Last I Heard (He Was Circling The Drain) is an animated music video made from fragments of Thom Yorke's imagination and a mixed media combination of crowd simulation, charcoal painting, 3D animation and stop motion photography across 3000 hand treated frames.

The video's intention is to capture the isolating experience of contemporary urban anxiety in a time of global instability. It is set in a dream world designed to evoke feelings of past and present; a modern city of faceless individuals realized through a distorted old black and white film aesthetic.

Last I Heard was released on October 29th 2019 through an immersive multimedia installation in Downtown Los Angeles comprised of security cameras, CRT TV's and hundreds of original painted frames for fans to take home. It was commissioned by XL Recordings as the follow-up to the Netflix and Paul Thomas Anderson short film ANIMA.

My Role was:

I directed this project collaboratively with Art Camp. My primary role was as animation director, I also lead design and 3D animation for the video. After receiving the brief from XL Records, I collaborated with Art Camp to develop the story and concept for the video. I then assembled and lead a small team of 3D animators and simulation artists to create the music video in 3D. To realize the desired visual world, I developed several digital shading techniques that emulated different phenomenas found in black and white film photography. After each scene was finished, it was then printed, rotoscoped, and photographed in stop-motion by the production team at Art Camp.