Lorelei (Updated)

Hello and welcome to the Lorelei Project website page, specifically created for my Graduation. The videos that I have made for this project are using the Lorelei Method, about which you can read further down below where I uploaded all my videos and tell you more about my process.

I hope you'll enjoy

(Any links and documents can be found on the page down below, also beware spoilers!)

The Lorelei Method

The Lorelei Method is a way of working that I have created during this project, hence the name.

It's a combination of two parts within a video:

The first part is the story that you tell, this can be through many different means whether it's audio or visual. For my project I chose to animate Lorelei's story.
The second part is the deep dive into that story, it can be about how it was created, who created it, why it was created, details about the characters, the backgrounds and the story itself. As long as it is related to the story that has been shown or told at the beginning.

Adding a note to warn for spoilers or perhaps triggering elements that the deep dive might bring to light is something I personally did add to the videos, but is not always necessary depending on the story that is being told or shown.

Also important to add: both parts can equally fulfil other themes. I went for entertainment with my story and informational for my deep dives, even edging on educational for some. Those don't have to be the themes you have to work with when using the method, be creative make it however you want. I certainly did.

The Audience

Considering the project has not been online for that long of a time and I have not engaged this much with YouTube or a possible audience before, it's difficult to say what kind of audience would be interested in my work and so it's hard to engage well. Yet I have some ideas on how to engage better with the audience I already have:

I could try to film myself whilst working on the project, this adds a more human elements to my works, as for now it's all digital work except for my voice. It also shows trust in my audience by showing them my most sacred place, my art corner.
Another idea was to add a character that represents me, as some kind of mascot that could speak to my audience, it's not as invasive as filming myself work on these animations would be and still adds a bit more of a human touch to my videos.
For social media I would say that communicating more with my followers would help with engagement too, especially if they have questions I can answer in my videos.

Engaging with my audience is important but including them into my creations, the worlds I make, is a different kind of cake.

Explaining more about the worlds and showing what their ideas could do to the story, with credit of course, would let anyone following the work know that I listen to their ideas and wish to know more about the thoughts they have about my work. As a creator it's most fun to see others look at your work and then come up with other or better storylines. Sometimes others see things differently or notice something you didn't. Those moments lead to the most fascinating of conversations.
Invite and encourage my audience to write and think about creating their own worlds and stories. Even if they just add a little bit of their thoughts into the comments would allow me as the creator to help them if they wish or just support them as much as I can.
It's always a joy to see creators show their fan's art works, if that were to ever happen to Lorelei's or any other story I create and post online, I'd love to continue that on my channel as well.

By working on my engagement with my audience and trying to include them into my work, it would start to build a community. However other forms of communication would help in staying engaged easier with anyone following the work. Some creators use Discord for this, which is a platform many internet users use for their daily conversations with friends. When you create a group on Discord, it also allows you to create sections for particular themes. Like a chat area specifically to talk about characters and ideas that could become part of the world I might be creating, or just ideas people have to speculate about what could be next.

In the end, to help others feel inspired, is to feel inspired myself and keep dedicating myself to my works. Communicate with other artists who work in similar fields and engage with anyone who wants to be part of my audience and see my work. Team work makes the dream work no?

Intentions behind my work

The Lorelei project began as an experiment to see if I could create works that I could continue after finishing my studies at the academy. I have already seen up close how difficult it is to find a job at this time, so I found it very important to not only have a project that I could put my mind to which would keep me busy with updating my portfolio, it also allowed me to have a project on the side as I might have to work a job that's outside my field. So that maybe in the future, I could still get a job in animation.

This way of working ended up becoming the Lorelei Method as mentioned before.

The intentions behind the work just mentioned above, have been very related to logical things, things that are technically out of my own control. So what other intentions did I have behind my work. Well, I wished to create something for me again. During the course of my studies, there are few animated works I truly made for myself, the only one I can mention would be "A Goblin's favourite book" which was my latest animation before the Lorelei series.

Furthermore, I wished to tell a bigger story with more dept, for I hadn't tried that before. Usually my works are quite light hearted, but working with vampires meant I could try to dip my toes into darker storytelling. Where normally vampires would be very sexy or just murderous, I tried to show the mental toll it takes to live so long and how other vampires don't make life easier for you either. Most if not all vampires in my world are in some way emotionally broken by their situation.

This is where my project connects to my research, for my research is about a guideline named: Hard and Soft character growth as inspired by Brandon Sanderson's idea on "Hard and Soft Magic Systems". I hoped through my project to improve my character creation skills and learn how to create characters with bigger growth arcs. Lorelei ended up being the character I could practice with whilst creating the guideline, for I didn't know my plans with her as I first drew her. So in a sense, the Lorelei method wouldn't have been a thing, if I didn't need to create a guideline to figure out how to provide Lorelei with the story and growth I wanted her to have. Yet I wouldn't have the guideline if I didn't think about creating a character for my video idea that ended up being the Lorelei Method.

My project and research don't just connect to each other, they are intertwined, unable to be a thing without each other.

As this project is officially not finished yet, I hope to dive even deeper into the dark theme of the emotional breaking points of my vampire characters, now that I finished my research and have a better understanding of how to approach said theme. Though this project has shown me, that using the Lorelei Method might not be the right way of creating this particular story. So at this time it is unclear whether or not the Lorelei series will continue in this specific format.

Artistic Vision

As a storyteller I use my art as a medium to tell many different stories. My art is but an extension of my mind that keeps creating tales. I believe that stories can connect people all over the world, no matter what kind of story it is. Anyone can relate to a sad frog that needs to finish it’s chores but doesn’t want to. None of us are frogs, but we all have chores we don’t want to do.

