The Horned Girl

Gotye - Bronte - official film clip from Gotye on Vimeo.


Gotye Bronte
Of child-hood, forests and mythical beasts.


Thanks so much to the amazingly talented Wally De Backer.
I hope you like the clip :)

Ari

Bronte

Following from my previous work on The Audreys Sometimes the Stars. I've recently had the honour of working with another of my favourite Australian musicians, the artist Gotye.

Mechanical Apple was tasked with creating an animated clip for the song Bronte from his upcoming album Making Mirrors. The clip took several months to complete and was created with the masterful assistance of Jason Pamment. It will premiere at the Graphic festival in Sydney, on the 20th of August, alongside a live performance by Gotye of his new album.

I'll be sharing more about the creation of the clip post its release. For now I'll leave you with the opening lines from the pitch which went as follows:

A fairy tale, dream-like. A world of bright sunlight and vibrant saturated colour, that matures as time passes, becoming harder, more real, until finally only fragments remain of the world now lost.
Within this vanishing world, a herd of creatures: quiet, ancient and wild. Creatures forgotten by time, alive now only in the memories of a young woman.

Talk soon
Ari :)

The Audreys Sometimes the Stars: A Retrospective

Long days hunched over a glowing screens; a studio with a tendency to leak during heavy rainfall and countless games of Left 4 Dead. These are some of my memories from the intensive production of the animated music video Sometimes the Stars.

Sometimes the Stars is the new single by Australian band The Audreys. It's a great song. It's also perfect for the sort of mature animation that I strive to create.

The creation of the music video involved some amazing artists, a killer compositor, and a hugely creative and enthusiastic Producer who all came together to create a beautiful clip of which I am proud to have been involved.

The clip's origins lie with Luke Jurevicius head of animation studio Vishus Productions and Tasha Coates lead singer of The Audreys. The pair, who dated briefly for a time, had remained close friends since and had always discussed the possibility of an animated music video. With the release of their new album, that opportunity presented itself.

One of Shane Devries initial concepts for the ocean of stars

Luke, who had worked with me briefly in the past and with Jason on several projects, was eager to collaborate more. He approached me initially as an animator for the clip, to be done in 3D. The idea was in that wonderful nebulous phase, not yet locked into any one direction and open to a thousand possibilities. Concepts at the time included strange robed characters and a sea of monolithic space creatures. I'd always been intrigued by monolithic space creatures and, after expressing my interest, he sent through a treatment and some early sketches by South Australian artist Shane Devries. The treatment was a simple but brilliantly crystallised idea - a young girl wearing a flickering star necklace journeys through a surreal sky on the back of a strange creature towards a dimming star. Shane's sketches, as always were beautiful.

In fact Shane is incredible, super-quiet, super nice and incredibly talented both traditionally as a painter and digitally. Many concepts from his early surreal sketches survived through into the final clip.

Shane Devries' original character sketch

The first step for me was to present the idea to Jason Pamment, whom I've worked with many times over the past five years. In 2008 we made a film with Eddie White and the People's Republic of Animation (PRA) called The Cat Piano. You can see it here if you haven't already. That film began as a vehicle for me to practice 2D animation in Photoshop. I'd begun using the program as an animation tool on a few commercial projects at the PRA but I really wanted to develop some skills as a 2D animator on something more involved, more artistic and more personal. I also wanted to create a more robust 2D pipeline, but I won't bore you with the details of that.

Jase was one of the first to join The Cat Piano crew, initially as the background artist before becoming Art Director as his responsibilities increased. He's a remarkable man. He's fully proficient as both a 2D and 3D artist, and he has a uniquely delicate touch, which I sorely lack. He's also super quiet. Actually I'm developing a theory about this. See I've worked with countless people in this industry and always those super-quiet people, like not just quiet but really really like almost silent people: they're geniuses, all of them. I swear these people, of which I know a few, they're all the same, they're capable of doing a huge variety of things and always at a ridiculously high level and yet they're all so modest. They just sit quietly churning out consistently stunning results. I'm still waiting to have this theory proven wrong.

