Hans Richter was a German painter, graphic artist, avant-gardist, film-experimenter and producer.
He was part of Dada art movement, and together with Swedish painter Viking Eggeling, Richter and Eggeling introduced an entirely new kind of artwork–the abstract film. He is well known for creating one of the first examples of abstract film, Rhythmus 21.
If you want to know more about his works, visit this blog.
I came across the detailed work of Uno Moralez, a Russian artist who is known as a “pixel painter.” His cartoon/comic book style is something I have never seen before in animation art. The black and white also lends to his visual design and I feel like I could be watching an old cartoon movie.
I am not sure how I got here, but I found this animator who makes very trippy/abstract/surreal works with repeating shapes, music, and what seems like animations done on After Effects. I especially like the organic themes on the first one. It’s foreign but familiar, and with the music and calm transitions, I felt relaxed while watching- these are almost meditative.
Here is an excerpt from a blog where Ben talks about his artistic process and background with art:
I do a lot of 3D work. I usually start with a 3D package like ZBrush and begin by sculpting and building basic forms. Then I refine those forms, render them, and then play with them in Photoshop. For my animations, I use unconventional methods for making motion in ZBrush and then composite everything in Adobe After Effects.” – http://orbmag.com/visual-arts/inner-space-art-of-ben-ridgway/
A Spanish artist that transforms street art graffiti into animated GIFs.
I thought the Walt Disney Studio’s first released family animation film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs could be a good inspiration to the work we are working on right now. The masterful storytelling and ground-breaking technology from the time was very fun to watch. Here’s a link to the Animation Process from 1938: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2ORkIrHUbg, and these are some sketches the studio drew for the animation.
In 2015, Porter Robinson & Madeon worked with A1-Pictures to create Shelter. The short animation depicts what seems to be a light and cheerful story, especially in the beginning. However, as the animation reaches the end, a hidden sadness is revealed within the scenes showed beforehand. It’s a beautiful short animation with a hidden plot twist. You can watch the short animation here.
Linder Sterling is a British artist known for her photography, radical feminist photomontage, and confrontational performance art.
Inspired by Richard Hamilton?
‘Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different, so appealing?’
He drew illustrations for newspapers, magazines and children’s books. One of his famous works is the music video animation for The Beatles The Yellow Submarine. I really like his use of vibrant colors and whimsical story-telling.
Inspired by 1930s cartoons, Steve Cutts is a British animator whose collection of YouTube cartoons use a variety of animals and symbols to make deeper statements criticizing themes such as consumerism, substance abuse, and climate change. His highly visual illustrations have amassed millions of views, using absurdity, similar to Dada art, in order to provide a response to the current world climate. Below is a link to Cutts’ YouTube channel where you can view his absurd and darkly satirical commentaries on humanity and society as we know it.
Colin Raff is an animator and collage artist who also composes his own music for his longer animated works. Several GIFs from him, while they are still strange for the average person, are light-hearted and humorous in their style and message.
Other animations of his are a little more bizarre like the one below of a man with a goat looking through the window. He cites several Dada artists and pioneers as his sources of inspiration, one of which we’ve read of before— Hannah Höch, a pioneer of photomontages. Raff also refers to John Heartfield who was also another pioneer of photomontages, and Max Ernst, who was a Dada and surrealist painter, sculptor, and collage artist.
If you enjoy feeling unsettled and need inspiration for your animations, check out more of Colin Raff’s work on his Instagram account and on his Youtube channel for his longer animations.
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