A brand new animated timeline, depicting the history of Forres has been launched to accompany a hugely successful local children’s book.
Fantastic Forres was launched in July last year. It is a 28-page historical story of the town dating back 12,000 years to the Stone Age.
See Children’s book with a fantastic insight into Forres is launched
Written by local musician and teacher Ewen Watson, and artist Sathya Schlösser, the book has sold nearly 1000 copies in its first year.
Sathya said “It has gone so well that we have also been able to produce other products based on the book such as colouring books, tote bags, notebooks, postcards, maps, prints and more!
Great idea
“It just seemed like a great idea to make the characters from Forres’ past come to life and we thought it would be a really interesting way for children to learn about the town.”
The animation can be seen here for the first time, following six months of work to bring the book to life.
The stylised pictures from the book are animated with a narrative that shows and tells the town’s history in an engaging and entertaining manner.
Ewen said: “After releasing our book, we knew we had a lot of illustrations that we could use for further projects but we also wanted to do something new with them. Sathya is also an animator and I am a musician and composer so this project was a great way to bring our other skills into the mix.
Ewen, who is a singer and guitarist with local band Be Like Pablo, got in touch with actor Alec Westwood: “I have worked with Alec through my band and he has starred in a couple of our music videos. I’ve known him for a while and knew that he had the perfect voice for what we wanted to do. He’s a really talented actor and I always love working with him.
Free for everyone to see
“The video will be free for anyone to use and we think that it could be a great resource for schools and local heritage sites to screen. Although aimed at children, anyone of any age would enjoy it.
Sathya explained: “I have been animating for around 10 years and I’ve worked on lots of different types of animations including stop motion. frame-by-frame and 2D. I have been involved in TV shows, games, music videos. explainer videos, short films and trailers.
The project was fully funded by The Berry Burn Community Fund. Sathya added: “We are really thankful that they chose to fund us and have allowed us to produce this educational resource that promotes the heritage and history of Forres.
Ewen and Sathya have made a few videos together now as an animator/composer partnership and have set up a website to showcase their talents at www.tiny-trailers.com
Ewen added: “We would also like to acknowledge all of the local experts who assisted in the research of Fantastic Forres. Their input on the book has been carried over onto this animation. There are too many to mention here but they are all thanked in the credits of the video.
The video is available to stream on Youtube and our website, www.fantasticforres.com
