The Ottoman

The Ottoman is a project of animator Mike Stamm. It is an 8-minute animated short with a visual design inspired by the works of Jean "Moebius" Giraud, Jake Parker, Pascal Blanché and many others. The production is being developed using Cinema4D and a team of artists from around the world.

Having heard about the project from friend and blogger Teresa Nord, I contacted Mike about the generic type set in this concept art

and that was the initial contact that started my involvement. I am now on board as a calligraphy consultant for this project. I am familiar with Mike's excellent animation work when we used to frequent the Animation:Master forum. I have done my share of learning Islamic calligraphy when I was in Iraq and Saudi Arabia, also as pupil of master Chinese calligrapher Haji Noor Deen Ming Guang Jiang, so this part feels like a natural extension for my artistic inclinations.

The first assignment that Mike gave me was to come up with a calligram for the word Al-Barzakh البرزخ in the shape of a scorpion that is to be the tattoo on one of the characters. Project designer, David Ward, did an impressive job for the final render of the tattoo and here is an interesting progression of the design as we exchanged thoughts and ideas;

The rider's machine is this awesome contraption

Final concept

I am very excited to be part of this worthwhile project and hope to see it finished and produced for all to enjoy.