Anyway point being Jase is a joy to work with. The Cat Piano ended up being a lot of hard work for the both of us and, while we were fairly happy with the end result, there are a few issues that still leave us cringing a little. Issues with pacing and visual inconsistency, for which I am fully responsible, afflict that film. I'm confident with this clip, at least in construction, we have improved.

So Jase and I discussed how we'd approach the clip if given the chance. The first thing we both agreed was that the subtlety and maturity of the song would marry well with the warmth and artistry of a 2D approach. Luke had really loved The Cat Piano so we figured we could persuade him that it was the right direction to take.

We also lean towards 2D for the simple reason that, while it may take ages, it's so much easier on the brain. Both Jase and I have heaps of experience working on 3D projects and comparatively 2D is just so soothing and technically simple. Perhaps more importantly, I find it much easier to quickly generate empathy for a 2D character than with a 3D one, a benefit in the short length of the music video.

Our second intent was to develop the core idea into a complete narrative, one that would span the length of the song. We discussed changing the surrealist fantasy environment into a dreamscape, the elements within transformed: no longer creatures, rather suggestions of memories and allegory for the girl's emotional state. We conceived structure and scenes: the cold industrial world where the girl waits, the waterfall at the edge of nowhere and the void beyond. And for our conclusion I was particularly set on giving sentience to the star. I wanted a character; a character in some ways unique, but one who could, at the same time, act as a mirror for the Lost Girl and create a meaningful connection.

early character concept for the initial pitch by Ari Gibson

Finally we conceived a denser more oppressive atmosphere and a graphic theatrical approach. We discussed working in greyscale for both efficiency and to achieve a tonal consistency. Jase and I quickly whipped up some super-rough concepts and I wrote up a new treatment with these elements in mind. I summed up our intended direction in the initial paragraph of this new treatment. It reads as follows:

A grey world, lit like a stage: all bulbs and spotlights. Outside the windows of an old tram pass layers of wooden flats, on them Illustrations of a dream-world. Stars hang in the sky, twirling as if suspend on string.

concept image for the initial pitch by Ari Gibson & Jason Pamment

Over Thai food we pitched the treatment to Luke and Shane and professed our desire to work with them to create it. They must have seen something in our concept and the enthusiasm with which we approached it: we left the meeting with pre-production on a 2D clip for Sometimes the Stars beginning the next week.

My studio is small but cosy, with nice lighting and comfortable carpet. It was here that the four of us began a feverish pre-production that would last two weeks and culminate in a finished animatic and near final concepts. Notably for me: the storyboard, which I drew over an intensive two days, was created with certainty and came easily. The animatic we showed The Audrey's at the end of pre-production not only made Tasha cry, it gave us confidence we were on the right track.

Beatboards by Ari Gibson. At the time we had intended for the interior of the tram to have a warmer tone than the world outside.

Within this pre-production phase the Lost Girl was developed and given life. From other characters that have fallen by the way came her large blank eyes, a feature I'd been interested in experimenting with for some time. From them I was eager to see what range of emotion we could generate and had hopes the audience could project themselves into the character through these huge vacant orbs. Likewise the proportions of the figure, with the long skinny legs, stem from a disused sketch from the project that Jason and I worked on before this one. Luke and I continued to develop the character to what she finally became, with Luke producing a fantastic range of sketches fleshing out the character in his distinctive quirky style.

character sketches by Luke Jurevicius, including some early versions of the supporting cast.

As the characters emerged so too did the environments. My storyboards have a tendency to be background heavy, part out of laziness, because it reduces the amount of animation that I'll end up doing, and part because I know that Jason will do such an amazing job of creating them. Fortunately for me the symbolic nature of the dreamscape meant we would easily transpose emotional and narrative elements onto the environments, which helped the strong Background focus remain engaging throughout the clip. Jason developed these environments during the pre-production phase, stripping back elements to more graphic suggestive shapes, emphasising silhouettes and shrouding scenes in mist.

one of Jason Pamment's early background concepts, emphasising the theatrical lighting approach.

