of
selfishness. In the later storyline, Cap will be of immense help for the group to
proceed on their quest, but it may appear that they need to be careful around
him, once the deceiving treasure is in sight.
The Captain is the most experienced crewmember and sailed the seas around the
world in his former life. This is not only shown by him owning a full-fledged ship, but
also in the scenes, which take place in his cabin, where the old man hoards a
bountiful treasure of books, maps and forbidden secrets along his collection
of obscure artifacts from his adventures.
His mysterious and inscrutable demeanor is not only portrayed by his personal
surroundings, but also in his looks. We conceived the Captain to resemble a
humanoid heron: A tall and slender figure with a long, pointy nose which he sinks
into ancient books, fishing for any nook and cranny that may house another
tasty secret for his collection. Like his animal counterpart, he stalks the murky
waters of the river on thin and feeble legs, while still maintaining a predatory and
elegant appearance. His outfit consists of a black leather sailor‘s coat paired with
other tattered dark clothes. As an eyecatcher and to support his slender silhouette
we added the red inlay of his coat and his flowing white-red scarf - another hint of
a more ominous side beneath his surface. He has truly adapted to survive along the
murky waters and shoes of the river.
P. 21/72
Right:
The Captain was the most
fleshed-out character from
the videogame iteration of
LoR. We used most of his
former attributes and
visual design and adapted
him into our new style of
semi-realistic European
comic art.
P. 22/72
02: CONCEPTION:
02.4: ASSET DESIGN: JAMALS RAFT
Jamals River Raft - a swimming steed
Jamal‘s boat is not only there to set sail to the mysterious vanishing spot of the lost
ships, but also his homestead for the long time he traveled along the Rhine shores.
His self-made vessel reflects not only his craftmanship talents but rather resembles
his whole lifestyle and personality. The hand-crafted but sturdy raft contains many
hidden stashes, to hold more cargo and belongings than usual, just as Jamal is a
person with many hidden talents and ideas. He and his ship are both experienced
and flexible to adapt to any situation that may fall upon them at these foreign shores.
Visually the raft resembles a historically accurate Egyptian Nile raft, adapted to be
made from European driftwood instead of palms and bamboo. Jamal brought this
knowledge with him from his former travels and built a raft, which is faster and easier
to navigate than its German counterparts from this period. While the squarish
European rafts can hold more cargo and crew, Jamal‘s Catamaran/Canoe mix offers
many advantages for a fast-travelling lone sailor like him.
Like a cowboy‘s trusty steed, Jamal‘s river raft not only carries his belongings, but is
rather a major part of him, not yet rich and well decorated, but fitting for his down
to earth attitude towards life.
P. 23/72
02: CONCEPTION
02.4: ASSET DESIGN: RIVERBARGE
The Crews Barge - home and hub
The Captain‘s ship plays a prominent role in our storyline, as the moving homestead
of our cast it will be the main location for many scenes to come. The ship‘s design is
a mixture of modern and historical European river barges, a type of ship, that was
used to transport goods along rivers and lakes. The flat and slender build allows
navigation through shallow waters and narrow passages, although in open seas
a ship like this would be broken by the stronger tides.
In our context this huge unstoppable construct portrays the Captain as a man of the
rivers, who no longer sails to sea and additionally sets a nice counterpart to Jamal‘s
fast and elegant raft. The crew‘s barge is modified with sails and a luxurious cabin.
These additions again show the Captain‘s cunning character, he is well-educated and
experienced enough to have created his vessel into his own unique invention. His
ship‘s design provides extensive space for his crew and cargo and gives us enough
room to create diverse locations in future acts of LoR, when the cast spends a lot of
time in this wooden hub.
The first iteration of the barge‘s design tended more towards fantasy elements. In the
final visualization we went for a more grounded, realistic look to fit our setting.
P. 24/72
02: CONCEPTION:
02.4: CREATURE DESIGN: RHINEMAIDENS
The Rhinemaidens - keepers of the gold
As a hommage to Richard Wagner‘s portrayal and the classicistic paintings often being
brought into context with his opera play, we designed our three Rhinemaidens after
classical depictions of mermaids. Although our main inspiration was the Lady Loreley
herself, a common folktale from Germany, with her famous cliffs attracting wanderers
to visit the Rhine each year.
In first concepts the mermaids resembled more monstrous water creatures, but for
the above-mentioned reasons, we ended up with beautiful women with elegant fish
bodies, seductive and playful in their character. The original Rhinemaidens were
supposed to all share their golden blonde hair, however we took the creative
freedom, to give them different hair colors, with some more prominent animalistic
features like webbed membranes and dorsal fins.
As beautiful as the maidens are, the viewer is left uncertain about their motivations.
In our story they save Jamal from drowning, but also force the burden to glance upon
the Rhinegold on him, cursing our hero with the neverending obsession to see the
legendary treasure again. They even grant him one of their scales to guide him on his
quest, a constant reminder of his depth to them.
In later acts of LoR the mermaids‘ plan will be revealed, but for now we left them
ambiguous. They clearly follow a plan, luring sailors to their location, where they get
overwhelmed and cursed with the Rhinegold‘s charms. Maybe the maidens seek to
become free of the treasure burden themselves? Our monsters have character and
motivations, finally the viewer will likely feel sympathy for the otherworldy beings.
P. 25/72
02: CONCEPTION
02.4: CREATURE DESIGN: CATFISH
The Catfish - an ancient river monster
The catfish serves as a first introduction to the fantastical elements of our story,
when he suddenly rises from the river‘s depths to crash Jamal‘s precious raft. A true
force of nature, he appears as a humongous, old and scarred gulper, a true legend of
the river!
While our first drafts of this beast were oriented on modern monster designs, we
again toned down his appearance to be more realistic. Inspired by modern German
sailors‘ yarn tales like „Otto the Killerwels“ we thought, that often nature‘s wonders
are even more fascinating than our wildest imaginations. On a second note, these
simple tall tales of fantastic beasts are the modern variant of folklore tales and felt
fitting to be represented in our project.
Like Captain Ahab has to face his famous opponent Moby Dick, Jamal finds his
demise when being attacked by the catfish. In Herman Melville‘s famous legend
animal and man fight a pointless battle. In our story however, we want to give the
monsters a chance to be understood and even redeemed by the audience. Our
catfish is not an evil entity the hero needs to trace down to defeat, it is rather a
simple animal, which acts as one would do when being approached by an intruder.
The intrigued viewer might even recognize the coincidence of the river monster
appearing directly at the side of the Rhinemaidens: Maybe the fish is not a ravaging
monster, but rather acts on behalf of the mermaids and thus the tainted treasure
itself? With any beast that takes part in our tale, we will provide a twist - in most
cases the apparent devils are themselves simple henchmen of a bigger mysterious
force or simply misunderstood.
