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Sun Kin

The song, "Purification Grave" by Sun Kin (@sun.ray.kin), was orginally inspired by an Art project at Radboud University, where students could lay in a dirt grave and reflect on their mortality. The artist wanted to create a Spotify Canvas for their song on the mobile app that captured this grave ritual, while emphasizing the melancholic, spiritual nature of the song.

Categories:

✿ Animation
✿ Music Visualization
✿ Storyboarding
‍

Deliverables:

✿ Spotify Canvas

Team:

Art Direction & Concept:
Kabir Kumar

Animation, Illustration, & Storyboard:
Ashley Kim

Storyboard sketch for the Purification Grave animation. The first scene's sketch depicts a grave seen from a bird's eye view. The next three sketches show legs stepping into a grave. The fifth and sixth sketches show a figure inside of a grave from above. The seventh sketch shows a figure smiling up close and the last sketch reads "Reverse".

The Storyboard

The story for the animation was inspired by the concept in the original art project of someone entering and then leaving a grave.
The Sketches
The environment was a readaptation of the forest in the Hayao Miyazaki film, Princess Mononoke. The client wanted "a wild, wide natural scene that reflects pain but also cleanses you of it". The colors were chosen to reflect this request, evoking both the brightness and melancholy in the transformative experience and highlight the Miyazaki-esque sounds within the song.

The Final Design

(Environment)

The final environment further evolved the Mononoke-inspired forest, adding bits of airiness with sunlight, color, and depth.
I used hints of neon green and pink to reflect brightness against the darker tones of the natural forest, reminding of the positive nature of the spiritually healing process in the animation.

The Final Design

(Character)

The client requested a humanoid, androgynous, and translucent character for the animation, "like a spirit going to hang out in the grave". I wanted the character to have a sweet and soft demeanor, reflecting the vulnerability in the process of cleansing and healing. I chose vibrant colors for their appearance to stand out from the environment.
Hear and watch
"Purification Grave"
on Spotify
©Ashley J. Kim 2024. All rights reserved.