Monday 02 Feb 2009 - 12:09
Transistor Studios has just finished the first of three fully animated promo for Scots rockers Marmaduke Duke, for which it had to come up with an appearance for the band's imaginary namesake.
The end result, for single Kid Gloves, is a slick pastiche of old-school animation, with a sinister moustachioed figure roaming through an orange-an-green wasteland.
James Price, the spot's director gave us an insight into the making of the promo.
DA: What was the brief for the project?
JP: The guys from the band really wanted to come up with an interesting way to visualize The Duke. They had a few ideas about the style, and about who the character was but nothing very concrete, which to their credit made my job much easier.
The band think about things from a very conceptual stand point, so they asked me to pitch an idea for this video, but also for the two videos that follow. This was quite liberating as it allowed me to think of him much more as a character and less of a 3 minute narrative device. Having the extra time to explore who he is allowed me to really delve into his motivations, or more importantly what the audience thinks is his motivation.
DA: What were your initial ideas? Who or what inspired the aesthetic of the spot?
JP: My initial concept was really about creating a character that interferes with the supposed 'reality' of fate. If he can stop time what does that mean for him. The ramifications of this aren't entirely clear from this video, but they become more apparent over the next two videos.
I also wanted to subvert the hunter/hunted concept in a way that was quite tangible. Karma is a bitch and I wanted show it.
The aesthetic was really inspired by graphic novels. I also wanted to work with an aesthetic that was stripped down and played with a lot of light and shadow. It was an exercise in restraint to a certain extent. The look also gave The Duke a certain amount of mystery. Your not sure if your with him or against him and that was important to me. It was really extension of his character development. Is he the good guy, or the bad guy? Does it really matter?
DA: Did the band have much creative input or was it all Transistor's ideas?
JP: Fortunately the band where recording in New York as we where developing the initial ideas for the video so we met up a couple of times and chatted about broad concepts. The guys from the band and their management really just wanted us to push the creative and have as much freedom as we could.
It was interesting because for us to have the opportunity to sit down with the band and listen to them talk about the passion they have for their music was really inspiring. It made us really wanted to push the video and it made it very personal. I wanted them to love the video and to see that making the video was as personal for me as their music is to them. They are great guys.
DA: How did you turn your first concepts into the final piece?
JP: From the initial concept I broke down each section of the song into mini narratives. We then created storyboards and I got to designing each shot. As that was happening we built the characters in CG. Then I spent a couple of weeks compositing it all together.
DA: What was the biggest challenge you faced?
The biggest challenge was that from concept to finished video we had 4 weeks! I overcame this by compositing on Christmas day. ;-)
The timeline was really tight to create 3:30 seconds of animation, so I had to be very resourceful. I spent every waking minute for 3 weeks designing, compositing and editing. It was actually really fun to just dedicate your life to something and not stop until it was done. I'm sure my partner would disagree, as I was probably a nightmare to live with.
DA: What software did you use to create the piece?
We used Photoshop, Illustrator, Maya, After Effects, Final Cut Pro, and a lot of hand drawing.
Transistor Studios is represented by Strange Beast. Click here to watch the promo.
Digital Arts staff
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