The power of a story is great, a bad tale can bring whole nations down and a good tale can create nations from the ground up, as long as enough people believe in either one. As a storyteller, I don’t wish to create stories with this big of a power, but I do hope that through the stories I create people find connections with others by sharing the same enjoyment or dislike for my work.

Both ways would help me grow as a storyteller and artist. I will continue to work hard to keep improving the stories that I create, how I artistically enhance the experience and finally how I share them with the world.

Lorelei | Animated Story part 1 - Lore and Speed paint

This was the first video in the Lorelei series, this video took the longest to make for I had to figure out who Lorelei was first I also had to understand for myself what the Lorelei Method would look like. Luckily this was the first video, which means improvements were on their way.

Below there are some sketches I made as ideas for how this video could visually look like. I decided to go for the one where she was painting. As the light and shadow play of the scene was most interesting to me, though all returned in some form over the course of the series. With the middle one coming back in video 2 and the one on the right returning in video 4.

Lorelei | Animated Story part 2 - Programs and Apps

With this being the second video, I had already made some improvements and decided to dive right into the story. In the first video I had already hinted at the unopened envelopes on the table, now she received yet another one. Though in this video you don't learn more about these envelopes, as the viewers had to wait for part 3 for that information to be outed.

In the animator's cut of the video, I spoke about all the programs I had already worked with and why I would or wouldn't recommend them. I also mentioned Pro Create and Pro Create Dreams for I used both apps on this project, due to the fact I might not be able to work with Adobe after the academy.

Lorelei | Animated Story part 3 - What do you create and Why

Video 2's improvements, continued into video 3. Here I hinted at the envelopes being from the Lord of the region, threatening Lorelei to come to dinner. When those didn't work, he sent his son. Who we already saw hinted at in video 2, as the shadow in the left corner. The video ended on some kind of cliff-hanger, for you see she went to the Lord's home but you don't know what will happen next.

For the animator's cut I spoke about how important it is to understand the why behind what you create. My supervisors had encouraged me to answer this for myself too for I struggled with this. So I went through the whole process in the video to find my final answers.

Lorelei | Animated Story part 4 - How I work

Video 4 is where the drama increased. Lorelei found herself in an interrogation with her old enemy. The one who turned her into a vampire, the Lord of the region. It takes a while, but when she finally blows up, all the information is out. He is the monster that created both her and his son. He caused them this immense emotional pain only for his own gain. Of course, the Lord does not agree and wishes her dead.

In the animator's cut, I finally spoke about my whole process as a maker, this was the first thing I had wished to do, but sometimes other things are just far more important. The video speaks for itself on this part.

Lorelei | Animated Story part 5 - The end of an era

With the graduation period coming to an end I had to find a good spot to end the series for now too. Already having figured out that the Lorelei series would need much more care and attention in other means. In this part, Lorelei emotionally broke. I speak more on this in the video itself during the animator's cut.

Something I do wish to address here is them using quotes from the poem of Beowulf. One of the if not the oldest surviving old English poem in England. Both of them have lived long lives already, their choice of quote hints at their inner struggle. Lorelei, telling him to tell of her death to others when it finally comes. The young lord telling her he'll come for her, for the fight is far from over.

Lorelei | All Animated Stories combined part 6 - Enjoy!

This last part was my wish to add all the animated parts together, for not everyone wishes to follow a whole series with an animator's cut. Sometimes you just want the story parts. This allowed me to add an introduction to Lorelei's story, whilst showing her living through the ages. I tried to dress her accordingly to the location and the time period that she'd be in. For there are differences per country in Europe over the years.

Though a fashion historian would most likely tell you that they aren't fully historically accurate and that's okay, I tried my best to make them as well as I could.

Lorelei's story

How can it become meaningful?

The only way Lorelei's story can become meaningful is if people connect to her and her struggles. I can’t force people to find meaning in my work if they don’t relate to that. Not everyone feels lonely, not everyone wants to get revenge, not everyone has experienced an emotional breaking point and I don’t believe anyone knows what it’s like to be an immortal vampire. The story is meaningful to those that relate or give it meaning for themselves. That’s good enough for me.

How could Lorelei's story serve as more than just a series?

A question I received, it's one of those questions that keep you up at night, just thinking on how to answer. I suppose to answer this question properly, it depends on what the person asking the question meant.

Is it about, what other formats Lorelei's story could work with?

Although the Lorelei Method, might not work for Lorelei herself and her story, her tale is not yet done. I imagine that her story would fit much better into a written work like a book. It's a lot easier to work with more difficult themes then too, for writing a book is not easy and many people will read through her tale. Making it so that any possible difficult themes and triggers will be found, mentioned and changed if possible. Making it more bearable or adding tags that people are aware certain themes are in the book, allowing them to decide if the book is something they can and want to read. You could switch out the book for movie, game or an animated series as well and have the same results.

Or is it about what Lorelei and the themes connected to her could serve for outside of the series?

Lorelei's story shows many different things, revenge, loneliness, depression, emotional breaking points, you name it, it might be there. Those themes and how you approach them as creator and especially how Lorelei works with those feelings can become incredibly valuable for people who are relating to any of those feelings. You have to be careful though, one mis step could undo any progress someone might have made, yet if you place your cards right, someone might feel better or feel supported by Lorelei and her strength. Her approach to any of these themes might also function as lessons, why some things might help and why other things should not be done if you wish to help yourself.

Perhaps it's about something completely different that I'm not considering at this time?

Whatever the person meant when asking this question, I hope I answered it in some way or form, I will most certainly keep thinking about it and when I think of something new add it to my thought process here.

Documents

250 words Graduation Practice Document (Revisited)

Honours Research document (Revisited)

Links

My MIRO BOARD:

https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVNOQNd8U=/?share_link_id=130660016862

My MIRO board includes my whole progress from my graduation period.