An emotional rollercoaster ride that takes you past the edge of the world and into a landscape of heartbreak, A Pearl is an animated music video realized through a mixed media combination of 3D animation and hand-painted frames. The video is built on the emotional struggle expressed by Mitski's lyrics, offering an interpretive visualization of the heightened feelings one goes through in the late stages of a relationship. A Pearl was commissioned by Spotify on behalf of Mitski's label, Dead Oceans.

My Role was:

My role in this project was as the director and lead designer / animator. The video was made by myself and designer / animator Danae Gosset at Art Camp. After receiving the initial brief from Spotify, I worked with Art Camp and Danae to develop the concept and story for the piece. I then designed, animated, rendered and edited a fully colored version of the video in 3D. After the digital version was finalized, all 1,480 frames of the video were then individually printed at Art Camp. Once an image was printed, it was then illustrated on top of by Danae, who used traditional media and animation techniques. Lastly, the newly illustrated frames were scanned back into the computer and sequenced into the final film.