EXORDIUM - a rotoscoped fantasy epic by Gorgonaut 

Why did we ever stop making these stories? I'm so glad the algorithm brought this to me.

You wander through the bottomless depths of the network and RU-vid, once a month you come across something really memorable, once a year you can see the Diamond. Then you will watch it dozens of times and you will be very impressed. This is just a diamond. You who dare to criticize something here, shut up, you are dust, nothing. Turn around and dump in horror at the Gate. How much did all of humanity create worthwhile animated fantasy works? Yes, even if you take all the fantasies, including cartoons and films, - and then typed no more than 2-3 dozen. That is, 7 billion minds gave birth to a couple of dozen worthwhile works of this genre. Feel the salt? Exordium is a unique thing. Piece of art. This is incredibly difficult to create for a thousand reasons. Just try to create something worthwhile yourself .. This is definitely the most powerful and epic cartoon on RU-vid.

"The bloom is beyond the grasp of men , it is only sorrow " Those epic lines though , it gives me chills

This really deserves more attention than it has garnered...

I've watched this probably every other month. I love it. Incredible piece of art.

Watched Spine Of Night last night & have been thinking about it non-stop for over 24 hours now. Came to this short after reading an interview with you & being blown away at the dedication it took to spend like 9 years on a project like that & even more when I realized you did almost half of the movie by yourself & the rest was by 3 people, with 2 at a time. I envy that kind of dedication & it makes me want to get off my ass to finally get a project off the ground that I started in 1993 but never got going due to funding.

Honestly it's my favorite short animated film ever. It just has some sort of otherworldly feeling to it, I can't quite put my finger on it. Some sort of depressive-fatalistic magic. Have been rewatching it atleast every 3 months since 2014 and it still gives me chills. I was really hyped for a spin-off or a sequel, but guess those things take time.

The Legend lives. *Giant dad appears in the distance*

THE LEGEND NEVER DIES. Srsly, that guy with a mask is giantdad.

Coming from someone who’s done rotoscope (15 second shorts), and goes to school for animation, the patience and endurance it take is incredible. This film is beyond anything I could ever do, and I have never seen anything like it. Insane job!

"The Bloom is beyond the grasp of Men. It is only sorrow." Thats some straight up depressing shit that hits me hard in my Dark Souls feels.

Лучший художественный мультфильм на ютубе, я серьезно. 10/10 однозначно.

I watch this at least once a week for years now. It brings me some kind of a peace I'm not sure I can describe, it's apocalyptic, yet I feel calm. We are nothing.

It told so much in a short animation. I watched it a lot of times, wanted more of it but now I understand how independent the story is. It raises the most important question -- the question of life itself. The warrior fighting for survival of its people gets the bloom, the panacea but it has something more in it. When the man is freed from all human chains he finally asks himself the greatest question -- why? The question to the whole existance itself. He doesn't find any reasonable answer but the sorrow of meaningless. Why is it like this? Why is it only like this? In this concept, as I understood, humanity is so uselees, so meaningless to the whole whole existance, that it just doesn't bother the Gods. This truth is so rough that it must be kept behind the walls far away in the cold by the gatekeeper.

Best short animation I have ever seen. Hands down

I FOUND IT AGAIN FINALLY, AFTER ALL THESE YEARS

I can't believe I finally fucking found this. I first saw it in 2013 and I loved it, but I forgot what it was called. I have been looking for it on and off ever since then and I finally fucking found it. This is so satisfying.

The music in this is amazing.

STILL the best shit on RU-vid. Always a must watch before putting on the spine of night!

Since watching Spine of Night, I can't stop watching your stuff, it's truly captivating.

7 years and this still looks great

Imgur.... Thank you for taking me to this magical video. I appreciate you.

Something about this masterpiece, keeps me coming back years later

I saw this video for the first time years ago. Today it was suggested to me again and I really enjoyed it again. Very strong storytelling.

This vid is so underrated

LEGEND NEVER DIES

I still watch this every few months. Always enjoy it.

OMG, this was so freaking cool. Reminded me of a cross between Fire & Ice and Heavy Metal -- but still original. Not only was the animation fantastic, but the story sucked me in as well. And that's ultimately the most important aspect to accomplish. Loved the atmosphere, characters, story, and presentation. A+!!!

I am an animator, and I have made some stop motion shorts and I have started experimenting with rotoscoping after being inspired by films made by the legendary Ralph Bakshi. And after watching this rotoscope animation, I had a HUGE THROBBING ANIMATION BONER! The animation was AMAZING! And the music truly captured the 70s/80s Fantasy/Sci-fi movie feel. Keep up the good work! I'll be looking forward to your future projects.Cheers!

This is how Game of Thrones was supposed to end

and here I am again, seeking the forbidden knowledge

Love that people still do rotoscoping.

