Animation Design student Jonah Kracht collaborated on Spinvis’ video
- Design
It’s King’s Day when, over a beer, Jonah Kracht happens to strike up a conversation with the director of the music video Wie zag het licht [Who Saw the Light] by Erik de Jong, aka Spinvis. The fourth-year Animation Design student plucks up his courage and offers to do the animation work for the video. Bang! Bull’s eye. ‘It felt very important.’
Is he proud of the final result? Jonah Kracht nods. "Certainly. However, I do of course know what I did and still see some mistakes here and there. But that’s fine with me, I’m just learning from that."
For those who do not know Spinvis: artist Erik de Jong makes music that is difficult to categorize. The Algemeen Dagblad newspaper once described it as’weird mini-film stories disguised as pop songs – made of sounds and samples ranging from toys, whistles, vocoders, pan lids and other oddities’. In other words, nice and quirky. Before Jonah was given the chance to collaborate on Spinvis’ video, he was already familiar with his music. "A great challenge and really wonderful that the director wanted to give me a chance. I was really lucky to be in the right place at the right time."
Collaborating with a well-known Dutch artist
After King’s Day, things moved quickly. Jonah was given some deadlines and guidelines, but was mostly allowed to use his creative freedom. "The animations had to be abstract figures, and it was important that the light – the very theme of the video – was easy to see", he explains. If you watch the video, at the beginning you will see a sort of blue wavy light on the wall that interacts with the actor in the video, and at the end, two lights come together that sway with the music and then disappear into the air. "Those two animations are from my hand." Did he had no nerves to work with a well-known Dutch artist? "A little, yes", Jonah says. "But I also liked the excitement. It felt like something important, a great milestone."
Experimental process
For the animation work of Wie zag het licht, Jonah used his own hands, among other things. "I wanted to come up with a unique way to depict the light. Then I thought: What if I make my hands move to the beat of the music and turn it into a video? Like dancing with your fingers. I used a rotoscope for this purpose. Then I came up with an animation on that and cast an effect over it." For the animation, Jonah experimented with TVPaint Animation. An animation program he became familiar with during the course. "That worked perfectly. It’s important that you try out many things and then see what looks good."
Animation is a fantastic art form, you can tell so much with moving image"
During his four-year Animation Design course at ArtEZ, Jonah especially learned to experiment a lot and to work with deadlines – something he is now reaping the benefits of. He felt really in his element during the course anyhow. In addition to lecturers having a lot of experience in the field, he also really enjoys having fellow students with whom he can share his passion for animation."‘Animation is simply a fantastic art form", Jonah says. "You can experiment and tell so much with moving image, I love that."
Jack of all trades
This is also one of the tips he would like to pass on to current and future Animation Design students. "By trying all kinds of things and experimenting a lot, you’re more likely to come across things that you find interesting and want to explore further." Personally, he enjoys orienting himself very broadly. "That way you don’t get stuck in one particular style", Jonah explains. "I prefer being able to do a little bit of everything more than getting bogged down in one thing. But that’s a choice you make." In the future, he wants to do much more with music and animation. "Yes, that is where my ambition lies. All in all, I find music and animation a very interesting combination. How image works with audio. Animation is very rhythmic, the two always match well."
Spinvis: "When the well runs dry, everything comes to a halt."
Spinvis shared his thoughts on collaborating with Jonah: "Our songs don't always have a clear-cut meaning, and I don't see that as a shortcoming. It's exciting when someone offers their interpretation. The story that Jonah & friends crafted was beautiful, simple, and yet telling. Engaging with young creators and students is far from charity for us. In fact, when the well runs dry, everything comes to a halt. It's not just the vibrant energy of these individuals, but also their fresh approach that is indispensable for anyone who takes this work seriously."