P. 26/72
03: CREATIVE PROCESS:
Deepdiving into the individual scenes
and the creative decisions behind
their final appearance
Pages 27 - 66
03: CREATIVE PROCESS:
SCENE 01: OPENING
Storyline & Purpose
„Scene 01: Opening“ is our opening shot to establish the setting with a wide view
over the beautiful Rhine panorama. This scene plays relatively long and introduces
the mood and overall feel of Legends of Rhine. Also the narrator and the timeline
are introduced, a fantastical version of Europe medieval period.
It also is our only wide-spanned shot in the project and serves as a first glance on
our detailed art style and design.
Conception & Inspiration
While first being conceptualized as a „zoom-in“ into a screen-filling landscape panel,
we soon realized, that zooming into prerendered outlines creates heavy pixelation,
evenin high-resolution video export. So we changed our strategy from a zoom-in to a
wide spanning nearly 360-degree shot of the Rhine river and its mighty horizon, from
the viewers‘ POV set upon a higher point.
Majorly influenced by our individual travels along the Rhine, we wanted to transport
the feeling of a late summer afternoon, setting its due upon the valleys of the river.
While we already established guidance by the „Rheinromantik (see 02. Conception),
this panel is the first proving ground for our set goals.
P. 29/72
While keeping our ideals of the classic painters like Peter Bruegel, Albrecht Dürer
and William Turner in mind, we also were aware of our guidance by more modern
media like the beforehand mentioned franco-belgian school of comic artistry, helping
us to find a good balance between detail and mood. Our animated equivalent of a
TikTok video opening shot is set up to provide engagement for the following panels.
Artwork Analysis
The first panel of our project already presented a challenge, since we wanted to
provide a long widespan shot across a beautiful landscape, awakening the feelings
present for the rest of the scenes. But with our final render being 16:9 we could not
show the whole entirety of the bountiful shoreline we had set up on paper. Within
development we already settled down to draw two scenes, which play along each
other, but in the final cut we even went further and added a third fullscreen panel
into the middle of the composition, making this opening shot a collaboration of 3
separate screens, merged into one. Flavour was added by putting our beloved
traditional German cryptid, the Tatzelwurm into the first panel and some other
details hidden for the observant audience.
P. 30/72
left: Tryptichon Frankfurter Kirche: Kreuzigung
(~ 1511), Painted Wood, Städel Museum
Above you can see the three scenes we added into
each other, at this point already resembling a
Christian Triptychon, a threefold build paravent,
usually placed behind altars to show stories of saints
from Christian faith. Once we acknowledged this
similarity within the working process, we admitted to
it, by adding a carving valley into the middle frame of the presented shoreline - maybe
the unfolding story will somehow prevail in this location? In a traditional Triptychon,
the middle part was only revealed after the sermons were spoken, will this gap in the
steer valley of the river provide salvation too?
Finally we also wanted to simply show off the beauty of our chosen setting. In the
beginning of the conception we stirred to stay away from the typical shot of the well
known „Rheinkurve“ photographs, but we somehow ended up with a strangely
familair composition.
P. 31/72
Animation & VFX
With our opening shot, we mostly want to provide the viewer with a gentle overview
of the setting. Soothing sounds of nature mixed with a slow pan over the scenery
set the stage for what is to come.
Although we did not miss the chance to add effects within said stage, the first
animation being a turbulence effect along the waterfront Photoshop (PSD) layer,
bringing the river to life by moving its brighter parts in a flowing motion, as if the
sunlight breaks on the crystalline waters.
A general overlay was added with a „Falling Leaves“ particle effect from the Adobe
After Effects (AE) library, tweaked to be rather indistinguishable from floating pollen
or other dusty particles, to enhance the dreamlike afternoon scenery mood.
The second most important addition to every scene is the sound backdrop. For this
scene we mixed together a blend of royalty-free recordings of rustling leaves in a
summer forest with a faint and distant sound of large flowing bodies of water.
On top, we added a concert of birds Fritz recorded in summer 2023 in the Eifel, RLP.
P. 32/72
03: CREATIVE PROCESS:
SCENE 02: RIVERSIDE MORNING
Storyline & Purpose
„Scene 02: Riverside morning“ is the establishment shot for our protagonist, the
nameless adventurer, inhouse dubbed „Jamal“. It shows the concerned but
determined hero sitting on the rhine shore in a nearly dreamlike environment
of peace and tranquility, contemplating his soon to be faced fate. Around him,
the player will see several items that later appear more often in the next scenes,
like Jamal‘s trusty wooden raft and his map, which led to his demise.
Conception & Inspiration
Aside from the focus on Jamal and his equipment (for more context check „Chapter
02: Conception“), the map leading to the shipwreck location needed to be prominent
in this frame. Thus several attempts were made to set up a scene with enough room
for detail and space for the environment.
We ended up with the composition above, since it allows for some environmental
storytelling, further adding to the adventurous character of Jamal. While the other
scenes with him riding the boat or the birds-eye shot are more interesting, they both
didn‘t leave enough room to add the map in. Also, his makeshift shelter adds to
Jamal‘s portrayal as a capable outdoor survivalist and experienced traveler, before we
meet him in this scene.
P. 33/72
The serene morning dust scene at the riverbank was inspired by personal memories
of travels along the actual Rhine Isles and the Spreewald in Brandenburg.
Animation & VFX
This scene did not need for extended animations, since it is already detail-packed and
plays for 20 seconds only. We instead added effects to guide the players eye to the
important spots in the painting. In Adobe AfterEffects we added sun rays in the back
portion of the image, while overlaying the whole scene with a subtle lingering dust
particle effect, breaking the lights. Additionally the water plane was animated to move
in a waving fashion to simulate calm waters.
In the sound editing, we wanted to create a lively scene of nature. We added water
and leaves rustling in a breeze along a concert of frogs and dragonflies buzzing.
Together with the narration overlay added in Adobe Premiere as a last step, this
scene was one of the easier ones to be realized.
P. 34/72
03: CREATIVE PROCESS:
SCENE 03: MAP TRANSITION
Storyline & Purpose
„Scene 03: Map Transition“ serves as a metaphorical loading screen. While in the
second panel, where the protagonist still is at the start of his journey, the following
panel will show him right in the middle of the action. We felt the need to present a
sense of progression in between, thus we took the old trick from Indiana Jones
movies to show his traveling route on a good old map. Storywise this map also
emphasises, that Jamal heard rumors of mysterious shipwrecks at a certain spot in
the further off shores of the Rhine and he somehow got his hands on a crudely
drawn map to follow these tall tales, hoping for a payoff.
