WorkMotion

Ewen Farr's brilliantly lo-fi and super skilful hip-hop video animation

Ewen Farr favours a beautifully lo-fi aesthetic in his animation and illustration work, and his new video for SonnyJim's Dorchester (featuring Quelle Chris) is no exception.

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Painstakingly rotoscoped, the animation uses an unusual colour palette and gorgeously textured backdrops adorned with felt tip figures and painterly gestures. The piece looks almost like photo collage in both the uncanny surface-tone and the beautiful way Farr manages to capture human facial gestures in the simplest strokes.

The movements of people and light are captured brilliantly, and it’s a testament to Farr’s skill how easy it is as a viewer to get totally immersed in the city scenes that whirr past the car window that forms our viewpoint for much of the film. It’s a highly original approach – especially for a hip-hop video – and boy do we love it.

Rotoscoped animation of a person's face in vibrant pink and magenta tones with green neon text overlay and distorted digital effects
Rotoscoped animation of a figure in purple clothing next to a red car with "SonnyJim" text overlay, rendered in lo-fi style with textured painterly effects
Rotoscoped animation of an urban street scene with neon green and purple buildings, red structures and silhouetted figures in a textured, lo-fi style from Ewen Farr's Dorchester music video
Red rotoscoped figure with yellow Arabic text and blue textured background from Ewen Farr's animation for SonnyJim's Dorchester music video
Two rotoscoped figures with textured faces in orange and purple against a dark blue background in Ewen Farr's animation for SonnyJim's Dorchester
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