Canvas Trek Chocolate Wrapper

In our ongoing campaign to introduce the Canvas LMS (Learning Management System) to Edmonds Community College, our fearless leader Steve Sosa challenged me to make a wrapper to put on chocolate bars, and do something that was different from my normal "look and feel."

Canvas Trek
Steven Sauke
Illustration, Chocolate Wrapper
2013

To work with this challenge, I considered that we would be putting it around a chocolate bar and researched the origin of chocolate. I found out it originated with the Maya and continued with the Aztecs. As my previous art for the project had a more overt Star Trek theme, I decided to go with a more Mesoamerican theme in this case, as a nod to chocolate's rich history (pun intended). But this was also related to Star Trek, so I managed to include some subtle nods to that theme. In my research, I found the Mayan glyphs for Star, Road, Life and Wealth. Thus, as close as I could approximate it, I included "Star Trek, Live long and prosper" in Mayan. (Of course, not being an expert in their language, they may have used different glyphs that more closely worked with the meaning and grammar and such.) I also found a Mayan mural with a chief preventing a servant from taking his vat of chocolate. I based the illustration on that, but modified the fingers to make a Vulcan salute. I selected a texture that looked most like it might be on a rock wall. The background is a photo of the Mayan ruins at Chichén Itzá on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula.

Yibvlidj Apocalypse!

It was January 2, 2012 when the humanoid refugees from the destroyed planet Yibvlidj arrived on earth. While they had enjoyed long life on their home planet, they soon discovered that earth's atmosphere came with some undesirable side effects. The landscape proved to be blurry to their eyes that saw so clearly back home. In addition, the air was more difficult to breathe, and consequently, their lifespan was drastically cut short to an average of one week of earth's time. As time passed, they adapted somewhat. The growth process sped up to allow for descendants. However, whatever they tried, they lived a maximum of ten days.

It was in the third week of January when they made two important discoveries: a solution to the problem with their vision, and the wall calendar. By this time, the sixth generation since their arrival on earth was beginning to be born. One of their number, in his tenth day, explored the calendar and foresaw the coming end on December 31, 2012. With his final breath, he warned his offspring to ever be watchful and remember their time on earth was short.

And so days passed, and weeks passed. One generation passed the warning to the next. Once every nine generations, their most esteemed member had the honor of advancing the calendar to a new month. And so, as time went on, the final week of December arrived. In fact, it was the evening of the 31st of that month. Two young Yibvlidjians of the 104th generation, Cchhär and Dröuh, anxiously awaited their fate.

Find out what happened in the video below!

Inspiration and back story:
As the end of 2012 approached, many of the more superstitious among us observed that the ancient Mayan calendar went through 2012. As I'm sure any Mayan could have told you, that just meant one era ended and the next would begin, seeing as that's how calendars work. However, some people got it in their heads that this impending end of the calendar meant the Maya had foreseen the end of the world as 2012 ended. As those of us who were less superstitious expected, no apocalypse happened. That year, I made this short movie inspired by the hysteria.
In 2012, I was studying graphic design, and I took a video editing class. As my final project, I wrote the screenplay, produced, directed, filmed and edited the video. I am grateful to everyone who helped out in this project, to the talented actors, to my aunt and uncle who graciously allowed us to use their living room and porch for filming, to those I consulted, and to my professor and classmates.
Cast:Cchhär: Charlie OstlieDröuh: Andrew YoderNarrator: Zach McCueCommentators: Jim Brinkman and Sandy Brinkman
Trivia: Cchhär's and Dröuh's names were inspired by the names of the actors portraying them, adapted to sound Yibvlidjian. The ancient Yibvlijian Aalb the Seer was named after my chosen brother Aaron, who had some excellent suggestions to improve the story. The character Maya, who the movie only mentions, was named after the ancient civilization. We will meet her in the sequel! Stay tuned!