I don’t know how much it would cost - hopefully not too much - but it might be an idea to use something like overhead transparencies e.g. from Staples plus appropriate pens.

That way you could have a fairly complex picture on paper e.g. a body for the monster or robot, and then animate part of the whole scene e.g. the moving jaws by overlaying the OHTs. In theory you could manage with only one OHT and wipe it clean between frames.

Anyway, I’m glad that M is putting in the graft to help him understand it all properly and not just know to go click-click with a mouse.

My trip down memory lane wouldn’t be complete without Brothers in Arms by Dire Straits (may bring up too many tricky issues for M+T) or Take on Me by Aha. Class.

Thanks for both ideas above - we’ve dug out the artists dummy and I like the idea of videoing a real person doing something and then plotting it out with that afterwards. Agreed about the fast shutter camera, I’m struggling to make each frame short enough to get that action going fluidly.

Reminds me of the video of Road to Nowhere by Talking Heads - about 3:20 in the little running man turns to being drawn in peanut butter on bread, although it’s hard to see.

And talking of animated videos to 80s songs, I have to link to Sledgehammer by Peter Gabriel.

I’ve heard that TV people try to imagine that they are talking to a good friend rather than to a camera lens - it helps them to relax. Also in M+T’s case it’s likely that friends are the people who’ll be watching it, so the camera’s just an intermediary. Loved the out-takes and Teeny’s contribution!

Talking of fine detail, have you thought of looking at those photos taken with a really fast shutter camera, that show just as something drops into some liquid like water (Mr. Portico has a nice raspberry + milk shot), or a squash ball hitting a squash racquet and spreading out like a pancake so thin that you can see the lines of the strings in it?

What I mean is, it sounds like you’re looking at how to break a normal action into tiny slices and string together the really short-lived things that make up the normal thing. In that light, some normal things are actually weird when you can look at the short-lived things.

There’s also going the other way - looking at films of plants growing over several weeks (time lapse photography if I remember correctly).

Anyway, sorry to ramble. Excellent work Monster (and glamorous assistants)!