About The Project
This is a passion project / portfolio piece to challenge myself in all aspects of the animation pipeline. From story boarding and concept to animating and compositing, I want to develop and sharpen my skills.
“The World’s First Ever Monster Truck Front Flip” is from Arctic Monkey’s 2018 album Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino. This album has stuck with me since its release. It is a conceptual album about a hotel on the moon, using the distant future to examine our present moment, exploring themes of nostalgia, politics, consumerism, fame, and technology. This album has been a comfort for me through the uncertainty I've experienced in the past few years, from graduating high school at the height of COVID in 2020 then graduating college just in time for the affliction of artificial intelligence.
“No one’s on the streets, we’ve moved it all online, as of March” (“She Looks Like Fun”)
“The World’s First Ever Monster Truck Front Flip” stuck out to me as a potential music video project particularly for its imagery. I see the truck flipping forward, an elevator sinking into the depths, and myself in the glow of a phone screen as I fall asleep. In my interpretation, the song highlights the over consumption of content online. The ease and speed at which we are able to consume overloads our brain, making it difficult to make sense of it all.
“I want to make a simple point about peace and love, but in a sexy way where its not obvious" ("Science Fiction")
With just the simple press of a button you can get your fix, whether its a quick laugh to escape the awful state of the world or getting sucked into the guilt of not doing more about it. You can shop, gamble, or access porn with the press of a button and little to no friction. We see the best versions people present themselves as, and we read the cesspool of comments below every post. We curate our online presence, put too much weight on unimportant drama, send memes with increasing layers of irony, escape to mindless content, and fuel our curiosity with doom scrolling. Is there any way to escape this cycle?
“There are things, that I cannot explain to you, and those that I hope I don’t ever have to” (“The World’s First Ever Monster Truck Front Flip”)
The Monster Truck
click to view in full screen
The first ever monster truck to complete a front flip in competition was accomplished by Lee O'Donnell in his Mad Scientist Truck. Instead of using that truck's design, I decided to create my own monster truck. Swamp Monster was inspired from the song "Science Fiction" from Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino. The song makes references to popular science fiction stories and tropes, including Swamp Thing. Other ideas for this design were inspired by "Batphone" and its connection to Batman - Knight Crawler, Riot Tank, Bat Mobile, Rat Mobile, Lunar Lady, and Night Bird - which could all very well be good names for a monster truck.
Character Models
First Iteration of Lizzy:
Second Iteration of Lizzy:
Lizzy's Room
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