Conception & Inspiration
From the beginning, we planned this transition as a simple overlay, a PNG image of
the map projected over the preceded scene. To add some flavor, we wanted the
travel route to be visible by a moving icon, inspired by Tintin comics or the Indiana
Jones movies, where we see the heroes traveling across the globe, visualized in a
similarly simple but effective manner, allowing us to display an easy way to
change locations.
The map‘s drawing style was inspired by medieval maps of European rivers, while
highly simplified. These old maps we found in book collections at the Kölner
P. 35/72
Museum were focused on the city and trading border, but we needed to avoid giving
out exact locations for the sake of the integrity to our semi-fantastic approach
of the setting.
Artwork Analysis
Sometimes the easiest route is the best and here we simply used a flattened and
desaturated image of the preceding scene at the riverbank with a PNG drawing of a
map overlayed. The map‘s art style is slightly different to transport a perception of it
being an item zoomed into. More realistic shading at the edges and a papyrus texture
overlay on the drawing itself were added to make the map look older and worn off.
Animation & VFX
The single object to be animated in this scene were the little arrow icons, displaying
the protagonist‘s journey. These single PNG layer objects were copied several times
and put after another in After Effects, appearing one after another with a slight delay.
The other moving parts work the same and were integtrated as separate layer
objects in PSD.
In the sound department we reused the sound palette of Scene 02 and just toned it
done to be more muffled and less prominent, while the narration sound line kept the
same settings.
P. 36/72
03: CREATIVE PROCESS:
SCENE 04: STORM
Storyline & Purpose
„Scene 04: Storm“ is our first action-packed scene, the viewer is thrown right into
the disparity of being caught within a deadly storm! Also, it is the first scene where
we really went crazy on the animation side of things. The narration fades out and
now we are entering the movie, things are about to change! A change of pace will be
introduced by this scene, in the following screens, we won‘t have the narrator
telling the story, but rather have the screenplay act on its own.
Conception & Inspiration
Our main inspiration for this shot was traditional Asian papercut theatre. We actually
setup the PSD with all waves being single selectable objects to have them move
independently while the ship and actors are separate layers too. The waves are
obviously inspired by the Japanese woodblock print „The Great Wave off Kanagawa“
by Hokusai (~ 1831), for the other design choices see Chapter 02: Conception.
P. 37/72
Artwork Analysis
This scene basically consists of two separate images being projected right after the
other with the fin of the infamous river monster being the driving force leading the
viewers‘ eyes around the already busy scene. We composed the protagonist on his
raft into the right half of the picture to act as a stabilizing pillar of the screen, while
the whole water section and the monster are constantly on the move.
We also wanted to show the raft in its full detail, a good chance to further describe
Jamal as a character. We see his whole belongings pushed inside the smallest parts of
the vessel and the makeshift boat itself shows that he is a capable craftsman and
survivalist. He leans against the powers of the waters with a stoic stance,
at least for now...
P. 38/72
Once the infamous fin
appears, Jamal will change
position into the second
scene, overlaying the first
stage fullscreen in a
smooth fade-in. To further
smooth out the transition,
we added a small close
shot on his frightened
bloodshot eyes to distract
from the scene overlay.
Animation & VFX
The major animation in this panel comes from the gushing waves, fighting against the
raft of our hero. Every wave (the white foam plus its gradient-coloured body) is a
separate layer, allowing us to move them independently in Adobe After Effects. Thus
allowed us to set up the papercut theatre effect, where solid layers move up and
down, creating its characteristic movement and distinct charm.
The second major player in this scene is the monster fin, appearing shortly after the
scene loads, rising in between the separate frontal wave layers and reappearing
behind the raft after a short time, triggering the subtle scene overlay. With the main
characters pose being redrawn to look at the new fin position in the second panel,
we already highlighted this movement, while the suddenly appearing eye-closeup
(added via a simple PNG overlay) also distracts from the scenery fading
into each other.
The final touch was added by the sound design: Roaring waves and blasting winds
blast the viewer into the seat right after the narration voice line stops, shaking them
up in a similar way to our protagonist - pure immersion! Jokes aside, we put effort
into the sounds of this scene being slightly louder than the previous panels, to clarify
the danger of the situation. A light blue lightning effect in AE was added in
post-production, to underline the dramatic impact of the scene by thunderstruck.
P. 39/72
03: CREATIVE PROCESS:
SCENE 05: CATFISH CRASH
Storyline & Purpose
„Scene 05: Catfish Crash“ is our most beloved scene in this whole project. The
intimidating fin, slowly circling Jamal in the previous panel, finally lifts its visage and
shows our hero who is the real ruler of this part of the stream. A devastating impact
is shown in this panel, sending the protagonist straight to his demise. After we built
up tension beforehand, we now release the whole force of destiny all at once.
Conception & Inspiration
This scene is only focussed on impact and the „monster“ itself: the glorious gulper
of the Rhine! We wanted to show off the demise of the now-established hero and
show off our first mythical being within the story. The catfish design is based on the
worldwide phenomenon of „Anglerlatein“, where fishermen like to engage in
discussion about the wildest beasts they saw in open water.
Otto the killer catfish from Bavaria, Germany comes to mind, where in 2006 an
unusually large catfish swallowed a swimming dog and afterward was hunted for
nearly three years until its inevitable demise. Although the dog (and probably
several other unlucky animals) deserve to be mourned upon, both of us felt
sympathy with the monster within this story. If an animal gets this old and big,
it deserves the title of a major predator in their living grounds.
P. 40/72
And here our idea comes into play: What if legendary dragons and all the folklore
beasts can be portrayed by more grounded means? We went back and forth with
this idea and finally decided to give our river monster the rather usual appearance
of an old catfish - these animals are known to grow as long as they live.
Artwork Analysis
While we used the Fibonacci-Curve in the preceding scene in its basic principle to
focus on the protagonist, standing like a human pillar against nature‘s forces, we now
flipped the composition vertically to emphasize Jamal‘s downfall instead.
A dedicated attack animation was way out of scope for our two team resources, so
we went on to display the enemy covering the whole screen. The viewers‘ focus now
shifts from right to left, following our hero falling off the raft, while the foul beast
covers the rest of the scene. The catfish‘s chin crashes the raft, right in the focal
point of the composition - sending the objects beforehand focussed on flying into
the outer realms of the viewers‘ perspective. For us, this final scene came out to be
much more manageable than a whole series of shorter cuts, since sometimes the
most focused solution works best.
P. 41/72
Animation & VFX
While our catfish does not actually jump onto the raft, we still managed to give him
some slight movement by having his sprite emerge into the frame along the orange
line on the left. The actual attack on the vessel is emphasized by adding a „Water-
Splash“ effect layer in AE - a great opportunity to show the monsters wet skin
impact onto the wood, while also providing a veil above potential glitches within
the shattered boat sprites.
