The World Of Ratbag

A long-term creative partnership project with music artist Ratbag of Universal Music New Zealand.

★Worldbuilding

★Concepts

★Animation

★Music Visualisers

★Character Design

★Music Videos

Campaigns

Inside The World

2023-2025

Character Videos

2023-2024

Pinky Boy + Pinky Girl

2024

Pinky’s Room

2024

Exit Girl

2024

Live Videos

2024

King Of Kingston

2025

Ratbag’s Computer

2024

Juliet & Juliet

2025

Web Assets

2024

Where It Began…

2023

Concept Art

2024

Inside the World

Inside the World ★

The Brief:

★Character Design ★World-building ★Environment Design ★Prop + Fantasy Flora/Fauna Design

Design a group of fictional bandmates for Universal NZ’s Ratbag, each character representing a negative emotional state, alongside a characterisation of the artist herself. Develop backstories and a fantasy landscape for the cast, creating illustrations and short-form animations in which they feature to act as the visual landscape for the artist’s music.

Created for Universal Music New Zealand

Characters

See concept art below

Animation

Animation ★

Character

Videos

★ Concept ★ Storyboard ★ Keyframes ★ Colour Design

BRIEF: Create a series of 10-15 second animated clips for promotion on social media, each one corresponding to a bandmate character and each acting as a visualiser for an upcoming song. Videos should act as a snapshot into each character’s individual lives, revealing their personalities and interests whilst painting a grotesque and unsettling atmosphere.

Inbetweens and animation assist by Beatrice Robinson. Compositing and sound design by Taylor Malmo. Concepts and storyboards developed in collaboration with Sophie Brown. ‘Fritz’ concept and storyboard by Sophie Brown.

Deemo

Eugene

Fritz

Slug

Pinky Girl + Pinky Boy

★Character Design ★Environment Design ★Illustration ★Animation

Pinky Girl

BREIF: Design a character to represent the girlfriend in a fictional relationship as the personification of the song ’Pinky Girl.’ Design a corresponding bedroom to depict her personality and interests, and develop a short, looping isometric room animation. Visuals to act as social media visuals and Spotify Canvas.

Character designs in collaboration with Sophie Brown. Character keyframes completed by me, inbetweens by Beatrice Robinson. Background loops rendered from my illustrations into animation by Beatrice Robinson.

Pinky Girl is effortlessly cool. She’s the type of girl to actually go to a farmer’s market, and if you were to ask her where she bought her skirt she’d tell you she crotched it. She’s a hopeless romantic, always working on artsy gifts and love letters for her boyfriend. She’s doting, and sweet, and empathetic to a fault- she doesn’t mind that he doesn’t have hobbies, or a job, or isn’t very nice to her- he just need her help!

Close-up ———→

Pinky Boy

BREIF: Complimenting Pinky Girl, design a character to represent the boyfriend in the relationship to accompany the song ’Pinky Boy.’ Design a corresponding bedroom to depict his personality and interests, and develop a short, looping isometric room animation. Visuals to act as social media visuals and Spotify Canvas.

Pinky Boy wears baggy pants and writes his name on bathroom doors. He thinks this makes him very cool. His parents tell him his room is a pigsty and he needs to get a job, but they just don’t appreciate the man that he is: the State record holder for most Monster Energy Drinks consumed in an hour. He doesn’t understand a lot of what his girlfriend talks about, but he knows if he just smiles and nods, she’ll stop eventually.

<———Initial Sketch

Pinky’s Room

★Storyboard ★Keyframes ★Animation

BRIEF: Continue the world of Pinky Girl & Pinky Boy through a short lyric video animation to be shared on social media. Keep the character designs and room design consistent, whilst focusing on exploring their emotional dynamic.

Animation assist and compositing by Beatrice Robinson.

See concept art below

Exit Girl

Music Video

★Storyboard ★Roughs ★Keyframes

BREIF: Develop detailed and grotesque monster animations to be overlayed upon live footage for a music video.

Monster designs by Bo Jasper. Inbetweens by Beatrice Robinson. Colour by Taylor Malmo.

Live Videos

★Storyboard ★Roughs ★Keyframes

BRIEF: A series of character animations to be overlayed on ‘live’ music videos.

Inbetweens and roughs assistance by Beatrice Robinson. Compositing by Taylor Malmo.

Progress Shots

King Of Kingston

King Of Kingston

★Concepts ★Character Designs ★Storyboards ★Keyframes

BRIEF: Design a character based on an emotionally stunted tyrant and a series of animated videos to visualise the ‘King of Kingston’ song.

Inbetweens by Beatrice Robinson.

See concept art below

Ratbag’s Computer

★Concepts ★Storyboard ★Keyframes

BRIEF: A short animation for social media, showing a snapshot of the Ratbag character’s life with a ‘creepy’ loopable ending, to act as promotion for an upcoming release.

Inbetweens by Beatrice Robinson.

Juliet & Juliet

★Concepts ★Character Designs ★Storyboards ★Keyframes

BRIEF: To promote upcoming release of song ‘Juliet and Juliet,’ develop 2D characters based on music video actors and a creepy relationship tableau announcing the song release.

Inbetweens and roughs assistance by Beatrice Robinson.

★ Web Assets

★ Web Assets

WebRat

BRIEF: Design a pet rat character and a series of loops including idle animations and run cycles to act as an interactive element on the artist’s website.

★Character Design ★Animation

Programming, site design and mockup developed by Universal’s team.

Process Video

★Character Design ★Storyboard ★Animation

Where it began…

The first animation I created for the Ratbag project: An introduction to the world and backstory of the band’s formation, using mixed-media gouache and acrylic painted backgrounds with digital rendering and character animation.

Concept art created for Ratbag

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Everybody’s Dead Inside