Wellington Silver Screeners: Ross Payne _{by Alessia Belsito-Riera}

In our Wellington Silver Screeners series, Alessia Belsito-Riera shines a spotlight on the movers and shakers working in the film capital of New Zealand.

Aotearoa’s favourite ukulele trio The Nukes dropped their brand-new song Max the Musical Mosquito across music streaming platforms on the 30^th of May, which leads the charge on their new EP Creature Feature. A catchy, country-swinging, brain-tickling tune about an airplane-obsessed kid who is woken up in the middle of the night by a ukulele-playing mosquito, the song comes to life in a technicolour, toe-tapping fever dream that’s part hoedown, part surreal bedtime story thanks to Wellington animator Ross Payne.

The bouncy, punchy, and ever-so-whimsical music video is just the newest feather in the local animator’s cap. Preferring the traditional 2D style of animation reminiscent of Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry, he’s created countless cartoons the old-fashioned way: frame by frame, detail by detail. His long career in the field has led him to the wonderful world of children’s music, creating characters and stories for the likes of Loopy Tunes Preschool Music and award-winning children’s music artist fleaBITE. That’s not to say he doesn’t do stuff for grownups too! In fact, he’s got a knack for caricatures in particular and teaches both drawing and animation at Inverlochy Art School.

I dialled him in to ask what all the buzz is about.

What sparked your interest in animation and storytelling?

I did design school at AIT [Auckland Institute of Technology] back in the day and we learned everything: printmaking, photography, the works. It was great. One of the things was animation, and when I saw my first animation I was transfixed. I think it was seeing the drawings that I did moving that captured me, because they were bouncing and exploding and everything. So, that’s always carried through as a fascination.

Do you remember what that first animation was?

Yes, it was of a train station. The tracks flopped down, the train station fell down from above, and the ground started bouncing. When I first saw it, the tutor was saying, ‘That’s good, you could do this, and do that’, but I wasn’t listening because I just wanted to see this whole thing moving. I’ve lost that first animation over the years.

Maybe you can recreate it someday!

[Laughs.] That’s a good point! Go back to my roots.

How would you describe your animation style?

Lately it’s been very cartoony. Mostly it’s old school Warner Bros. type, because when I was first studying and working in animation we were working on Animaniacs, this was back in 93 maybe. So it was that type of animation – really bouncy, squash, stretch sort of style. That carried through and is suitable for The Nukes’ music video because the song was very bouncy and fun. I’ve ended up doing a lot of the animation for New Zealand kids’ music lately because of word of mouth and they’re quite a tight knit group.

So, a very bouncy style, not that I’m restricted to that, but it lends itself well to this mosquito song.

How did you break into the industry?

Back in the day, there was a company in Auckland where I was, and they had a short course available for three months. Then, basically, they picked out the best people from the course and brought them in to be understudies at the company so they could study on the job. They were doing Warner Bros. contracts. Then I got offered work in Wellington doing commercials.

How would you describe working here?

I’m in a little bubble really by doing the animation for music clients and doing all the animation myself. I used to be working in animation companies, but the traditional 2D animation has gone out of favour with 3D. I have done a bit of 3D, but I love the old 2D. I’ve been kind of freelancing on my own for a while, but it’s good!

What have been some career highlights for you?

The highlight really is getting aired on TV or YouTube and getting reactions from people.

It must be so amazing seeing that final product on screen. I know it is with the paper.

Yes, very much, and when it’s posted or aired and I see it responding to what I’ve tried to communicate. If that works well, then I am happy!

Tell me about Max The Musical Mosquito.

Any song that has some sort of narrative to it is always good so that animation can help with that communication in the song by the imagery. Max definitely had a story of the mosquito and the singer casting back to when he was a young boy in his bedroom. Initially the mosquito was very annoying, and then he came to enjoy this song that the mosquito was buzzing.

What does your process look like when you’re developing a character like the mosquito?

I talk a lot with the musician and get their ideas, and in the initial stages, at least, there’s a lot of collaboration, more so than the later stages where I’m in the process. It’s good to get story background or relevant information about the song and what it means to them; what they hope people get out of it. Then my animation can enhance and assimilate with the music to have a creative story. Then I work on design ideas, characters. and backgrounds and things, by doing some very rough sketches to get some feedback from the client and go through to storyboard and animatic. Animatic is basically a storyboard with the music. It’s a very rough version of what the final thing will be. That helps with developing the story, the pacing and how long each shot is going to be, and stuff like that. You refine it as you go, sort of like how musicians do a demo.

What advice would you give someone trying to start their career in animation?

The biggest pointer is learning how to draw. It’s not so important for 3D, but 2D you have to learn how to draw. It’s kind of learning how to walk and run, because drawing is one thing to concentrate on and getting it to move is another. Having said that, there’s a lot of fun to be had just by doing animation at the level of drawing that you’ve got already. I used to say practise, practise, but now I say, learn something and practise it, then learn something else and practise both of them, and then learn something else and practise all three.

What’s next?

I can’t really say the moment! But more music videos in the works. I am open to doing animation for music that isn’t necessarily for kids as well – although I have specialised in this bouncy, kiddy style, I can do animation that’s for an older age group too.

I also teach drawing and animation at Inverlochy Art School. I enjoy it because I think about what I would have liked to have learned when I was a kid and try and pass on what I know to get people enthused about animation, because I hope that 2D animation is going to keep going. It’s quite enjoyable articulating what I know and transferring it to other people.