Animate! Jack Brown on How “Animation Allows for Creative Weirdness” and Serves as “Pure Escapism”

For Partizan animator Jack Brown, the best animation isn't the slickest or most polished – it's the work where you can still see the fingerprints of the people who made it.

Raised on comics, skate graphics and the chaotic energy of children’s TV show ‘Ed, Edd n Eddy’, Jack has built a distinctively tactile style balancing grungy realism with vibrant character-driven storytelling.

Since kickstarting his career during lockdown with a music video for Tom Misch, he's gone on to create work for artists including The Weeknd and Ariana Grande, while continuing to carve out time for ambitious self-initiated projects that range from stop-motion puppet films to animations made entirely from thousands of Hama beads.

Jack talks about finding emotion through movement, why AI is pushing audiences back towards human-made craft, and his ‘adventure animation’ missions.

LBB> How did you fall in love with animation?

Jack> I was always a bit too impatient to do big, complex paintings when I was younger, so I started drawing layered images of loads of different character poses on one page... basically doing frame-by-frame animation, all on top of each other. It was only when I did a foundation at Kingston that I really learnt how animation was actually made (and I loved it).

LBB> Tell us about the animation project that kick-started your career?

Jack> I’d just got back to London after a year in Australia, and lockdown had started. I read an NME article about all film productions having to close, which would open a door for animation. So I reached out to Tom Misch on a whim because I love his music and we made Nightrider in under three weeks. We made 'Tidal Wave' shortly after, and that video ended up being featured on NME, so it was a nice full circle moment.

LBB> How would you describe your art style and what are your biggest inspirations that developed it?

Jack> Hmmm, I would say it's a cocktail of grungy and colourful. I'm really influenced by comics, graphic novels, and skate illustrations. People like Daniel Clowes, Jim Phillips, Eastman & Laird, Frank Miller. Oh, and 'Ed, Ed & Eddy'. They all bring that same dirty realism into the glossy world of illustrated storytelling.

LBB> From your perspective, what’s the key to animation that really lives?

Jack> Traditional animation is actually pretty nuts. It's literally hundreds or thousands of static images flicking past your eyes and creating the illusion of movement. I LOVE being able to see those frames flying past your face, whether it's a line flicker or little finger prints on a clay face. Anyone who’s done clean/slick commercial work knows how tedious it is to make sure there are no ‘mistakes’, and at the end you're left with something that kind of masks the human element of it all. With the rise of freaky AI slickness, though, there’s been a big gravitation back to being able to see the strings of animation and feel that magic again!

'Beach sketchbook animation Vol. 2'

LBB> Show us your favourite or most impactful project that you’ve worked on - tell us, what is it that makes it special and what were the memorable moments or challenges?

Jack> My most impactful would have to be the music video I made for The Weeknd & Ariana Grande - 'Save Your Tears Remix'. It went from insta DM to release in about three weeks (again) and it's now got hundreds of millions of views… mental. But of all my real jobs, my favourite is actually an animation I made by myself with thousands of Hama beads, and I shot it around London with my buddy James Papper. Sometimes, making little videos for no reason and for no one is the most fun thing you can do.

The Weeknd & Ariana Grande | ‘Save Your Tears Remix’

LBB> How do you approach character design? What is your creative process like? Show us some of your favourite characters and their journey from notepad to screen.

Jack> I’ll be honest, I have zero pre-planned approach… Characters just live in my head, so whenever I sit down to draw, they are the first things to come out. Every character needs a clear personality, whether it's down to their expression, hair or clothes. They need to feel like they exist somewhere in the world and you want to be friends with them or immediately cross the road to avoid them. I loved doing these running characters, the fun sequence is only 15 frames long but I ended up drawing about 60 of these critters..

LBB> Tell us more about observation and movement - what is the process you go through to study movement of characters?

Jack> If you look at anyone anywhere with no audio, you can usually get the gist of what’s going on. I was born totally deaf in one ear, and so about 50% of my surroundings are soundless. I've often had full conversations with people standing on the wrong side of me based totally on their facial expressions and body language. Lots of hand movements and wide eyes make for an exciting story, and leaning closer and looking around mean they’re probably bitching about someone. Someone feeling sad can simply lower their shoulders a fraction and avoid eye contact, add a little quiver to their lip, and you’ve got some emotional visual storytelling right there.

LBB> We all know of some evergreen adult animations, but lately they have definitely been on the rise, from ‘Rick and Morty’ to ‘Arcane’. What sort of opportunities does this open for animators, both within and outside the advertising industry?

