Bobo

[box]Tip: I suggest viewing in full-screen and HD.[/box]

It is with great aplomb I bring you Bobo – an animated short I started a while ago and have recently completed.

I started this short as a personal project towards the end of 2011 and finished the short this year in 2013. I hired my audio-ninja brother David (aka The Kiffness) to do sound for the short, he’s got a great sensibility for these things. After some post-production editing and colour-correction, Bobo is complete.

About Bobo

I’m a fan of wide open spaces, there’s something surreal about a vast empty plain. I’m also fascinated by the moon; there’s another planet up there that we can see clearly nearly everyday and only a couple people have set foot on it, it’s an awesome thought. I find the design of a simple all-black character with glowing white eyes appealing. I’ve been meaning to combine ‘golf’ and ‘the moon’ for a while. Imagine hitting a ball and having it orbit the entire planet. My father’s a huge golfer. I fed all of this into my sketches and storyboarding and Bobo is the result.

Bobo undertakes a massive effort for a trivial result. Animation can sometimes seem like that. Bobo‘s in no rush – he understands his folly, he’s taking things slowly and he’s enjoying the journey.

In the past I’ve done fast-moving animation with quick cuts for my animated Goldfish music videos. This was a chance to take things reaaally slowly and have the scenes be allowed to breathe and a character given the space to think. The short is purposefully slow and meditative, the audio purposefully ambient, sparse and emotive.

The aspect ratio breaks the standard HD size of 16:9. I went with a 32:9 aspect ratio that’s twice as long. It got me thinking about compositions in new ways. Experimentation is one of the benefits of working on a personal project.

I painted the backgrounds digitally in Photoshop with a Wacom Intuos 4 and Cintiq 12″ tablet and animated the character in Toon Boom Animate 2. I comp’d the scenes and did post-production in Premiere Pro.

I’m glad I completed this. Personal projects are easy to start and can be difficult to finish. Without being a means to an end, these projects are sometimes an end in themselves.

Bobo is making its debut in less than 2 weeks at Animated Eden in the UK, Cumbria’s first animation festival. I plan on entering it into a couple of other animation festivals.

A shorter cut of the video was used for my brother’s song ‘Mr. Incredible’. You can watch the music video for that HERE.

Please enjoy this gallery of work-in-progress images: