The Digital Storytelling Festival organized jointly by Europeana and The Heritage Lab is a creative contest to tell a story using openly available cultural resources from galleries, libraries, archives and museums (Open GLAM). I took this opportunity to bring alive some of the long lost aspects of India, the country I live in. Digital realms are a perfect place to preserve moments that have faded with time, so that the we can continue to share these stories in the times to come.

Back in the 18th and the 19th centuries, the Company Paintings did a remarkable job in that sense. In a way I’m really glad (and thankful) that the British, along with the Indian painters, documented the daily life of yore in India. It is because of those paintings that my generation (and beyond) is able to relive those moments frozen in time. Without further ado, I’d like to present my animated short (available in 4K) — A day in a life of a Bhisti.

Bhisti, the water carrier, was once a flourishing occupation. You can read more about the time and lives of Bhistis in this Medium article (accompanying this animation) that I've written after a lot of research on this topic.

Here's the chance for you to see the all the paintings up close in high-resolution as I talk about what went by in creating each frame of the animation. All the images are freely available for any type of use, which was the basic requirement of this competition. Find the links to them in the respective captions.

The opening frame was the toughest to animate given the number of characters and elements in this painting. Starting from the right, the man and his bullock are moving in the foreground with the water bags filled on its back. The two women are in the process of dropping their water pots into the well. Whereas, the man standing on the rim of the well is drawing the water. If you see closely, the bullock on the left is not standing idle. It is moving around its ears which is what they generally do in order to flee off the flying insects. So all in all, getting the timing right for each character was challenging yet fun. :)

This painting is particularly interesting for the pointilism technique used to create the effect of depth. Here, the Bhisti is getting ready to unpack the water bags on the bullock. He then starts to bend down and fill the water in his own bag, also known as mussock (mashak). A woman in the background is directing towards the place where the Bhisti will be heading to.

Next up, the Bhisti fills his water bag and gets ready for the next part of his journey. Meanwhile, the animal waits patiently as this task is being accomplished. This type of painting with a plain background and main subject in focus is commonly known as a Company Painting. We can particularly attribute this painting to the Patna School of Painting, also known as the Patna Kalam. Animating these artworks is easier in the absence of backgrounds and any other secondary characters.

When the water bag is completely filled, it is quite heavy. This imparts a certain mannerism to the Bhisti's walking style. He is usually inclined on one side to balance out the weight, which is portrayed in this set of moving frames.

After walking for a short while, he reaches the village. Here, he fills the water pots used by the villagers for their water needs. A bhisti thereby does the hard work of bringing water from the well directly to the people. What a kind deed! Notice the sound of the filled water bag carried by the man and then the sound of pouring water. I feel it is quite satisfying in a way. He then moves to the next task.

Here, a normal walk cycle is implemented in the animation. The Bhisti is watering the ground to settle down the dust and get it ready for a special occasion. A grand event is on the cards. To know more about it, just scroll down. ;)

It's time for a show by the animal charmer! Both of these images were combined to create the effect of audience joining the show at the call of the charmer.

(Yes, the black creature on the right is a bear which I've made to sit out in the animation. Don't worry, it won't eat you :P)

While the charmer is showcasing his play, the Bhisti is quenching the thirst of a bystander (or sitter I should say). All the elements come together in here. The best part is that the hookah smoker is shown as drinking water, haha. Love how photo editing works. (Albeit it has been stretched too far in this internet age. Practice it at your own discretion. :P)

After a long day of work, it was time for the Bhisti and his companion to rest. So you too can revel in this exquisite painting of the Water Man. B)

As you must've already noticed, these floral designs were a part of the video as borders. Since the actual images had different dimensions, I thought of adding them on the sides. They not only made the aspect ratio right but added an aesthetic effect to the overall viewing experience. What do you think? ;)

All the sound effects used in this animation are from Freesound.org and downloaded under Creative Commons licenses that allow their reuse. Here are the links to each of them: Opening, Well Water, Filling the water bag, On the way, Pouring water in the pot, Splashing water on the ground, Damru and Ending.

The entire project was driven by Open Source softwares:

GIMP - Photo edits and frame by frame manipulation of the images.

Inkscape - Creation of text related content, from captions to titles.

Audacity - Audio editing.

Blender - All the audio and visual elements combined to create the final film.

And last but not the least, the font used for text in this video is also open source:

Baloo created by Ek Type foundry.

Thanks for watching! Feel free to share your feedback, comments and suggestions. :)

As the results were announced for the competition, I was declared as the winner of the Creative Editorial category :D (which was basically the top prize at the event judged by an esteemed panel of jury). So eventually, all the effort to create this short animation was worth it to every bit and piece. Check out all the winners here!