Eki Shola Animated Music Video
Eki Shola contacted me during the first quarantine of 2020 to see if I’d like to create an animated music video for a song on her new album. I jumped at the chance and filed through my list of ideas I’d been sitting on for months and years.
I’d always fancied this animation technique called “strata stencil” which I have seen used several times to clever effect. Done practically, each frame of animation is cut out by hand and placed in front of the camera. Each next frame is placed in front of the last, and this beautiful cascading animation results naturally.
This technique is also easy to replicate in After Effects, and there are several adaptations that can be explored that are either impossible or prohibitively difficult in the physical world. For instance, when cutting a stencil image out of a sheet of paper, there is the problem of needing to physically connect each piece. There can’t be any free-floating pieces of paper that aren’t supported by the rest of the sheet. But in the motion graphics world, the birds can fly free, and the designs can be intricate without the need for physical strength to maintain their position and sharpness.
I tried many different animation techniques to tell a short story in this video, but I had to backtrack several times due to limitations of the programs I was using. I believe I landed on a good balance in the end, though. There are a few layers of a struggle between 3D and 2D animation happening throughout. The main story, I believe, is a triumph of mind, breaking free of prisons and cages real and imagined. Eki Shola was kind enough to trust me with interpreting her music and this video is the non-analytical result. I let Roots guide me throughout the process without thinking about it objectively. When I listen to the song, I hear an inner voice growing stronger and breaking free.
I highly recommend checking out Eki’s music and trying to see her live when it becomes and option again.
