KOCHI: Clay character-led animation is not a first in the country, but a music video, with a bearded man, who is a clay character, is. Or says Vaisakh Somanath, a mechanical engineer turned music artist who has arguably directed India’s first clay character music video.
The Malappuram native, is on a high, as the video which was released last week, is generating rave reviews on YouTube.
“I wanted my music video to be unique, yet cost-effective. My friend Midhun Madhav and I have been following stop motion and clay animation advertisements for some time now. We thought, ‘why don’t we give it a try’. This is how our project materialised,” says Vaisakh.
Midhun, who is a Fine Arts graduate from Government College of Fine Arts, Thrissur, is the one who created the beardman using fluoroscent clay, in different types of poses. “We chose a reddish brown hue and green-yellow, because the character had to be the highlight,” he added.
Midhun then took 4,000 pictures of the clay character using a DSLR camera. “It took us quite a few days. We needed a huge table where we could set the pictures.
Also, the rest of the props, including household items like cardboard, paper, LED lights and a piece of mirror had to be set in a proper place. For this, we rented a low-budget homestay at Fort Kochi, where we could film the video without any disturbance,” said Midhun.
The video was shot completely on the stopmotion animation software which is used to make clay character movies, and has been made through crowd funding.
Vaisakh has crooned an English and Malayalam number for the three-and-a-half minute video. He titled it ‘Reflection’ which, according to him, is finding one’s twin.
“The video reflects a man’s arrival into the world and the different stages he goes through. He attains an understanding at some point. The spectacles used towards the end is part of the theme,” Vaisakh adds.
He feels that music videos in Kerala need to focus more on music. “I wanted to create a difference in this field of thinking,” he said.
The duo have started an initiative, ‘The Other World’, which encourages youngsters to create alternative videos and graphics. “There are so many talented youngsters who have the ability to take up such unique ventures. But they don’t have the resources or the idea. This is why we want to help them on the creative front,” says Vaisakh.
There are a team of youngsters including graphic artists, colourists, and art supervisors who are also involved with the project.