Quetzalcoatl

Quetzalcoatl is the other main character in the story. He is a god and is a feathered serpent:

"The god Quetzalcoatl, is the Feathered Serpent or Precious Twin. He is the god intelligence and self-reflection, a patron of priests.
Quetzalcoatl is a primordial god of creation, a giver of life. With his opposite Tezcatlipocahe created the world. Quetzalcoatl is also called White Tezcatlipoca, to contrast him to the black Tezcatlipoca.

As the Lord of the East he is associated with the morning star, his twin brother Xolotl was the evening star (Venus). As the morning star he was known by the nameTlahuizcalpantecuhtli, "lord of the star of the dawn." An other representation of Quetzalcoatl is Ehecatl, the Wind God. His calendrical name is Ce Acatl (One Reed).

After the last world, the Fourth Sun had been destroyed, Quetzalcoatl went to Mictlan, the land of the death, and created our current world, the Fifth Sun, by using his own blood to give new life to bones. Quetzalcoatl is also the giver of maize (corn) to mankind.

In the tonalpohualli, Quetzalcoatl rules over both the second day, Ehecatl (wind), and the second trecena, 1-Ocelotl (jaguar). He is Lord of the Day for days with number 9("chicunahui" in Nahuatl)."

http://www.azteccalendar.com/god/Quetzalcoatl.html

The name Quetzalcoatl means "Feathered Serpent." It brings together the magnificent green-plumed quetzal bird, symbolizing the heavens and the wind, and the snake, symbolizing the earth and fertility. 

Read more: http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Pr-Sa/Quetzalcoatl.html#ixzz3sysS3gUM

The God. Quetzalcoatl was portrayed in two ways. As the Feathered Serpent, he was a snake with wings or covered with feathers. He could also appear in human form as a warrior wearing a tall, cone-shaped crown or cap made of ocelot skin and a pendant fashioned of jade or a conchshell. The pendant, known as the "wind jewel," symbolized one of Quetzalcoatl's other roles, that of Ehecatl, god of wind and movement. Buildings dedicated to this god were circular or cylindrical in shape to minimize their resistance to the wind.

According to some accounts, Quetzalcoatl was the son of the sun and of the earth goddess Coatlicue. He and three brother gods created the sun, the heavens, and the earth. In the Aztec creation myth, Quetzalcoatl's cosmic conflicts with the god Tezcatlipoca brought about the creation and destruction of a series of four suns and earths, leading to the fifth sun and today's earth.

At first there were no people under the fifth sun. The inhabitants of the earlier worlds had died, and their bones littered Mictlan, the underworld. Quetzalcoatl and his twin, Xolotl, journeyed to Mictlan to find the bones, arousing the fury of the Death Lord. As he fled from the underworld, Quetzalcoatl dropped the bones, and they broke into pieces. He gathered up the pieces and took them to the earth goddess Cihuacoatl (Snake Woman), who ground them into flour. Quetzalcoatl moistened the flour with his own blood, which gave it life. Then he and Xolotl shaped the mixture into human forms and taught the new creatures how to reproduce themselves.

Read more: http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Pr-Sa/Quetzalcoatl.html#ixzz3syt0KpZL

This is the fantastic Quetzalcoatl bird:

 I think the feathers are just faulous especially the tail and the colours, i would really like to incorporate these in my designs.

His hair is pretty cool too and those front green feathers might work well as hands.

Here are some existing images of Quetzalcoatl that i like:

A lot of them have gone for like a dragon kind of look and i actually really like that. I dont think it needs the feet like the second to last one though and i like the idea of using the wings as hands.

Cartoon bats

Here are some bat character designs that I am quite fond of, I think they all work well for kids and are not too scary. Some are more detailed than others. As this is being designed for an animation of some length, I think it would be a good idea to make my design not too complicated. I like how on some of these the wings are being used as hands. I intend to do this too. I can't decide whether to go as far as to actually give him hands though like one of these designs or if thats taking it too far.

Bat design

So i have found out that the bats in Mexico are called free tailed bats. For my character design to be correct I would have to create one of these. However they are really ugly and actually quite scary  And character designs need to have appeal to be engaging. And my target audience is going to be kids at around about 6-10 years old and i think they would be freaked out by this:

Fruit bats are a lot less scary and may possibly be better to use for kids but this wouldn't be native? so i was thinking of doing a mix of the two. 

 The eyes are much more engaging and less threatening and they look less mangy and dangerous. I think i could use the aesthetics of the fruit bat with the anatomy of the free tailed bat. So that would include a wing span of about 30-35cm a long tail and slightly bigger ears.

GOOD NEWS

Good news, the journey man did respond but it went into my junk mail so i didn't know!! he said yes to using the story but said there is also someone who has already done it before. It is on this website:
http://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/stories/legend-of-the-bat-1-the-video
I understand that she used aztec kind of style drawings as its a mexican story but i actually think the characters could have been designed better so i think i would still like to try. I also think the animation could be more fluid so i could attempt that. I would also like to see more use of backgrounds.

Plan B

Unfortunately the man i asked to use his story about the bat didn't respond so i have had to resort to plan B. This is to find a folk tale such as "how the leopard got his spots" and then animate that for children.
Now the first already animated version i see is this. It is very old fashioned, long winded and a little racist with poor almost animation.

This is more the tone of voice and pace i am looking at

As discussed in my tutorial, doing a story from a difference place in the world would make me have to do a lot of research which would inform my designs more. Like Tinga tales which is very african based.

I really like this i love how the culture is all in there and i would like to do that too. However i don't think i would like mine to be quite as long as that. There are lots and lots of tinga tinga tales and i don't want to copy them but i do really like how they are done. 

These all come from the Just so stories by Rudyard Kipling.

I found this website that has all of the stories on 

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2781/2781-h/2781-h.htm#link2H_4_0002

Tutorial #3

Mike suggested i read Good girls and wicked witches and Handsome heroes and vile villains (update: again these weren't particularly helpful)

Think about writing a whole chapter on archetypes, think about anthropomorphism, look at blogs in your face princess.

plan b for practical could be looking at myths and folktales from different cultures. What media will i be doing this in?