FULL VIEW DEVIATION HERE

I really don’t know how to begin this, but quite honestly, I’m just…so proud of this.

This is only my third proper attempt with Flash (2nd time was this summer for a private project), but this is the second time I’ve used this method of animating. Everything you will see in this is was 100% drawn in Photoshop CS and animated in Flash MX 2004, not a single frame holds any Flash vector art.

So the point of this is as follows:

Every Christmas, I really can’t help but get the feeling that not many people know the true, proper meaning of what Christmas is all about. People I’ve met in the past have either said ‘jokingly’ that Christmas is all about presents, parties and marzipan on the cake, but it’s not. Somehow I wanted get a message across of what it really is about.
Then it hit me, I thought I’d put together this. Although those people will never see this, for those who don’t know what the real meaning of Christmas is should learn through watching this. Sure, Christmas is all about having fun with your friends and family, that’s the traditional side of Christmas, but always in the back of my head, I imagine a reconstruction of the birth of Lord Jesus Christ.

Now onto the deviation itself:

Every Christmas, I always listen to this song, it’s called ‘Christmas Angels’ by Clannad and it is such a beautiful and mystical song in my opinion that I think it makes Christmas more beautiful as a festive holiday. I’m just sorry it’s not sung in church.

So about the presentation.
I used my character and 4-legged fursona ‘TGA’ for this because she is the most graceful and peaceful, gentle character I have and she’s an angel in her own ‘species’, she loves Christmas just like I do and here, we follow her on a short journey to the birth place of Jesus. She doesn’t actually visit the manger, she prefers to witness from a distance as the events unfold before her.
I know it wasn’t snowing during the birth of Jesus, but reason why it is here is I’ve mixed what we’re familiar with at Christmas (snow, pine trees, holy and a random snowman), so TGA walks through it all, whilst at the same time putting it all behind her to focus on the real meaning when she stops on the hill.

During the making of this, I wasn’t actually aiming for a really clean, professional-looking animation, I just took what I learnt in traditional animation class and used it for some of the scenes in this, but I’m pleased with how it’s all come out. I’m glad I discovered the wonderful PNG format.

So here it is, I hope it makes sense to all you viewers. Whether you’re a believer or not, I hope you all enjoy this as much as I do and that you’ll learn something from this. From myself, I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year.

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT BEFORE FAVING, PLEASE. I LOVE HEARING WHAT YOU HAVE TO SAY

Disclaimer
’The Gaugamay Angel’, FLASH video are copyright December 2006 to =lionessb
‘Christmas Angels’ song is copyright to Clannad

Done to: ‘Christmas Angels’ – Clannad
7-8 days
Photoshop CS
FLASH MX 2004

**DO NOT REUSE WITHOUT THE PERMISSION FROM THE ARTIST, REUSAL OF THIS OR ANY OF MY ARTWORK WILL RESULT IN IMMEDIATE ACTION**