With the groundwork now laid we began the long work of production. And so it went for several months. I've heard that the atmosphere of a studio profoundly influences the work it produces and definitely it did in this. It was quiet. Given how long we have worked together, Jason and I communicate very little through production, rather we work, consistently and for long hours. This project, like most, became all consuming. For three months we worked, days beginning around 9.30am and ending between 9pm and 1pm. Saying that it was, as always, a deeply rewarding process. I prefer production to any other stage of filmmaking, I love how all encompassing it becomes, how you get buried in it, lose perspective, but feel this constant measured march towards completion. I know this because I write it from within production on our next project and again I relish the journey.

As mentioned earlier we use Photoshop for both the 2D animation and the backgrounds. After Effects is used to tie the pieces together. While we work digitally we always strive to replicate traditional techniques, shying away from 3D integration. Saying this, there are always a few moments when 2D methods simply take too long to implement and we resort to 3D programs. Often we'll painstakingly paint over these elements frame by frame in order to integrate them better. I hope with this clip we have managed to disguise these moments enough that they don't ruin the flow of the piece. I find it truly difficult to watch obviously 3D elements alongside 2D animation. Its creates unnatural contradictions in the visual language and can appear truly unsettling.

For a period of several months we continued but our isolation was not to last, for as the project neared its midpoint we were joined by Compositor Ryan Kirby. Ryan Kirby, more affectionately Kirbington or Kirby, in the midst of a busy schedule put aside a month to join us and begin to assemble the chaotic jigsaw of disparate components we had created. Now Kirby, like Jason, is not just a highly proficient 3D artist, he is also an excellent compositor and finished shots quickly began to appear before us.

Finally illustrator Jarrod Prince and animator Joshua Bowman, assisted with colours, shadows and generally uplifted us with their positive attitudes.

And like that we were done. Jason finished the backgrounds and tagged in to finish the compositing on Kirby's departure. I finished the last bits of animation, before joining Jase to iron out a laundry list of minor issues and glitches. The last shot to finish, a couple meeting on a rainy platform, ended up being the one of which I was most proud. I remember when initially we conceived the scene I could picture it vividly and I'm glad the final result could match that vision.

When we began production on Sometimes the Stars I said to Luke we'd be aiming to make one of the top ten video clips of all time. It's not really relevant to me if we ever reach such a lofty goal. It was however symbolic of the strength of our commitment. A commitment to making the best film of which we were possibly capable.

Experiences like Sometimes the Stars are unique in the intimacy of their creation; to see the purity of the storyteller's voice not lost in the din of a larger team or commercial intent. This retrospective was written in the hope of recording some memory of that process. As creators all too often when a project is finished we discard it almost completely from our minds. These words will serve to remember what was an incredibly gratifying experience and a unique end result formed from a tiny team all possessed of immense talent.

Now onto the next one :)

by Ari Gibson

Animator and Co-Director

The Lost Girl

Sometimes the Stars from The Audreys on Vimeo.


The Audreys Sometimes the Stars
A lost girl's journey through a surreal landscape, and her yearning to make a connection in this distant yet strangely familiar world.

Hope you enjoy the clip.

love
Ari :)

Sometime the Stars

From September till December of last year I had the privilege of creating a music video for the up-coming single Sometime the Stars by Australian band The Audreys. Its a beautiful song and one that conjured a melancholic narrative and some fantastical imagery.

For its creation I worked with a small group of über talented people including Producer Luke Jurevicius and local Adelaide artist Shane Devries. Co-Director Jason Pamment, who shared my studio for the length of the project, provided all the amazing background art and generally made my work look better.

The clip will premiere in the Made in SA screening on March 1^st as part of the Adelaide Film Festival. With any luck it'll pop-up on the internet soon after.

I've begun writing up some more comprehensive thoughts on the project that I'll share shortly but before then I look forward to showing you all the finished clip.

