Aug 20, 2013

Aardman animates Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon"

To celebrate Pink Floyd's legendary album The Dark Side of the Moon, Aardman Animations director Darren Dubicki has created this striking and elegant mixed media piece.

The three-minute piece will be used as a trailer/supplement to an original radio drama about the album, written by playwright Sir Tom Stoppard, which will premiere on BBC Radio 2 on August 26. Dubicki also created an extended film loop that complements the audio experience online.

More details on the production are available from the official Aardman release:

Aardman director Darren Dubicki knew that the film would function as a movie trailer and spent time absorbing the rich details from the music of Pink Floyd and Sir Tom Stoppard's play. spent a great deal of time on the film. In doing so, he developed a striking visual concept in which images are juxtaposed with carefully considered lyrics and dialogue from the play that encompass the underlying themes of greed, conflict, consumption, humanity, and descent into madness. The intensely surreal and powerful artwork created by Storm Thorgerson and Hipgnosis is always a strong distortion of reality. Their sense of space and twisted context creates art that is uncomfortably beautiful. This tone has been consistent for decades and we wanted to honor this by adding a contemporary digital (and analog) slant to the style."

The film, a collage of digital imagery, CGI, studio-based effects, and hand-crafted elements, was produced with a depth and richness that reflects the classic tone of Pink Floyd's art.

Credits. Client/Agency BBC Radio 2 Producers Rian Roberts/Rowan Collinson

Aardman Animations Director Darren Dubicki Executive Producer : Heather Wright Producer: Helen Argo Production Assistant Danny Gallagher Production Coordinator Louise Johnson

DOP: Mark Chamberlain Camera Assistant Joe Maxwell Gaffer Nat Sale CG Modeling Ollie Skillman-Wilson CG Modeling David Klein CG Modeling Saul Fried CG Animation Matthew Rees CG Animation Rich Spence CG Writer Andrew Lavery Supervising Senior Compositor Jim Lewis Compositor Spencer Cross Compositor Paul Quinton After Effects Artist Tom Ready Editor Dan Hembree [17].