Warning: These films are not safe for work (NSFW).
We got the scoop on these deliciously macabre promos from Mainframe last week, but we’ve been holding out for a Q&A. Well, the Q&A is here, so feast on all three promos before getting the lowdown below.
Created in collaboration with Ministry of Sound’s “brand innovation group,” MSHK, and illustrator Neal Murren (Breed London), Mainframe brought to life the viciously dark novel, Tomas, written by Ministry of Sound co-founder James Palumbo.
Q&A with Mainframe’s Mark Warrington, Director:
How hard was it going from Neal Murren’s illustrations to full motion? Did you feel boxed in it all?
This did cause a few problems, as the characters weren’t really drawn for animation. It just took some careful cutting out, painting back in the hidden areas and also sourcing or drawing similar imagery. I think using black and white really helped everything to amalgamate. I tried to create each scene around the angle the characters were drawn at so I didn’t have to force them into any un natural positions, this was the only real limitation, as for what was going on around them was left to me.
Were there technical challenges that resulted from this arrangement?
I wanted to match the detail of the animation to the detail of the drawings, which was quite daunting; animating enormous breasts, a dripping penis and exploding heads was all new territory, but I always found a means to an end. The most ambitious was the first shot in cocks away where we are flying through the night sky of French Riviera amongst a squadron of cock bombers. Due to time limitations, I created the whole thing in 2.5D, building the bombers out of flat ribs like a toy balsa wood plane. Once in silhouette, they looked right.
On the whole, I tried to get the most out of camera moves and background detail. Also I had about two weeks to complete each one, so redrawing characters was out of the question.
I’d love to know what the brief was and how they ended up here!
I was given TOMAS to read and they highlighted the three scenes which they wanted animated, as well as showing us Neal’s illustrations. Then through the course of a few meetings with the client, we nailed down what we would like to focus on, how the SFX and music would work and most importantly, how the animations were going to create publicity for the book.
The client gave me a lot of creative freedom, and I knew that for this to work it would have to be shocking. I think it’s great that anyone who sees the animations and then reads TOMAS will have these strange scenes ingrained in their mind’s eye. When I read the book, I found myself seeing the story in black and white, which is quite interesting.
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