What is the film about?

Cold Hearted Land is a music video for Steve Puddle and his Bivouac Band. It follows the journey of a bear through various landscapes, gathering others along the way. Do they know where they’re headed or why? Or is it an animal migratory instinct…?

Released 7th March 2016

What influenced it?

Although my professional work would largely fall under the umbrella motion-graphics, I’ve always loved the work of more traditional animators such as Sylvain Chomet. The direct influence for this video came really from the rhythmic beat of Steve’s main guitar line in the song – it always felt like a heavy footed journey through different landscapes.

A little background information...

As a member of the band I’d wanted to direct a music video for a track from our new album. Initially I’d picked a different song and this Cold Hearted Land video was intended more as a live projected visual and something to clear a bit of creative block before concentrating on another track.
But it kept growing as a video in its own right, and it eventually became clear that it needed to be developed into a fully-fledged music video.

How was the film made?

It started with a set of hand-drawn frames of the bear walking in a loop. Originally he was a cubist set of blocks and slowly got refined further and further to really try and emphasise the weight of each step to match the song.
These frames were scanned in and a mostly 3D world was built for it to travel through. These 3D backgrounds were either rotoscoped or digitally chewed up to give everything a boil and a textural quality without overlaying actual textures.
One by one other animal loops were added and the final culmination of the film built. With the soundtrack already made and no sound design required it was all in my own hands to complete the video, so it obviously took vastly longer than I’d originally planned… but I’m excited to present the final film.