For the raft actually getting ripped to shreds, we had to set up the drawn asset
beforehand. Thanks to analyzing which components of a real Egyptian raft were likely
to break first, we already had the asset concepted to be deconstructed, allowing us
the movement of single parts independent from each other - resulting in a satisfying
explosion of the former solid parts. Jamal‘s vessel was established to be sturdy and
weather-hardened. But within a second, the whole certainty of the protagonist fades
with the demise of his trusty steed.
Although additionally maintaining the wave movement and the lightning strikes from
the former scene, the main groundwork in this scene now lies responsible for the
sound design. While in the first frames of the scene the storm is still raging, it even
gets climaxed by the ear crushing impact of breaking wood (adjusted to be safe to
hear with headphones). The devastating aftermath is made clear by fading the overwhelming
sound of the storm into numbness, getting replaced by a looping heartbeat
after impact. Together with the hero, the viewer is taken out of control,
fading into nothingness.
P. 42/72
03: CREATIVE PROCESS:
SCENE 06: SINKING
Storyline & Purpose
„Scene 06: Sinking“marks the undeniable demise of our hero. We see him sinking into
the darkness, unconscious and defeated. After the action-packed sequence on the
water, the next segment will stand in strong contrast, but in appearance and mood,
providing a short and calmer section in between the more busy and narrated scenes.
This scene also shows Jamal‘s progression in the classical hero‘s journey, where the
protagonist first has to fall to rerise to the top, in our case quite literally.
Conception & Inspiration
Since this scene is our first really dark painting, we had to find a way to make the
picture still a pleasure to look at and decided to guide the eye by a spotlight from
the water‘s surface. A reminiscence to theatre stages, where a singer or actor often
is highlighted by a straight bright spotlight on a dark stage, a fitting composition, since
P. 43/72
the Ring of Nibelungs is mostly known for its interpretation as a world-famous opera
play by Richard Wagner. In later scenes we will emphasize this homage more.
Artwork Analysis
The composition is dominated by the
sun spotlight from above the water
surface, illuminating the looming shadow
of the river monster and the rubble of
Jamal‘s former vessel.
We decided to have him float not in a
direct line beneath, but rather compose
a slightly tilted triangle layout, to guide
the viewer‘s eye along his downward
trail of air. The bubbles and his outfit
coming off in the light‘s focus, underlines the gravity of the situation. Overall, we
wanted to give this scene a sense of peace and tranquility, an acceptance of fate.
Animation & VFX
In animation we used two very impactful actors: the twinkling lights and the moving
fish. While Jamal is frozen in his fall, only affected by the fullscreen top-layer overlay
with the established water distortion shader, the lights slightly move and fade in and
out, to create an effect of bright light broken by the moving water surface.
The shadowcast catfish is a separate layer object and rotates around a pivot in the
middle light source, giving him an intimidating circling appearance. To give the scene
more depth, the catfish layer sots behind the bubble trail and is even overlayed by the
less actively moving fish swarm - these three operating layers with their supportive
lighting from behind, makes this simple scene appear like caught from a movie!
After a black screen blends with a loud
splash, all sound becomes immediately
muffled. We can only „hear“ the looming
silence and subtle underwater white
noise, with a really quiet swooshing of
the still raging waves. The sudden change
of audio environment underlines the
serenity in Jamal‘s stagnation while falling
into his despair, unable to fight on.
P. 44/72
03: CREATIVE PROCESS:
SCENE 07: RHINEMAIDENS
Storyline & Purpose
The „Rhinemaidens“ is part two of our calmer underwater section and shows the
appearance of our protagonists Deus Ex Machina: the mystical maidens of the rhine,
commonly portrayed as mermaids, as for example the prominent Westgerman
folktale of the Lorelay proves. Our main goal with this scene is to awaken the viewers
curiosity, if these creatures are Jamal‘s saviors or if they will deliver him the final blow.
Conception & Inspiration
Along the former scenes staging of the darkness being interrupted from the spotlight
above, our main challenge in this scene was the portrayal of the Rhinemaidens,
legendary nymphs, which hoard and seek the Rhinegold in the original saga. Regarding
their visual appearance we took inspiration from Richard Wagner‘s Valkyries and
more classical depictions of mermaids in art from 16th and 18th century Europe.
P. 45/72
But more important was their characterization, without the narrator giving
exposition in these scenes, we had to rely on visuals only. Since we wanted to evoke
curiosity in the viewer, we decided to give this character trait to our maidens too.
They appear from the black depths of the murky Rhine and act nearly in a playful
manner towards the surprising drop from above. However, it is left uncertain if
these beings see a person in need or a meal to toy with beforehand.
Artwork Analysis
Like in the scene before, Jamal is still sinking into the darkness, unconscious
and helpless. The light from above has already become dimmer, emphasising on
his dwindling condition. But from the darkness, a counterpart rises:
The three maidens add some brighter lights in the black lower part of the painting.
Jamal‘s downwards pointing triangle is now mirrored vertically by another triangle
with the nymph, meeting in the middle of the screen, where they will soon lay hands
on him, giving a sense of impactfulness. The maidens‘ poses address their curious and
playful attitude, they circle the body and reach out to it.
Their size in this scene is left ambiguous, although it will be clear soon that they have
human proportions, here it seems they may be way larger than our protagonist,
underlining their otherworldly aura.
P. 46/72
Animation & VFX
Most of the scene was copied and adjusted from the former one. The light source
acts the same, although scaled down around 75%. The existing water shader fullscreen
overlay is the same still, giving the whole screen a slight distortion to simulate
the moving waters. Additionally we added a randomized dancing bubbles shader along
it, to add some details in the dark parts of the screen and to give the light source
from above some more spots to break upon.
The real magic happens with the suddenly appearing mermaids. All three are a
solid layer, appearing on the lower edge of the painting, rising in a constant motion up
to the middle of the composition before the scene ends. While being dark when
spawning in, their brightness is merged to their position and allows the light shader
to affect them too, turning up their colors simultaneously to the height of their
position in the screen.
The unnerving atmosphere is not only produced by the ambiguous lighting and slow
movement of the actors, but also with sound: The underwater ambiance sound from
the scene before is again recycled, but now is interrupted by an ominous female
chorus singing as the scenes transition into each other. This sound effect from a free
asset library continues to play and rise in its pitches, the longer the maidens appear
on screen. The humming melody evokes the feeling of being lured into the arms of
the creatures, while also eerily calming the viewer and the protagonist alike. Again
animation and sound set the final stage to our accomplishment, to keep a sense of
suspense in this scene. Together with Jamal we are frozen in the descent into these
dark waters and await fate‘s hand.
