There must be something in the water in Bacchus Marsh, according to award-winning animator Joshua Thomas.
The 24-year-old traces his creative roots back to his teen years growing up in Moorabool.
“The area seems to be a growing place for animators,” he laughs.
“In my [bachelor of animation and interactive media] course at RMIT, there were so many of us from around here; it’s really weird.”
Thomas, a former Bacchus Marsh Grammar student works for Brunswick animation studio Oh Yeah Wow.
The studio was founded by another Bacchus Marsh Grammar graduate, Darcy Prendergast.
Thomas’s music video for Melbourne synth-pop band Clubfeet’s Everything You Wanted took out this year’s gong for Australian music video of the year at Triple J’s J Awards.
Thomas says he had the idea for the video for quite a while but didn’t have a project to put it to.
The clip shows Clubfeet’s lead singer Sebastian Cohen walking down a semi-industrial street. Frozen images of him appear along the path and come to life as he approaches them.
“The band had no idea what they were after, so I shot a little test for them and they liked it,” Thomas says.
Triple J described it as a “one-shot” wonder. But Thomas says it actually took 10 takes to complete.
The video was shot over one afternoon in November last year. It then took Thomas two months to animate it.
“The cool thing is it subverts the viewer’s prediction of what will happen,” he says.
Thomas admits he’s come a long way from the days when Prendergast taught him the art of animation in a garage.
“I’ve always drawn, but then I realised I can make the pictures move,” Thomas says, adding that he sees his art as a work in progress. “I hope to keep directing and spending every day improving. I don’t think I could have a regular job.”
