I was asked to set the art direction for an animated music video which unfortunately didn’t materialise due to timescales, however they were fun to create. I listened to the track by the band to get inspired and I came up with two concepts to present.

My first concept took inspiration from the 80s and 90s ‘memphis style’ whilst injecting some contemporary graphical typography in there too. Bold vibrant colours were to be used throughout alongside various patterns relevant to the era. The whole mood of this con¬cept was to be fun and playful. Rotoscoping would be done over supplied footage of professional dancers and they would be treated in creative ways such as out¬lining certain details and creating kaleidoscope patterns.

The visual narrative that flows through this concept is based on ‘two youths who meet on the dance floor, lose all their worries and fall for each other’. The idea was to show multiple ‘couples’ with their own distinct colour scheme/ style that eventually get paired up towards the end of the track. The theme of ‘romance’ and ‘attraction’ can be woven into the scenes which then get more prominent towards the end.

My second concept took inspiration from a reference the band liked. Similar to the first concept I would be using footage of dancers to create rotoscoped animation silhouettes. They would be treated in a different way so I would use vibrant animated shapes that move around within the silhouetted dancers and shapes that inhabit the scenes. Lyrics from the track will also be incorporated into some of the scenes to add visual impact along with textured backgrounds.

There was a visual narrative that flows through this concept. The coloured shapes that move from scene to scene represent the ‘spirit of dance’, these shapes interact with their surroundings, dancers and band. The colour scheme evolves throughout the music track moving from a dark space at the beginning towards a more colourful space at the end (representing the spirit of dance spreading joy to everyone).