P. 47/72
03: CREATIVE PROCESS:
SCENE 08: RHINEGOLD
Storyline & Purpose
While „Rhinegold“ is a scene with major importance to the overall story of LoR,
this prominent connection of events won‘t be revealed before Act 2, which will be
produced after the delivery date of this paper. For now, we present Jamal‘s first
contact with the legendary treasure, which will in the future be his obsession and
driving factor for his upcoming actions, as a mere ambiguous vision. The viewer may
interpret that the maidens rescue Jamal and lead him up to the guiding sunlight of
the surface. Alternatively, the golden light in the dark could represent the classic
„light at the end of the tunnel“ - a trope for entering the afterlife. We either
witness Jamal‘s death or his last glimpse of his surroundings before losing
consciousness completely and letting it all go.
Conception & Inspiration
Again a major inspiration for this scene was the Nordic Valkyries, as a homage to
the source material and the opera script. Valkyries appear on the battlefield and lead
the fallen warriors to Valhalla, the northern version of the glorious afterlife. They
choose the bravest fighters among the dead and carry them on their winged horses‘
backs or even fly themselves, and always appear as beautiful but also unapproachable
and otherworldly female creatures.
P. 48/72
This pictures the mood we estimated for this scene quite well. We see Jamal‘s POV
for the first time, while one of the nymphs gently drags him along, the other two
swim ahead, seemingly unphased by the whole ordeal. The eyecatcher of the scene is
the golden light they are heading towards, a tranquilizing promise of relief
and final peace.
The allegory of the guiding light into the afterlife was perfect for this scene, the
sunlight from the previously shown screens has fainted and is now replaced by
this mysterious and soothing, but also definitive goal of their journey.
Artwork Analysis
The composition is dominated by the contrast of darkness against the golden
brightness of the light. While the foreground is filled with the actors, they all form
a straight and pointed line towards it, guiding the view along their path. For the first
time we see the scene from the protagonist‘s point of view, allowing the viewer a
more personal experience of the dramatic event - they fade into darkness together
with the hero.
Jamal‘s grip is relaxed, while being held gently but tight by the mermaid. We see he
accepted his fate and completely surrendered to his situation, while the creatures
also don´t act in a manner that would imply immediate danger. A sense of peaceful
awareness and curiosity about what may come after entering the light lingers through
the dark green and golden palette of the scene.
The other maidens next to the light swim in a happy and playful manner, which stands
out against the solemnity of the portrayed scene, making their intentions unclear.
It again implies the question, of whether the light stands for the death or the life
of the protagonist
P. 4972
Animation & VFX
The animation again uses the water distortion overlay, while mixed with a new
advanced version of the light sparkle effect, now reshaped to radiate in a circular
movement in the middle of the light spot of the painting. The maidens are again a
separate layer and have a subtle movement towards the light, but since this scene is
pretty short the only really recognizable movement stems from the light particle
effect. Aside from the fullscreen overlay from the water shader, we also added the
particle dust effect from Scene 02 at the beach, this time reshaped to resemble algae
or similar undefined underwater particles. Since this effect layer also completely fills
the screen, it is only affected by the light from behind, giving a bit more depth
to the scene.
Finally, we introduced a new blend-out technique at the end of the scene: Before the
screen fades into black, we added 2 black moving blocks with blurred outlines at the
upper and lower end of the canvas. These blocks move towards the center, giving the
impression of the POV eyes closing, a blink into darkness so to speak. This setup be
reused in a later scene of Act 1, tying both events together in a subtle way.
On the sound side of things, the same sound as used in the scene before proceeds
to play, ending at the climax of the nymphs humming, by fading into muffled numbness
as the eyes close and the screen fades to black. With this outro our underwater
section of the screenplay ends and we will soon be reintroduced to the busy
overworld. But is Jamal‘s upcoming resurface, the reality or just his vision in his
personal version of the afterlife from now on?
P. 50/72
03: CREATIVE PROCESS:
SCENE 09: FLOATING
Storyline & Purpose
„Scene 09: Floating“ adds a new change of scenery after Jamal‘s blackout in the
depths. He seems alive and desperately clings to life in the broken remnants of his
belongings. The viewer may question if this scene is reality or still part of his neardeath
experience - how and why should the maidens of Rhine save this unimportant
adventurer? Maybe his fade into light was his end and he just dreams on from now
on? This decision is open for debate.
The second and similar important part of this scene is the first appearance of the
ship, coming to his unforeseeable rescue. This ship will be a most prominent part of
most future scenes, acting as the new hub of operations for the actors.
Will the crew of this ship be the protagonist‘s saviours or the next immediate threat
looming in the distance?
Conception & Inspiration
First of all we wanted to display a sense of uncertainty about the situation in this
scene. We show the river again, but in a less winded up state, displaying the storm
is over and its devastating aftermath for Jamal‘s raft. Scenes like this often act as a
point of no return in adventure media. Tintin is trapped at sea several times and
would be doomed without the writer‘s mercy.
P. 51/72
As an homage we also wanted to incorporate a similar scene and setup to LoR,
since it felt like the perfect setup for the protagonist‘s situation.
Artwork Analysis
The papercut waves from the storm panel reappear, but in a way more gentle and
less prominent way, still keeping the William Turner painting color, but without the
immanent danger of the raging sea. The ship appearing in the background should look
old but trusty and hardened in the river‘s weather, the design loosely based on a
European medieval river ferry (see 02: Conception). The ship works as the second
reference point of the painting, with the shoreline leading the eye towards it.
The calm and cluttered foreground is not too much of a distraction from the more
prominent vessel at the horizon, looming either as a promise of safety or a new
threat over the helpless protagonist. Since the ship will be moving towards the
camera, it also was important to leave enough empty water for the object to be
enlarged without clipping.
P. 52/72
Animation & VFX
As a major story arch and eye-calming shot after the mysterious and dark underwater
scenes, we needed this shot to stand on screen quite long - advanced
moveability needed to be apparent in the file. The basic setup for this is easy: The
more parts of the image are separate layers in Photoshop, the more advanced the
animation can get. In this panel, Jamal and the rubble are separated as one layer, while
every wave in the foreground is a single layer object in itself. The ship and its frontal
wave are also single-layer objects and were drawn fullscreen size to allow rescaling
without loosing details in the outlines.
With this setup, Keivan‘s work in the animation department began. In AE he edited
the boat and character objects to slightly bop up and down, while giving the waves
a gentle flowing movement. Each wave acts slightly time-shifted from the others, so
the impression of lighter wind still rousing the water is given.
The boat coming closer was a more
difficult task. With the object being saved
in the PSD-file as a Smart-Object, resi
zing without loss of details was a given.
So first the ship was scaled down and set
up in its starting point in the upper left
corner of the horizon.
In the first iterations, we just scaled the
ship up in a constant flow until it filled
out the screen. But the movement was too static and looked blutly unnatural, so we added
the same slight bobbing move set of the floating rubble objects to it and separated the
frontal wave into a solitary element. With the ship now being altered by the waves while
moving onward plus the wave being affected by a slight distortion effect from the AE library,
we managed to give the illusion of the ship slowly dragging itself through the still not calmed
down waters.