Regards

Ari ;)

Time Flies

Hello Blog! Its been a while since my previous post and past time for an update.

I've just past six months as a freelancer and its been a roller coaster ride of crazy busy fun. In that time I've worked on tonnes of great jobs with some great people. The variety of work in this industry never ceases to amaze me. Alas I can't yet talk about a lot of these projects but hopefully, in the near future, I'll be able to share some of them with you.

So thank you to all those wonderful people who've kept me so busy these past months. Thank you for keeping my job such a delight. With your assistance I haven't had to resort to cup noodles even once!

On the more personal side of things I've been working on several interesting things. The pictures below come from a short animation I did a few months back, to test my animation pipeline. Being solo now I had to adjust my approach significantly and become a lot more efficient with my animation. I also needed to gauge accurately how much animation I could produce within a week. The piece ended up taking a week and a half, is super geeky and I had a blast doing it. Its currently having some sound and music added so with any luck you'll see the final piece attached to my next blog post.

The second personal work will have to remain shrouded in secrecy for a little while longer. All I can say is that its a collaboration between me and the super talented Jason Pamment, who was Art Director on The Cat Piano. Jason and I have worked on countless jobs in the past and its great to be working again with him on something more personal. I'll leave you with just the image below for now. Sorry for the tease!

Ari

Lighthouses

With all the introductory gear out of the way I'm going to kick off the first real post with a few bits and pieces from a short film idea I've been toying with.

I won't go into the idea too much as its all still in that nebulous development stage, but at its core it's about a solitary lighthouse keeper nursing a sick young woman back to health. Its intended to be very quiet and atmospheric. I've this great idea for a way to shoot it that's a bit experimental but I'll talk about that another time (hopefully with some examples).

Funny that its set in a lighthouse, when a lighthouse was so prominent in my last film. I guess I'm just into lighthouses, trains too for that matter. I'd so love to make something with trains in it. Saying that the function of this lighthouse is wildly different from the one in The Cat Piano. Where in The Cat Piano the lighthouse was this huge foreboding Lord of the Rings style fortress, the one in this film is quiet and isolated. Isolated but homely.

Plus lighthouse keepers are amazing! It's a job that doesn't really exist anymore (thank you  technology), but there's still something fascinating and evocative about the occupation.

For now I've a bunch of thumbnails for Story Art that I'll develop into something a little more concrete, then who knows, it may be time to write a script.

One day it'll be done. I'm looking forward to seeing it.

Ari

Sowing a Seed

Welcome to Apple Seeds. It's a blog!

Okay so who am I? I'm Ari Gibson, an Animator and Illustrator from Adelaide, South Australia.  For the last few years I've been working as an Animation Director. Before that I was an Art Director with the fantastically talented bunch over at the People's Republic of Animation. During my time in the industry I've been involved in countless advertisements, music videos, video games and short-films.

In 2009, among many other things, I directed a short film, The Cat Piano, along with Eddie White of the PRA. The film was narrated by Australian Musician Nick Cave. If you haven't seen it you can watch it right here.  The web version is a bit darker and more saturated than intended, but you get the idea. The Cat Piano had a great run in the festival circuit and picked up a bunch of awards both in Australia and in some really cool international festivals. The film was short-listed for the Academy Awards and in Australia we won the AFI award for best animated short (which came with a very slick trophy!).

Anyway this blog is a space to share some opinions on animation and the industry, more than that though it's a place to show you pictures. In the course of this work so many images and ideas fall by the way and I'm using this blog as an opportunity to document some of those things.

I also have a website. It's all fresh, sparkly and new and you can see it over at www.mechanicalapple.com. There are some nice colourful images to look at and the front page has that nifty flash slideshow thing going on (those images fade! Its nuts.). No animation yet, but I'll try and get some examples up soon (although in the meantime that probably just means I'll embed The Cat Piano).

I'll end there for now. Expect all posts in future to come with a side of images. We'll call this one exempt as it's the first.

Talk Soon

Ari