Both Kinnaree and Hemaraj are an anatomical mixture of creatures. Making these hybrids work anatomically and getting them to move and walk will be the trickiest bit of this project. If the base skeleton has flaws the animation can result badly.

Firstly, the Kinnaree, a half bird half human creature. It is said to be a bird from the waist downwards with a beautiful pair of wings and tail. Although, in the descriptions the bird is more of a swan, in murals its feathers look more colourful than that of a swan.They resemble other birds' feather colours and structure like:Peacock, Australian lyrebird, Formosan magpie, Paradisaea Rudolphi, Birds of paradise, Pheasants. It's worth looking into other birds for reference and there is a huge variety to choose from.

Hemaraj is a more interesting creature. It belongs to the lion based  beings of the forest but appears to have the head of a Hong ( a bird creature resembling a swan) on murals. In other illustrations its head looks like a crocodile with a long snout and revealing teeth. There is a huge choice of experimentation with skin textures, skeletal mixtures and animal behaviours for Hemaraj.We chose this creature for its interesting mixture of animals, the fact that it looks humorous and its lion anatomy which is the closest to a dog one. We want Hem to act like a playful dog so a mammal like a lion's one will be a good base to work on.

As mentioned our animation is based on Thai Mythology and specifically focusing on the mythical creatures of the Himmapan Forest, a legendary forest which surrounds the base of Mount Meru in Hindu mythology. It is said it's located beneath the buddhist heavens on the top of he Himalayan Mountains. 

In terms of style, our animation will derive from traditional Thai Art which is primarily composed of Buddhist art. Thai Art is rich in colour, full of interesting shapes and patterns and pays extreme attention to detail. This detail can be seen in Paintings, Murals, Architecture, Sculpture, Clothing, Jewellery and even modern interpretations like Tattoo designs. It will be interesting to see what this distinctive art direction will turn into in combination with Modern CG software.

The is also a number of colours that appear to be dominant on Murals and paintings with gold standing out in almost every painting, sculpture or temple. Every colour is deeply connected with the Buddhist religion and beliefs. There is also an image representing the colour of Thai Art on the map, an outcome from the website The Color Of.

Our animation aims for two characters, both living in the Forest who will build a special relationship together. Our first character is the famous Kinnaree, a half human half bird creature which will perform a solo dance. It is meant to be a young woman of sublime beauty wearing an angel- like costume. Her wings on her lower body part enable her to travel between the human and mythical worlds. A lot of Artists tried to visualise the creature in their own way and came up with beautiful paintings and sculptures of it.

Our second character is a quadruped creature called Hemaraj- or Hem for short. It's a hybrid mix between a Hem (a sort of reptile creature) with a lion. A Hem is also represented as a Hong, meaning a swan. It will be exciting to mix all these animals together and create a humorous, clumsy character which will interact with the opposite serious and graceful looking Kinnaree.