P. 53/72
In the sound department we finally added a mixture of gentle waves splashing onto a pier
and the sound of distant seagulls. With the ship approaching we also added a faint wood
creaking sound, which can either be interpreted as the ship itself or its sails aking in the
wind. These three elements added enough atmosphere to add the on top.
Additional Panels
On top of the scene and its already quite sophisticated animations we also needed to
present major story elements within the frame. We ended up reusing the overlay
panel idea from the beginning (Map & Storm), with the intention this time being
the portrayal of several things happening shortly in classical comic fashion.
The first of the two panels shows the crew for the first time (read about their design
choices in Chapter 02), with the Captain looking focused into a looking glass, and
Franka standing stoically beside him with a concerned look into the distance. We
know they saw something, but we don´t know their feelings about that.
The second panel shows them looking down the water from their ship‘s railing onto
poor Jamal‘s body. The Captain swings a rope to catch him up, while Franka holds
a boathook to help him out. Both postures can either be read as they immediately
helping them or preparing to do harm to the stranded foreigner, again keeping the
viewer uncertain about these individuals intentions.
While these panels did not need to be animated, we still had to add them within the
animated scene, without breaking the action. The first panel of the crew in the
lookout overlays the approaching boat, concealing its animation. This idea allowed
us to speed its arrival time, without the need of altering the animation itself. Also it
leads the players eye back to Jamal on the left side, making it apparent, that the crew
spotted him through the looking glass and set course to his location.
After the panel vanishes, the boat finishes approaching. The second panel on the
other hand appears right after the ship stops and conceals Jamal and creating the
space for viewer‘s imaginations on what‘s happening next.
P. 54/72
03: CREATIVE PROCESS:
SCENE 10: RESCUE
Storyline & Purpose
„Scene 10: Rescue“ is an immediate follow-up the the scene before, where we ended
with Jamal being fished out of the water by the Captain and Franke. This short scene
shows his POV for the second time after the mermaid rescue, tying them both
together as his vision finally fades and he finds back into reality, by getting grabbed
by two rugged-looking individuals.
Conception & Inspiration
We see the crew menacingly towering above Jamal‘s lying body, reaching for
something in his face. An impactful establishment shot of the two from now on
always present side characters in LoR.
Since this scene is pretty short and rather serves as a transition shot in the overall
script, we decided on a simple fade-over animation of Capt‘s hand positioning and a
fast fade into darkness. It serves as an unnerving shot of intimacy, the strangers
seem to grab out of the viewers‘ screen!
Finally, we both are game developers and thus did not want to miss the opportunity
to add one of in certain games established POV-shots with actors approaching the
camera in a disturbingly close manner.
P. 55/72
Artwork Analysis
The biggest composition challenge in this scene was the positioning of the characters
and their defining features and outfits, they need to be recognizable from now on.
The red inlay of the Captain‘s coat sends the first focus on him, while Franka towers
in the background. Her axe and wrist armor establish her as a rather physical challenge
for Jamal, while the Captain leaves enough vagueness to stay unpredictable.
The ship‘s mast in the background forms
a triangle with the characters, to keep
the focus on them by leading the viewers
eye into the upper middle of the frame.
The seagulls are separate objects for
animation, to bring life into the setup.
P. 56/72
Animation & VFX
The major animation in this scene is the beforehand established „blinking eye fade to
black“ (see Scene 08), with its length adjusted to play faster and only once. The
effect was created by Keivan and after some tests altered in color and duration. It
serves as a connection between both scenes - while also indicating the question, of if
Jamal is still hallucinating or if this rescue scene is real and he finally saved? That´s
up to the audience´s interpretation.
The other animations are
also rather simple: The hand
repositioning of the Captain
is a simple fullscreen fade of
the two previously drawn
screens. Both scenes are
similar, with only the Capt‘s
hand being overpainted in
the second sprite, enabling
a smooth transition. The
rest of the image stays
mostly static. The birds are
another single object plane and are animated with a looping circle animation, making
them move in and out of the frame, adding some fast but soothing movement to
please the eyes and lead the view to the vocal point up at the end of the shipmast.
In the sound department, we added the same wave splashing against wood and the
seagulls from the preceding scene. In the short black transitions from the former
panel we also added the sound of ropes scratching over wood, to indicate the
Captain and Franka pulled Jamal over the railing onto their ship‘s deck.
P. 57/72
03: CREATIVE PROCESS:
SCENE 11: CABIN SCENE
Storyline & Purpose
„Scene 11: Cabin Scene“ was probably the most complicated scene for us to finish.
It supports the so far longest ongoing narration part of the script and thus had to
stay very long on screen, with not much to show except the characters discussing
about Jamal‘s fate and their future plans. Our solution was several fading animations
with the characters repositioning inside the static scene, supported by advanced
overlays, to provide variety within the long runtime of this scene.
Conception & Inspiration
Since the scene takes place inside the ship‘s cabin at night, the lighting was our main
concern. We mixed several cabin interiors from pirate movies and comics with the
color palette of Boettcher‘s „Sommernacht am Rhein“ (1862) to create a warm and
cozy campfire gathering feel for the conspiring group of scoundrels.
P. 58/72
Artwork Analysis
The composition shows clearly a ship‘s master cabin interior with the prominent
windows adding an additional light sources, while leaving enough room for the actors
to change positions. The table plate is also important since it gives a center focus of
the view to be guided towards the mermaid scale in the middle of the composition.
With the composition of the static scene done, we went along to introduce several
different poses of the actors within the shot, to later let them overlay into each other
as a sign of time progressing, in the final cut we decided on three of these variations
to keep the stage alive.
Additionally, we added three light sources, which illuminate the dark cabin to evoke
a feeling of a cozy gathering, rather than a medieval interrogation chamber. At this
point the narrator makes clear, that the sailors are no threat to Jamal and they
conspire a plan to follow the mermaids‘ trail to promising treasures. The warm
orange lights contrast the blue windows, keeping the night out.
P. 59/72
Animation & VFX
For an extensive scene like this one, we made sure to have some interesting technical
treats running in the background. First of all we edited the transitions of the poses as
simple fullscreen scene overlays. They fade into each other long enough to not
interrupt the narrative flow, but still go fast enough to keep the viewer engaged.
Afterward, flicker and glow effects from the sturdy AE library were added to the
light source layers. These were already strong blurred paintbrush layers in PSD and
thus the effects could easily transform them to picture the faint glow of candlelight.
In the light emitting from the window front, some dust particles can also be seen,
dancing within the smokey wooden room of the old ship‘s interior.
