Monday, August 16, 2021

"Restraint": a monk frog's journey (animation)

Team Restraint, Academy of Interactive Entertainment (aie.edu.au); Ven. Nyanaponika, definition of "overcoming" (palikanon.com); Ellie Askew, Ashley Wells (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

Buddha, stop me before I kill again.
Restraint
is a short VFX animation that depicts a monk frog wrestling with his meditative inner peace and his primal savage instincts.

Trying to find his zen (“meditative absorption”) in nature, the monk is interrupted by a pesky fly. Now self-discipline and restraint must be shown. Will the temptations of his habitual nature sway him to the bad karma of killing and meat eating?

Team Restraint features artists Claudio Moreira, Dale Skribins, Olivia Jarrett, Matthew Delvin, Tyler Penfold, and Jordan Booth. They created this over a 12-week period as their major project and final assessment of their advanced diploma of screen and media at AIE, the Academy of Interactive Entertainment.

The project’s aim is to reach an aesthetically pleasing balance between approachable yet stylized characters and polished but polarizing realism of surface and texture.

The animation and art was influenced by such films as Toy Story, Rango, and the award-winning short film Darrel, “which our animator had on repeat almost every single day” reveals lead producer Matthew Delvin.

When asked to detail a key reason for the success of the team, Delvin shares his thoughts and beliefs on how important communication is: “I came from a background...where everything worked as a team.”

“Every morning I would come in, check in with everybody, see how everybody’s going, just talk to everybody constantly, and I would try and encourage my team to talk to me as much as possible.” 

Receiving high praise and a great reception from AIE staff and colleagues, it is not a surprise many of the Team Restraint members are now working in film studios across Australia, less than four months after graduating.

To hear from Matthew Delvin, please check out AIE’s livestream: The Journey of a Short VFX Animation. And for anyone interested in learning VFX or 3-D art and animation, get in contact with AIE by visiting aie.edu.au to kickstart the journey.

How can I practice restraint?
Ahhh, now I can finally meditate, ahhh.
In Buddhism pahana means "overcoming." There are five ways to practice restraint by developing five kinds of overcoming:
  1. overcoming by repression, that is, temporarily suspending of the Five Hindrances during zen or the meditative absorptions
  2. overcoming by the opposite
  3. overcoming by destruction
  4. overcoming by tranquillization
  5. overcoming by escape.
(1) "'Overcoming by repression' is the pushing back of adverse things, such as the Five Mental Hindrances (lust, anger, tiredness, restlessness, doubt), and so on through this or that mental unification or calm concentration (samādhi), just as a pot thrown into mossy water pushes the moss aside...

(2) "'Overcoming by the opposite' is the overcoming by opposing this or that thing to be overcome by this or that factor of knowledge belonging to insight (vipassanā), just as a lit lamp dispels darkness. In this way,
  • ego-view or personality-belief (sakkāya-ditthi, see view) is overcome by determining the mental and physical phenomena...,
  • the view of the uncausedness of existence by investigation into the causal conditions...,
  • the idea of eternity by contemplation of impermanence...,
  • the idea of satisfaction [by the quest for sensual objects] by contemplation of the disappointing nature of things....
(3) "If through the knowledge of the noble paths resulting in enlightenment (ariya-puggala) the fetters and other harmful things can continue no longer, just like a tree destroyed by lightning, then such an overcoming is called 'overcoming by destruction'" (The Path of Purification, Vis.M. XXII, 110f).

(4) When, after the disappearing of the fetters at the entrance into the paths of enlightenment, the fetters, from the moment of fruition (phala) onwards, are forever extinguished and stilled, such overcoming is called the 'overcoming by tranquillization.'

(5) "The 'overcoming by escape' is identical with the extinction and nirvana" (Pts.M. I. 27). (Appendix). More

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