Pictures from The Tale of How

The Blackhert Gang

The Blackheart Gang is a trio group and they all work really hard for their passion about art. Each member have their own unique skills and talents that form an incredible collaborative dynamic. Ree Treweek is the illustrator and character developer for the Blackheart Gang. Also she works with Jannes at Shy the Sun Productions. Jannes Hendrikz is the Creative Director, and he works as director and compositor with Ree. Markus Wormstorm is the musician and writer for the Blackheart Gang.


In the Tale of How project, they wanted to create something that looks original and mythical. Ree’s inspiration for the dodos was from a stuffed toy of Markus. To come into production Ree drew all the elements and character on paper and then she scanned them and added colour in Photoshop. After this Janne builds Ree’s work and he adds texture and prepares the layers for After Effects where he created a 3D environment, and then he added live-action video elements such as sea waves and animate and blend all in 2D elements. The next step was, Justin Baker do the 3D work, model the birds and develop shades in order to be the same with Ree’s drawings. And later on they rendered the animation with the music that Markus already created. For this video they wanted to look more authentic, so they create it to look 2D. However, their purpose was to make something honest, visual overload and add as much detail they could.

The Tale of How

The Tale of How from Shy the Sun on Vimeo.


“The Tale of How” is a short-animation of 4:30 minutes length made by three artists from South Africa in 2006; they are called The Blackheart Gang. It is their work of part times that taken 9 months to complete it. “Epic. Beautiful. Weird.” is the description given from the Bell Roberts website for The Tale of How. For this incredible animation, the Blackheart Gang used Photoshop, After Effects, Softimage XSI and also video from real life elements. Also, the art style they used is influenced by Bosch, Japanese Prints and Surrealists, via texture shading and 3D modeling. However, the visuals look more 2D animation rather than 3D, as this is what the Gang wanted. The music and the vocals are also distinct as the visual part and the sound more classical and operatic. In addition it won many awards, one of them is “The Special Distinction Award” at the Annecy Film Festival, which is the number one International competitive animation film festival.

The Tale of How is the second part of a trilogy of art works called the Dodo Trilogy and later it will be flanked by The Tale of Then and The Tale of When. The story is about an adventure the dodos had. Dodos are bird-like creatures. One day, in the Indian Ocean where the dodos live, a giant octopus with a tree on his head named Otto, wanted to devour all the dodos. Then a little white mouse named Eddie the Engineer appeared to save the day.