While our first plan was to have the light sources change colour and transparency
within the scene to further enact time progression, this effect ended up rather
distracting from the rest of the play and we went along without. In a 3D rendered
environment these dynamic lights would have worked better, but in our 2,5D sprites
they rather looked like a timelapse rather than an engaging night of planning.
As the narration proceeds further to the point explaining the vision of the rhine
maidens, we added the repurposed mermaid layer from the former scene as a semitransparent
sprite projected on top of the window layer section of the scene.
Tweaked with the „overlay“ effect inbuild into AE and some transformation layer
effect, they emanate from the moonlight falling into the room, seemingly a ghostly
appearance from Jamal‘s still startled mind.
P. 60/72
Finally, we added a small but impactful white sparkle effect onto the mermaid scale
object on the table. As a magical item leading the crew to their next destination in
the following chapter, we felt it should immediately catch the eye.
To wrap everything up we added slight camera movement to create the sence of the
ship‘s float and let this animation loop, together with the later added wave sounds
the impression of the ship being in open water is more emphasized.
The sound design work was a bit easier on this one, we mainly added rhythmic and
looping wood creaking, to show the ship being altered by the gentle waves of the
night. A faint and distant sound of waves is also detectable if the viewer pays attenti
on. But the narrator‘s lines definitely are the main string in this section, thus we
didn´t want to interfere too much with them.
P. 61/72
03: CREATIVE PROCESS:
SCENE 12: ISLAND VISION
Storyline & Purpose
The „Island Vision“ serves as another breakup of the narrative-focussed cabin scene
and acts as a major spoiler for what is to come in the following „ACT II“ chapter of
LoR, where the newfound party will eventually enter a dragon‘s lair on the
mysterious isle of Fafnir, located somewhere hidden along the Rhine‘s unclaimed
waters. It will play as another fullscreen overlay with extensive in-scene animation.
Conception & Inspiration
The island should be a hidden place, shrouded in fog and mystery.
The final version was conceptualized as an homage to the painting „Ruine Eldena“ by
Caspar David Friedrich. We wanted to capture a dreamlike appearence, while staying
within semi-realistic borders. Additionally, the actual Loreley helped us to keep it
realistic, while still mixing it with fantastic elements. It will act as our West-German
version of King Arthurs Avalon.
P. 62/72
Artwork Analysis
The biggest problem was the size of the island, we wanted to go for an impressive
silhouette, but ended up with all concepts being too far zoomed out. A mountain
sized island being undiscovered for ages in the middle of the rhine felt wrong.
We went with a formation of huge rocks, with Caspar David Friedrichs „Ruine
Eldena“ and Arnold Böcklins „Die Toteninsel 3“ as a clear inspiration for our
composition. The dead trees of Eldena and the size of Toteninsel mixed together
gave us the prefect panel for our first look on the main stage for Act II, coming
hopefully soon. Waves and fogs in our foreground established europen comic
style were added to act as moveable objects for a slight animation.
In the end we decided to add some wrecked shipwrecks
and rubble for a dramatic impact on the scene. Although this space is
undiscovered, it should show the possible demise of our heroes - there is only one
gap leading into the forlorn rocks to enter. And possible viewers will have to wait on
what they will face within this new environment.
P. 63/72
Animation & VFX
This scene is a simple overlay of the beforehand playing „Cabin Scene“. The two
main effects are playing their role in this scene: a major distortion effect on the
canvas borders of this panel + some subtle movement in the fog layers with sunlight
rays breaking from behind the island‘s rocky peak. An undefined three seconds tune
will play to underline the mysticism in this vision.
While the island itself is a solid layer,
the fog and clouds are all single
objects, easy to manipulate in AE.
We added some distortion and swirl
filter onto the fog sprites and placed
the now enlarged mermaid scale
sparkle effect as a rising sun behind
the lightened-up trees on the islands
top. This guiding light may promise
salvation, like the rose window
behind the altar of a gothic church.
On the sound side, we decided to
add a non-diegetic sound source of
unfamiliar singing, as a resonance to
the golden maidens, leading the hero
to the Rhinegold, four scenes ago.
This acts as a conclusion route to
connect the scenes and lead on to
the endgame of things.
P. 64/72
03: CREATIVE PROCESS:
SCENE 13: OUTRO SCENE
Storyline & Purpose
„Scene 12: Outro“serves as a last showroom for our now established cast.
We wanted to give them some space to act alongside each other. With Jamal getting
a fresh set of clothes from his new accomplices, he also forgoes a progression from
being a stranger in a strange land, adapting to his new future. A fitting character arc,
since he now does not have to rely on his solitude and lone survivor skills anymore,
finding new fulfillment within the crew‘s company.
Conception & Inspiration
Initially planned as a „nice-to-have“, we are glad, the scene made it into the final cut.
Not only does it allow us to show the three actors in a more relaxed and relatable
manner, but also stands long enough to be a background for showing our Legends
of Rhine logo and let the credits roll.
P. 65/72
Artwork Analysis
While this scene is pretty simple on the animation side (Zoom-Out after it starts
playing, freezing once the painting‘s borders are reached), we still used the chance
to have our cast act differently than we saw them before:
First off we see the ship‘s railing forming a solid stage behind the crew, pulling them
together in a sturdy, wooden canvas. We also see a clear power hierarchy, starting by
Franka as the actual leader of the group, getting over to Jamal as a new and promising
prospect of the bunch while ending with the Captain at the end of the food chain.
Although this impression can be deceiving, since he is holding a pair of shears in his
hands, emphasizing his ruling and ruthless character over the bunch.
Franka on the other side also falls out of character, when breaking into laughter
about Jamal and his new still a bit unfitting outfit, while also holding a mirror in a
hand instead of an axe like in her introduction.
Jamal finally is the true source of this surprising shift in the characters‘ behaviour,
stirring up their roster relations. An attentive viewer may recognize his gaze upon
Franka, mesmerized by her surprising outburst of laughter. It seems, that in the near
future, not only mysterious islands and their secluded inhabitants will be challenging
tasks for our freshly founded company of fortune seekers.
But before the credits roll, we have a glimpse at an early morning sun breaking
through the ever-apparent fog of the former scenes. Maybe the rhine maidens
made a good choice for their striders with these adventurers in the end.
P. 66/72
04: POST MORTEM:
Revision of processes and endresult
after finalization and publication
of the thesis project
Pages 67 - 72
04: POST MORTEM:
04.1: DEVELOPMENT OVERVIEW
Overview of development tasks and resources
01: Conceptualization
Research about historical and visual references + development resources. Includes
analysis and termination of possible difficulties in development, like insufficient
technical knowledge and software limitations.
Execution: Online-Research, Excourses to public Museums + Library of Cologne
Challenges: The limited time and resources we hadfor this project required ‚
meticulous befrehand planning, to allow for a satisfying and ploshed project. We
cutted several features to reduce the scope and will include these in
later iterations of the series.