Jack> Yeah, it’s cool to see. Animation allows for creative weirdness, which everyone desires, even if only deep down. It's kind of escapism at its purest, and I'm not surprised that after a long day of doing grown-up things, people want to watch epic space battles and talking pickles. Maybe one day you’ll see a show from me.

LBB> How does one figure out what kind of animation style or styles fit a particular story or project?

Jack> In live action and animation, there are many different styles of visual storytelling. You can do this through lighting, set designs, colour palette and framing.

With animation, though, there’s a whole other aspect of style and medium. For my RSPCA advert, I used a dark colour palette and harsh lighting to create a cold, sinister atmosphere, but the illustration style was reminiscent of early Disney animations, which are usually full of colour and life. Giving the dog big, exaggerated Disney eyes also meant I could convey so much more emotion in this poor doggy.

RSPCA | ‘Hank’

For my Tekla Christmas campaign, the original brief was for fully illustrated 2D animation. Since the company sells high-quality patterned fabric, it seemed like a great opportunity to use their fabric in making this project. As I mentioned, being able to see the strings somehow in animation is always my favourite, so I loved the little ruffles in the fabric that you can see. It's a nice example of how the medium can become the main takeaway from a project.

Tekla | ‘The Patchwork Bear’

LBB> What is your favourite piece of technology or software that you use and how does it help your creative process?

Jack> I love my Cintiq. During my first few years of animating and designing, I did everything on paper but if you're under any kind of time or budget constraint, then it’s a pretty brutal process. Being able to do a bunch of really quick sketches on a tablet and then develop them layer by layer actually makes me much bolder and more ambitious in my work. I still make paper-and-pencil animations; they’re just much shorter!

LBB> What sort of briefs or projects do you find more personally satisfying to work on?

Jack> I always love the process of stop motion and puppets. Being able to walk into a set and hold little characters that I’ve designed just feels so special. Being on a set with everyone who’s working on a project at the same time is the best way to create anything.

LBB> What recent projects have really stood out for you and why?

Jack> Probably my puppet music video, which I also made just for fun. I often make animatics of ideas I have, and I came up with a pretty odd one that I thought would suit weird little puppets. At first, it was going to be a tiny solo project, but it turned into a full-scale shoot with about 15 people working with me. Because I had basically no people, the majority were just my very talented mates helping me out for free. So for two days I was in a warehouse making the most silly thing I've ever made with all my pals, and it was just magical. Shout-out to Ella Kean for producing it and to Tim Nathan for being the sickest DOP.

‘Baz & Laz’

LBB> Who is your animation hero and what is it about their work that inspires you? What example of their work particularly stands out?

Jack> This is a gnarly question because there are a few, and they vary in terms of global vs personal impact. I was initially inspired by 2D animators Sylvain Chomet and Hayao Miyazaki, by the sheer beauty that was possible with animation on such a massive scale. As I progress through my career, though, the people that inspire me the most are my animation buddies. While I love the epic feature films of Chomet and Miyazaki, I connect way more to some of the music videos my friends have made over the years on shoestring budgets; to name a few of my modern animation heroes: Nicos Livesey, Stevie Gee & Essy May, Becky & Joe, James Papper.

LBB> Outside of the field of animation, what really inspires you?

Jack> Long journeys listening to music. Best way to get good ideas, hands down for me. Sometimes you can just look at anything while listening to a good song, and it becomes a film scene or music video.

I've recently been finding my two lifestyles clashing. I love being outdoors and going on adventures, but creating animations can often be the opposite of that, as any other person in the animation industry would definitely know. So recently I've been coming up with ideas that can merge my two worlds together, I’m calling it 'adventure animation.'

I spent the heatwave bank holiday camped out in a van by the rugged and vast Cornish coastline. I did all the projecting at night and all the detailing from 5am to 9am. There was a lot of sketchy cliff trekking with a backpack full of gear, but the whole experience was completely magical. Definitely more to come!

'Rock Faces'

LBB> What do you think are the misconceptions about animation throughout the industry?

Jack> How long it takes.

LBB> What are the biggest changes to animation and challenges facing animators at the moment, and what are your thoughts on them?

Jack> AI is taking a lot of power out of the hands of animators and designers and into the hands of companies that would otherwise have an essential need for them. While many companies are pushing back against it and going even more human-made, a huge amount of work is already fully AI-generated. It's a great reason to do the work that truly excites you rather than chase commercial work.

LBB> Any advice you would like to give to aspiring artists?

Jack> Do it for yourself and do it to the MAX.