Film and video directors are designers also, and lots of inspiration can be found in music videos, where artists get to express themselves as well as the songs. Music videos present a very unique medium, since there are not many times when several artistic elements can come together. My intent with this series is to showcase what I believe are inspirational examples of artistic music videos. This first post is focusing on videos that include stop motion animation.
Grandchildren
Grandchildren is work by Sean Pecknold. They’ve done two very different stop animation videos for the band Fleet Foxes. The first, “White Winter Hymnal,” is clay animation, and the second, “Mykonos,” is done with paper cutouts.
Drew Lightfoot
Drew Lightfoot, one of the animators who worked on Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride, won an award in 2007 for this video he created for Guster’s “One Man Wrecking Machine.”
Shynola
Shynola created this video for Coldplay’s “Strawberry Swing” in which lead singer Chris Martin becomes a super hero over an animated chalk background.
W+K
This video, “You Came Out” by We Have Band messes with my mind the most out of any video on this page. It’s really eerie, but at the same time hilarious and beautiful.
The face paint animation film is made up of 4,816 separate stills. Each and every frame was hand-painted, shot, wiped off and redrawn, slightly differently for the next frame in order to create a seamless sequence. This time-consuming process involved the band members lying still for two consecutive days in a studio.
It’s Not Over Yet!
Not only will we have other segments to this series such as Artistically Directed, and also Animated music videos, but we have also decided to split each one into 2 (or more!) parts so that they aren’t too long and a little easier to digest. If you don’t see an inspirational video on here that you really like, feel free to suggest it for a future post!
Written by Sarah Camp
Sarah's passion for design built Camp Creative Group. Educated in design, she has applied and evolved her knowledge for 10+ years. You can chat with her on twitter or view more posts that she has written.