02: Story & Script Writing
Transcript of our imagined storyline with an additional version as a script for the
narrators performance. Includes close revision of source material to match the tone
and details of narration.
Execution: Software: „MS Word“ - TH Cologe Student version, 2023
Challenges: While our storyline is much longer, we decided to separate it into several
chapters, with this project visualizing the first act of our prologue / chapter one.
03: Storyboarding
Distribution of the storyline into segmented scenes. Visualization into individual
screens, with their composition already decided on, though subject of change.
Execution: Software: „Storyboarder“ - V.1.0.0. Win10, Wonder Unit, 2019
04: Concept Art
Visualization of every aspect of the story. Includes artstyle depiction.
Execution: Software: „Adobe Photoshop“ - Win10, Adobe Creative Suite, 2023
Software: „Procreate“ - IOS, Savage Interactive, 2022
Challenges: Some aspects of LoR were already designed when the project was
envisioned as a low-poly 3D videogame. We had to adapt these established designs
into our new art direction, but were even more pleased with the new versions.
In the first iterations we both had to align our individual artstyles into a coherent
appearence. Beforehand practise in the Concept stage and fixed brushes and sizes
helped to eliminate most differences.
P. 69/72
05: Scene Creation
Drawing and composing of the final frames the viewer will be presented with. Started
as mere sketches in the storyboard stage, every single scene was first envisioned in
handdrawn outlines and later coloured and enhanced with texture overlays.
Execution: Software: „Adobe Photoshop“ - Win10, Adobe Creative Suite, 2023
Software: „Procreate“ - IOS, Savage Interactive, 2022
Challenges: Each scene was digitally created and thus we had to keep their export
into the animation software in mind. Moveable objects were drawn on separate layers
and we kept several several copies of each painting to be able to change everything if
needed later in development.
06: Animation
Dissection and arrangement of the moveable parts of each paintings PSD-files.
Creation of subtle movement to guide the viewers attention.
Execution: Software: „After Effetcs“ -Win10, Adobe Creative Suite, 2023
Challenges: Our major difficulty was the decision of software usage for our moving
pictures. While many tools like „Spine“ provide a smoother workflow in 2D
animation, we decided to use the Adobe Creative Suite for its seamless file
distribution between programs.
07: Sound Design & Voice Acting
Searching for sound resourcesto enhance the scenes environmental mood. Editing
and integration into the final project files. Additionally recording and sampling of
voice lines for the off-screen narration.
Execution: Software: „Adobe Premiere“ -Win10, Adobe Creative Suite, 2023
Software: „Sprachmemos“ - IOS, Apple, 2023
Challenges: We mostly used open source files from Youtube fo the basic sound
environment, mixed with several private recordings of birds singing, where our
resources allowed it. Due to our time constraints, we were unable to hire a
professional voice actor, hence we narrated the project on our own. In later
iterations these voicefiles will be replaced.
08: Polishing & Editing
Detection and replacement of unpolished aspects within the scenes.
Finally the creation and assembly of all scenes into a complete movie file.
Execution: Software: „Adobe Premiere“ -Win10, Adobe Creative Suite, 2023
Challenges: Thanks to our beforehand planning and constant collaboration and feedback
loop, we thankfully had not many areas we needed to revisit. While Keivan
adjusted the final refinements, Fritz revisited the development process and
wrote this documentation.
P. 70/72
04: POST MORTEM:
04.2: CONCLUSIVE THOUGHTS
PRO: Skilled by experience
Pre-Production: The pre-production phase, which included art direction, story
boarding, and character design, was executed smoothly. We were able to finalize
the script and storyboard within the first month. This provided a clear vision and
foundation for the production process.
Assets Creation/Preparation: The creation of individual scenes was the next step.
Using the results of our pre-production phase we were able to maintain a smooth
and synchronized creative process. The backgrounds, and characters, accompanied
by visual and sound effects contributed effectively to the overall aesthetic and
emotional impact we were aiming to achieve.
Effective Collaboration: We effectively communicated and collaborated throughout
the production. Regular meetings ensured we were on the same page and helped
to overcome challenges and maintain a positive work environment.
Scope management: The project‘s scope had the tendency to expand during
production as new ideas and possibilities always turn up during the production
period. Luckily, our experience gained during our studies and former collaborations
helped us overcome the scope management processes.
The learning curve: Encountering unpredicted challenges, required troubleshooting
at times. We even invested some time utilizing a new software for storyboarding
during pre-production and pushed our skills in many areas and software to find
solutions or more practical approaches in production.
CON: Room for improvement
Software Experience: Deeper personal experience with the used softwares would
have helped to save time spend to figure out problems and technical issues. Further
expertise will help to smooth out the development process in the future.
Additional research: For later iterations of the project we plan to integrate an
external advisor with a profession area in classic literature and history. This will
help us to avoid inconsistencies with historical lore sources and help to improve
the overall storyline.
P. 71/72
04: POST MORTEM
04.3: FUTURE PLANS
Legends of Rhine - an ongoing web series
The final result of this project is more than satisfying for us and we build a promising
foundation to work upon in the future. But how will this future look? In the following
we will offer a glimpse into our next planned steps for Legends of Rhine.
The first action we gonna take is a general revision of the project to polish it up to a
next quality standard. Without time limitations in our freetime. We plan to replace
the Voice-Over with a more professional version and will likely expand some scenes
with further animation or story details, depending on audience feedback. In the end
we will release this „Directors Cut“ as a standalone version in our private portfolios
and the website of our collaborative studio (https://neptun-interactive.com/).
Following the release of Act 1.1, our plan is to further develop the other acts, which
currently only exist in the storyline transcript. We will continue working in the
established ways we learned within this thesis collaboration, while additionally
documenting our progress on Social Media to gain more traction towards our studio.
Followers might be interested in our continuos updates showing artworks and
animations and may flock around in our studios Discord server, following not only
LoR but also our inhouse productions. The upcoming acts 1.2 and 1.3 will also be
released on the studio webpage and Youtube channel as a free webseries
of animated storytelling.
Once all components of Act 1 are released we will evaluate the general feedback
and interest in the series. Depending on overall positivity we will make plans if and
how we could produce the next parts of the narrative, which currently only exist as
loose bulletpointed ideas. In the best case, Act 1 may become the foundation for a
larger professional production. Depending on public interest in the universe we might
even consider a crowdfunding campaign for a full animated short movie or revisit the
old idea of LoR as a videogame. We cannot estimate yet, how the future of our crew
will look, but we are certain, that this thesis project was not their last time on stage!
P. 72/72
© Keivan Akbari & Fritz David Thiel, 2024
Visit us at www.neptun-interactive.com