Interview with Mr Doodle: Creating the World’s First Ever Doodle Mural Animation, Holburne Museum

GraffitiStreet

How did you first develop the idea for the world's first-ever animated doodle mural?

Mr Doodle

When we first visited the Holburne Museum the idea for the projection was immediately discussed with my creative director Morgan as we were really inspired by the idea of doing something on the facade of the building.

It’s such a grand structure and of course as it’s a listed building I wasn’t allowed to doodle directly onto it, but that limitation actually caused me to be more creative and I ended up making something much more elaborate than a mural, which was the animated doodle.

GraffitiStreet

Your first-ever museum show at the Holburne Museum is called "Museum Mayhem." Was mayhem the core theme of the animation? Were there any specific objectives that you had in mind when creating this animation?

Mr Doodle

Yes mayhem was very much at the core of the concept of the animation. I think a bit of mayhem is present in all of my work. The idea of an ever-growing doodle virus consuming the planet has a lot of mayhem about it, so it’s totally in keeping with that running idea.

Within the animation, I wanted to create scenes that felt sneaky and mischievous and a central focus on it feeling fun, which is always important to me. I wanted it to feel a bit like a mix of something from a clip from Style Wars or something of that ilk combined with the humour of something from a Cartoon Network programme like Tom and Jerry, along with the sense of adventure found in a video game like Crash Bandicoot.

GraffitiStreet

Can you talk about the creative process that led to the final concept of the animation? How did you decide on the placement of the characters and doodles within each scene? the storyboard?

Mr Doodle

I created several ideas and a storyboard initially for the animation but my visuals didn’t originally take into much consideration the windows and various shapes of the facade like the pillars and things like that. So I worked with Morgan and also Bluman Associates who facilitated the projection in order to make best use of the shape of the building so the piece would feel very bespoke.

I then drew a series of scenes and worked with Marius Menzel, who animated the scenes under my direction. He did an amazing job of making the characters and elements move exactly how I wanted them to. I loved how Marius animated the scene of the wall smashing and falling apart to reveal the museum space underneath.

GraffitiStreet

The music led the pacing and timing of the animation. How did you choose the music that accompanies your animation? Who was involved in the curation and production of this animation?

Mr Doodle

The music was made bespoke for the animation by two musicians whom I work with fairly frequently called Jonny Dyas and Yifei Tang. They’re based in New Zealand and go under the name Cloud Road Music. I sent them a rough version of the animation and storyboard and some references and direction.

Again the desired feeling of the piece was to be kind of mischievous and fun but also grand and classically inspired. They created the soundtrack that was used and I was really amazed by it, they’re super talented and nailed it first time as they always do.

GraffitiStreet

How long did it take for you to complete this animation from start to finish?

Mr Doodle

The animation was made between January and all the way up until about 4 days before it was shown in May. So it took about 4 months in total, it was made whilst working on the artworks within the museum too.

It was a busy time, but very fun as always!

GraffitiStreet

Can you talk about any challenges that arose during the production of this animation?

Mr Doodle

Time was a challenge- in the end there were a few ideas that didn’t make it into the final piece because there just wasn’t time. We were also worried about rain which could have stopped people from seeing it, but we got lucky with the weather on the night in the end.

It was also quite tricky to establish which bits of the building would actually accept the protection- for example, certain windows and things wouldn’t allow light to be shone onto them like the rest of the facade did because of what was behind the glass, etc.

GraffitiStreet

What was the most rewarding part of creating this animation?

Mr Doodle

The most rewarding part of the animation was definitely seeing it in full for the first time with my family and friends on the opening night.

The best reaction I had was from my friend Steve who is quite a big fan of theme parks and stuff and he compared it to the Disney light show and he totally loved it! Which made my day.

The official video of “Museum Mayhem”, the world’s first-ever animated doodle mural. Video Copyright Mr Doodle

GraffitiStreet

What advice would you give someone interested in creating an animation?

Mr Doodle

I’d say that animations take a heck of a lot of time. They’re probably the most time consuming art form and it’s good to know this going into it. If you’re just starting working with animation then start with something small, something quite basic and achievable. Give yourself an easy run with something basic and when you achieve that it’ll make you feel good and you can then start to delve into more complex and detailed stuff.

When I was a kid, my dad taught me how to make basic 2 frame flip animations, using two pieces of paper and a pencil rolled up the paper to flip between two images. This kind of thing gives you a quick insight into the work involved in the process and can be really fun and interesting. It’s important to know that you may only get 3 or 4 seconds worth of animation done all day or, in many cases, much less, and it’s very hard to judge whether something looks good or not at that stage, so you have to be prepared to be determined and persistent with the project you’re working on in order to reach the end.

I used to create animated music videos, and often at times, they’d be pretty much the only things I was working on at that time, and they’d take me up to 6 months, working an average of 13-15 hours a day, every day including weekends, with no breaks to create just 3 minute long animations.

If you have the ability to, it can be helpful (if you’re an artist who doesn’t usually work in animation) to pass on the task of animating to a person who specialises in animation. But even if you don’t create the final animation entirely yourself, it is good to get some experience with it as it is very helpful to inform the process and allows you to understand what the animator is working on, what they are able to achieve, as well as how long it takes.