I needed to make a video for my song CutUp as part of my promotion for the new album 3PlusOne. But nothing was happening in the idea department. What to do! I took a clue from my song title and cut up some old, textured, sumi ink paintings. I drew a few new dancing characters and put on some color with watercolors. These were loaded those into Affinity Photo to clear out the backgrounds. I took the images into Apple Motion to do the animation and assembled the final video in Final Cut Pro. Each step adds its own character. The mix of hand-made analog images manipulated with digital tools is cool. It’s like what we do in music. Sometimes you just have to get started and let the flow take you where it wants to go. From those elements I created a one minute rough idea for a longer animation. The story doesn’t really go anywhere yet and the animation could be developed, but it’s a good start.

I’m trying to share some of my creative process in the hopes it will inspire others to try something a little different.

I found myself in a half-asleep state, warm in my bed, a vivid image formed in my head. A boat adorned with intricate Celtic dragons on its bow and stern was ablaze, drifting helplessly in a turbulent sea. The flames licked at the ornate detailing, casting an glow over the waters.

Beneath the surface, dark, shadowy hands emerged from the depths, reaching out to tug at the vessel, as if they were determined to drag it into the abyss. Above, on a weathered dock, a man stumbled out to gaze at the burning boat, while hands from the deep pulled the craft down into the dark unknown.

See an animated short I made of this on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC67QhCuWTKn5Jko4GGrL6AA @samalbrightvideo