I Wish I'd Done That! "Thought of You"

This beautiful animation was created by, storyboard artist and figure drawing instructor, Ryan Woodward. Ryan has worked in Hollywood since 1995, creating storyboards for various movie companies.

After so many years of working on commercial movie projects, Ryan had been wanting to do a side project that would include figure drawing, animation and expression through dance movements. After Ryan heard "World Spins Madly On" by The Weepies, he made up his mind that this would be the perfect song to tell a story about relationships.

Rather than creating a narrative animated piece that communicates a well defined story, this animation allows each individual who views it to experience something unique and personal that touches their own sensibilities.


It's quite simple for traditional artist to sketch a human figure. The technique calls for little detail and expressive line work, such as creating the illusion of strength drawing bold lines or making something appear delicate by making thin lines. The style and the technique are simple, but redrawing one sketch over and over again, making slight adjustments to tell a story and STILL keep that "sketch look" is pretty hard. Ryan Woodard's animation is flawless, expressive and creative.

Please visit Ryan Woodard's website to see a behinds the scenes video on the making of "Thought of You," and to view more of his figure drawings.

Pete C.
Brainwerx Design

I Wish I'd Done That! - We Got Time

In this music video for Moray McLaren's "We Got Time," artist David Wilson uses a modified version of an animation device called the praxinoscope. The praxinoscope was invented in France by Charles-Émile Reynaud in 1877. It uses a strip of images that are placed around the inner surface of a spinning cylinder, which is lined with 16 small mirrors. (Not to be confused with the earlier zoetrope that uses narrow viewing slits.)

For this video David used a process that was made popular in the 1950's, where illustrations were printed on the labels of vinyl records. As the record spun on the turntable, the illustrations would appear to animate if you fixed your gaze on one spot. Red Raven Records later developed a mirrored "carousel," which customized versions of it are used in this video.

I can watch this video over and over again. These low-tech animations, with their "circle of life" theme, are mesmerizing. What I enjoy most about this video, is how David goes beyond what others have done and stacked images, as well as place them side by side to interact with one another.

Below is a short video where David explains the animation process for "We Got Time." To learn more about David Wilson and see more of his art work, please visit www.davidwilsoncreative.com.

-Pete C.
Brainwerx Design



We Got Time video credits:
Music: Moray McLaren
Director - David Wilson
Producer - James Bretton
Executive Producer - Bart Yates
Production Company - Blinkink
Director of Photography - Tim Green
Motion Control - Dennis Henry at MC2
Animation - David Wilson
Art Department - Will Randall, Hattie Newman, and David Wilson
Editor - Mark Aarons at TVC
TK - James Bamford at The Mill
Post - The Mill