This is my first ever artist spotlight. William Garratt is an independent animator and writer based in Bristol, in the UK. Some months ago I happened on to a funny bit of animation he posted on Twitter. Since following him, he has had a regular output of short, clever, funny animations. What makes them work for me is the non-verbal nature of the comedy. For some hardcore slapstick action, here is his latest release.
Initially, Fight! was created in pieces. Each gag was a small cycling gif which he posted on social media. The square aspect ratio works well for Instagram. You will notice they very briefly return to the same poses. He then assembled them together into what you see here. This seems to be a really low-pressure way to work, which would make it more fun and spontaneous. It’s not easy to steadily produce work, and he has found a method that serves him well.
Seven Sunsets was produced the same way. He created seven different cartoon takes on sunsets. When assembled together they are a good example of blackout gags, which is something I posted about recently. Sometimes he sets parameters for the work, and you can see
Tales of Death and Disappointment is an even longer compilation of
I can’t resist including this next short. It’s only 37 seconds
Often people are curious about the tools used to create work, and William says he uses Flash to animate and then composites the elements with After Effects. He has won several awards for his work too. He has much more to show you on his website, halfgiraffe.com. There are a whole bunch more funny videos and a page of his single frame cartoons. Below is one of those. You can follow William on Twitter and Instagram. Like most independent artists, he is always interested in paid work!
