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
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The sluggish bassist, jaded and apathetic, living alone in the forest on a diet of small birds and bones, and hiding behind a knitted starry ski-mask which he never removes. The embodiment of sloth.
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Reckless, immature and emotionally stunted, the demon-like guitarist spends his days chain-smoking atop his favourite scenic cliff. Deemo represents teenage angst.
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Modelled after the musician herself, Sophie Brown, the Ratbag character is the adventurous protagonist and singer of the band, who recruited the members one-by-one throughout her journeys in the mysterious World of Ratbag.
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Zany, crocodile-like Fritz is the keyboardist of the group. Though he’s energetic, he’s riddled with paranoia, and spends much of his time hiding in his swamp; he’s the representation of anxiety.
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Eugene embodies slobbishness. He sits outside his junkyard caravan sipping soda and eating meat-chunk-soup, then uses the leftover bones to play his pots-and-pans drumset. He’s a great cook though, if you don’t mind eating human!
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