Introduction

“Tradigital Mythmaking” might seem to be an unusual venture at first—a German animator and animation scholar working with young Asian artists to create new concepts for animation that are based on Asian mythologies and artistic traditions. An excursion into my own artistic and research background will establish the project in a wider context and explain its motivation. My own past and ongoing work has largely been defined by the search for a very personal and genuinely German style of animation. I came to Singapore in 2005 to teach animation at the new School of Art, Design and Media at Nanyang Technological University. The multi-cultural society of Singapore offers a beautiful kaleidoscope of the rich traditions of the regional arts—of course, prominently Chinese art, but also Indian, Malay, Indonesian and Philippine art-styles. I found that this wonderful diversity was not yet reflected in animation. My local students seemed to look primarily elsewhere for inspiration: they were mainly influenced by manga and anime and also tended to copy the design style of the Hollywood feature animation as established by Pixar, Dreamworks and Blue Sky Studios.

My initial impressions and findings were supported by scholarly research in the field. According to Engel (2009), “Very often, there is a reliance on derivative concepts in character design and storytelling. The Japanese anime-style and the American school of caricatured realism are used as templates to ensure commercial success. While the commercial prospects of such an approach are questionable, it obviously prevents full artistic success. Originality and innovation are missing” (p. 5). Other scholars such as Hodgkinson (2009) agree that “This is a common problem with much Asian animation, where the computer 3D style, along with the Japan’s anime aesthetic, dominates animation thinking and production. Many traditional Asian stories lose artistic connection with the story’s roots and relevance” (p.1).

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