At the beginning of 2021, I posted a blog on what kind of show people need (read it here). I have begun that work, but I think what would help is a kind of collaborative participation.
Animation to me is like being a magician. It’s the illusion of making lines move. Over and above that, when it comes to animation, the only limit is your imagination. And as a child I always understood the medium this way – it was all magical, fantastical and utterly immersive. All these things were possible because some guy with a pen could make lines move.
But what was even more powerful was that it united people. It drew people together. Young and old. Diverse thinkers. The queues in movie theatres had the most eclectic lines outside animated films compared to any other genre. And I think that kind of anecdotal evidence is hugely informative.
Here’s the plan…
I have always wanted to have a character projected on to a screen that interacts with me (or a band) during and between the songs of a live concert. The hybrid world of recorded and live show incorporates a number of interesting dynamics that I feel are worth exploring further in the showbiz world.
But there are two hitches. The first is that character animation is hard. I always wanted to do it on my own, but now realising I can’t. I’ll probably start the process and see how far I get. Perhaps a proper, skilled animator will come to my rescue.
The second is that finalising something in art is a farce, but publishing art forms is more realistic. It was Patreon CEO Jack Conte who introduced me to the realities of what he calls a “vocabulary problem”. Rather than saying we’re working on the “final” product, we should work to publish.
French writer Paul Valéry is attributed with the famous quote: “A work is never completed, but merely abandoned.”
This is my effort to not abandon the childhood dream, and rather… work to publish.
Here’s a working version of the script… followed by some basic gesture sketches.
The next step is working through the software to create something like what you see below. I’ve always been a fan of hand-drawn 2-D animation, and the idea would be that Doodle looks something like this.
If you have any thoughts, feel free to join the conversation and leave a comment. I need all the help I can get!
