Muso Soup

Muso Soup is a short animation film, which combines hand drawing and 3D computer animation. The work represented a significant change of direction in my practice, moving away from traditional hand drawn animation and working with 3D software. Muso Soup premiered at the Bristol Encounters Animation Festival in 2011, nominated in the Best Short Film category, and has subsequently been shown in competition at the Stuttgart Animation Festival 2012, Prix Ars Electronica 2012 in Taiwan and at the Sydney International Animation festival. Muso Soup builds upon more than twenty years of experience as a 2D animation director. The research questions addressed in this project relate to the development of hybrid aesthetics for 3D animation. Computer animation is still a relatively new discipline, starting with John Lasseters The Adventures of Andre and Wally B in 1984. The prescribed look and movement of much computer animation reflects a visual culture in which design has primarily been dictated by the software, and it is this default digital aesthetic that I have sought to challenge with this film. This research contributes to the discussion around developing new aesthetics for computer animation. Muso Soup sits alongside the work of practitioners such as David OReilly, Chris Landreth and Wendy Tilby, artists who are engaged in exploring alternative visual and movement languages for computer animation. Their work shares common themes around challenging the `perfection tendency in digital animation, the search for accidents and mistakes, and the evidence of the hand made mark. This character animation piece has opened up rich new territory for my practice. Insights gained during this process have led to the instigation of a project based PhD, to further research into relationships between drawing and digital practice. This is still relatively new territory for practice based research, as computer animation has tended to displace drawn animation over recent years, and this current investigation aims to bring the energy and singularity of drawing back to the heart of animation