I came here after watching The Spine of the Night tonight with my husband! We both loved it! Amazing work! Also we were curious about your previous work so that's how we ended up here. We loved the way the world is built and the stories and legends told were incredibly neat! We hope you have a good career out of this!

This story truly is a piece of art. I just watched it about 5 times in a row, so I would like to express my own interpretation here and what I discussed with my friends. The main character, "the bearded man", indeed succeed because he was destined to. But why was he? It's about the time circle. The Gatekeeper was defending the Bloom. Why? Because he touched It too, he knew about It and its divine power. Thus we know, that the Gatekeeper was the God himself. If he was a God, it means that he let the bearded man to kill him. But he can let the bearded man to kill him only if the bearded man is the God=Gatekeeper himself. It's the omnipotence paradox, and here is where the time loop lies. It's pretty logical to assume that the God's mind isn't limited with our understanding of time and cause-effect relationships. The Bloom blossoms only when the Gatekeeper strikes the bearded man's head, although everyone hearded about the Bloom before. And we can clearly see whose skull it is. When the main character sees the vision of the Man and the Woman killing the Man, it's how he sees two galaxies, when one devours another. The last sparkle of their lifes is the skull. Skull of the God, skull of the main character, skull of the Gatekeeper. When bearded man realises everything, he just replaces himself on the watch, waiting for next himself. This way he can contain the divine power and gnosis within the Bloom in this loop. And this why the Gatekeeper says: "Oh, son of man, it means nothing". He doesn't even help his people, after all he realises: the best way to use his powers is to hide them from the world, because whether everything has or doesn't have any sense it's better to let everything be as it is. This story reminds me of some Lovecraft's statements or the The Myth of Sisyphus by Camus. It's also pretty much similar with Bioshock's and Watchmen's main concepts. Besides, I can see obvious reference to Novalis and his "Blue flower", since the Bloom isn't only the source of divine powers, it also reflects the great will of the main character. Moreover, maybe there is a reference to one of the Koran's myths, where Muhammad splits the moon in two to convince the unbelievers. I hope the author of this art will respond to my opinion after almost 6 years.) Anyway, greetings from Ukraine.

i love that what every gatekeeper holds is not infinite power, but infinite knowledge of powerlessness. the guilt of knowing that every bit of suffering that came before was for nothing. there is no victory, only sorrow.

I saw the Spine of Night first, so it's cool to find this and see how things did or didn't change compared to the film.

I finally got around to watching The Spine of night, last night… It’s easily my favorite adult animated movie. Yourself and everyone involved outdid themselves and should be proud of what yall created. I hope you’re working on something else, if so, I’m more than excited for what else you bring forth.

that was the most epic thing that i have ever witnessed.

Still absolutely stunning after all these years. Beautifully scripted, scored, performed and realised. Really hits that nexus between Sword and sorcery, and Cosmic Horror PERFECTLY.

Found this (finally) after rewatching Spine of Night for what must’ve been the 10th time. This is just as good, and god I wish I’d known about this sooner. There needs to be more like this!

Man, this is just beautiful, the gem of youtube. I even desired to re-watch Bakshi's Lord of the Ring and Fire and Ice.

Wow. Jaw-dropping. I think this is one of the most beatiful things that i have seen in my whole life. Please keep up making masterpieces like Exordium.

I watched this when it came out back in 2013, I forgot to save it and been looking for it ever since, I finally found it ♥️

Makes me even more excited to see The Spine of Night.

This is what the Emperor of Mankind found at Molech that enhanced his already Godlike Powers.

Это самый крутой мультфильм из тех что довелось увидеть

I rewatch this every few weeks. The Spine of Night is an instant MASTERPIECE! I highly recommend everyone watch it.

Как же долго я искал эту анимацию..... наконец-то

Man, I'd love a whole movie like this. ^-^

потрясающе.

*Why isn't it popular? This is a masterpiece!*

Now that’s how synthesisers are meant to be used. Epic!

Замечательное произведение! Работа со звуком впечатляет: слова произнесенные персонажами весьма выразительные, эмоциональные и до глубины души пронизывающие!

initiate phase one. power up the bass cannon. fire!

Very cool adult animation fantasy and I enjoyed spine of night. Inspired by adult animation fantasy classics like heavy metal, fire and ice, wizards, rock and rule, fantastic planet, lightyears aka gandahar, ninja scroll and princess mononoke

this is why i woke up today. Im so sad it has taken me this long to find it. 11/10 chef kisses

I need more

The nostalgia from this video now almost half a decade ago... Damn. A bunch of stuff has happened between the twelve-year-old dumb kid I once was to the seventeen-year-old dumb kid I now am. Somehow rediscovering this masterpiece gave me even bigger goosebumps than the first time I watched it. This will always hold a weird, yet beloved part of my heart.

I just don’t get why this doesn’t have millions of views

Все еще пересматриваю

Очень круто. Боже 6 лет прошло а ждать осталось чуть чуть

this was freaking amazing! well played mr King, well played.

Spine of Night was fantastic! Now I'm back here for for my thousandth rewatch

Really LOVED Spine of Night!! Thank you!

This short film has more sense than my life! Without sarcasm, it's a great movie.

This is really awesome stuff! It's nice to see something stylistically not so common, done so well! Eager to see what you do next!

This needs more views. Gather people.

You have to make more of these I love it!!!

You know, it may sound cliched, but the vibe of this film...it just speaks to me on a level as a fan of old-school (I mean, original from 1974 and 1e advanced) D&D. Like, it could've been torn from the pages of a gonzo adventure of old back in the day. Were the folks at Gorgonaut Studios influenced by such, I wonder?

Legend never dies, boys.

I think I’ve watched this every 6 months for the last 7 years. What a wild film, I’m so glad this lives on the internet.

I love your work. Rotoscope reached his best in 80's animation. It was perfect and you recreated the same feel that I had with the old fantasy pictures that I loved as a child. Great work.

INSTANT LIKE. I hope there's a sequel.

For some reason the audio for the voices sounding distant like that fits for some reason. Real great work here. Love the music too

This was amazing, great music, intriguing story, and it created it's own world that I want more of. Well done

I watch this for 5 years now. For some reason, i just cant hold tears every time

It resonates with me on so many levels. Thanks a lot

Why hasn’t this blown up. This is incredible 🔥🔥🔥🔥. Mad respect

As a teenager I remember very vividly relating to the visuals with the flower, feeling them as emotions and notions I've struggled with.

Круто ребят! Жду следующую работу.

Wow, this is so well done. I can't even imagine the amount of patience and time that went into creating something like this. Keep up the great work! I can't wait to see more!

Слишком много положительных эмоций вызывает этот шедевр. Не знаю как это описать. Всё идеально,от музыки до идеи. Хочется продолжения. Творите гении.

I still keep coming back to these early works. Fantastic! Inspiring! I can't wait for The Spine of NIght!

I love this animation for many reasons but the best reason by far is the fact that there are so many different ways of interpreting it, as evidenced by the many comments that it has generated. Truly a work of art.

He better not have leveled Dex.

this is very very cool. Keep up the good work!

The gatekeeper seems like he was actually the hero in the story because he was trying to keep men from realizing there was no hope beyond the gate. Though the bloom can grant one Godhood but at the end of the day empires still fall and men still die. Our hero was still willing to keep pushing even when he was fighting for his life just because the sliver of hope that this lotus gave him. Alas the battle was won and like Icarus he flew briefly in awe before coming to the realization that the cycle would eventually repeat itself and a new hero would come seeking the same power. As the previous gatekeeper tried to tell him. - "oh son of man, This means nothing" He briefly became God, realized he had all the power in the world and then realized that no matter what he could do with that power he would still die, wars would still be fought and mass suffering would continue.

Epic Shorfilm! And I've also really enjoyed the fantastic 'The Spine of Night'

Incredible!

INCREDIBLE AND ADMIRABLE FROM EXORDIUM!!! In his inspiration, at some point did he take the cosmic horror as his Muse? Congragulations

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE how you were able to somehow make this feel like a movie that was made in the 70s like LoTR was, minus the synthwave music (which I do love btw) but I like how the style and art direction and acting feels very "old" and I absolutely love this world you created and wish I knew more about it and had more episodes or sequels or something and more of an explanation of the characters and ppl and clan

Incredible coming back to this after spine of night. Such amazing talent

Also just noticed. The main characters axe has a "fireman's" handle (slight S curve). That's a modern innovation and wasn't around prior to early 1900s. Medieval axes had a traditional straight haft. Nothing serious. Probably the prop you used was not a historical render. Just an FYI. I'm only noticing these details because I literally watch this video almost daily. I love it.

You have a gift man, keep on doing what you do

Absolutely stunning, your work deserves more attention.

I watch this about four times a year. I keep coming back to this and the soundtrack. I saw the RB trailer for Spine of Night, and I can't ever remember being so excited for a movie.

2020... i am still waiting to continue...

Legend never died!

Just showed your movie to a friend last night after watching it a bit ago and we both love it. Not sure if there's more serious rotoscope animations out there but you've definitely sold me on the medium. Awesome themes too. Thank you.

I came across this video while researching rotoscoping and wow! This is such wonderful work. I love your use of color! And the effects of the snow falling... All of it. Wonderful. I know that this is hard work and it makes me so happy when creative artists that truly have vision are able to use technology and make their work great.