"Der Tagtraum" is the third animation in my ongoing project, Magidelik. It explores a world where wizards are trapped in endless paperwork and bureaucracy. Through this imaginative setting, I examine themes of mental health, critiques of everyday life, and reflections on my own past.
In this installment, the wizard motif takes a step back, shifting the focus to a non-descript individual caught in an endless search for the perfect piece of art, whether through creation or collection. This person is constantly dreaming of reaching an ultimate ideal, never realizing that the journey itself was what they were seeking all along.
This time, a client commissioned me to create the animation and provided input on the themes to be included, while giving me the freedom to interpret them in a way that best fits the narrative of Magidelik. To ensure we were aligned, I shared rough sketches and a quick animatic to outline the overall flow and featured elements.
As with the previous animations in this project, most of the textures were hand-painted in Procreate, and all assets were modeled from scratch. Because this process is time-consuming, I focused on completing one scene at a time. This allowed each subsequent step to progress more quickly, as I was able to reuse textures from earlier scenes.
As part of the commission, I also created several smaller illustrations and still excerpts from the main animation. These assets were intended for various web applications and to be used as fine art prints. The style differed from my usual 2D illustrations, focusing instead on flat shapes and bold color contrasts. This approach was chosen to ensure the visuals blended harmoniously with the overall aesthetic within the animation and to minimize visual noise that might result from highly detailed line work.
