German Expressionism: Der Geist Ist Willig...

'Nosferatu' (1922)

'The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari’ (1920)

'The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari’ (1920)

‘Metropolis’ (1927)

Expressionism may have died in Germany during the late 1930’s with the rise of National Socialism, but it continues to haunt our cinema screens and our minds to the current day.

Monsters Ashore: The Singing Loins

And here is the final music video.  Producers, actors and co-collaborators, a HUGE THANK YOU for all your hard work and support. I've really enjoyed, appreciated and learnt a great deal from working with you all. I hope that we can all get together for another voyage into the unknown again sometime.





The good ship Arethusa battles terrifying creatures from deep in nightmarish seascape - but is the real monster at her helm ..?

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Song Written By Broderick & Allen, from the album '...here on earth' (DAMGOOD405CD), Damaged Goods Records. Published by Vacilando '68 (Bucks Music Group). A White Rabbit Animation Production. Director: Emma Windsor, Original concept: Shorebird Crick, Cast: The Singing Loins & Fola Akinsola, Production / Technical: Patrick Murphy & Sylvia Lim, Camera: Dan Wylie & Emma Windsor, Digital Artwork & Animation: Michaela L. Czech, Ellie Dickens & Emma Windsor, Monster Make-Up & Illustration: Katie Broderick, Special Thanks: Jay Allen, Mike Tappenden, Nadia Ward & Seth Woolf. Find out more about the Loins: http://www.singingloins.co.uk

From Illustration To Animation: Making 'Monsters' Move

Many of the sequences in the music video 'Monsters Ashore' involved the work of more than one person.  A key set of sequences in the video involve the good ship Arethusa on her journey into the dark unknown.  We had decided to use an 'olde mappe' look for these and therefore got to work creating artwork in this style.

The process was thus:  Katie used references from old sea maps and other materials to create some lovely concept illustrations of terrible sea monsters, waves, charts, a compass and the Arethusa.  These were beautifully hand rendered and some can be seen here.  This concept artwork was then scanned and passed onto Ellie, who traced and coloured Katie's original illustrations to create 2D digital artwork from the pencil drawings.  Although we had to make some alterations for technical reasons, we tried to remain as faithful to Katie's original concepts as we could so her vision was maintained.  These resultant digital files were far easier to manipulate and could be quickly scaled up and down without loss of resolution, for example.


Having reproduced all of the illustrations, Ellie then animated each element in Adobe After Effects.  We wanted a 'Victorian paper theatre' feel to the movement, so the use of keyframe 'tweened' animation suited well.  Et voilà, the good ship Arethusa was launched onto the high seas.

Ellie also produced a marvellous and truly monstrous angler fish in a similar style for use in the underwater sequences, which both provided a stylistic link between these and the map sequences and added more visual interest to the scenes (no offense Loins!)  These fabulous specimens were again animated in After Effects, although this time via 3D layers and masks, which was the prevailing technique used to composite this watery underworld.

Here fishy, fishy, fishy..!




About Ellie Dickens
Ellie Dickens is a digital artist and 2D animator. She is currently studying for a master's degree in animation and has an animated film competing in this year's Cornwall Film Festival and UK Film Festival. She enjoys creating weird and wonderful creatures but also has a penchant for parody and mischief. Some of her mockery can be seen at www.arseandelbow.com.


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The Singing Loins
The Loins have a new album '...Here On Earth' coming out on Damaged Goods on 5th November. It's on CD and digital is available for pre-sale now. They're holding the album launch gig up in London at the legendary 100 Club on Oxford Street on the 6th. Tickets are £7.50 (in advance) and available here.

You Make My Loins Sing! The Eclectic Aesthetic Of Fola Akinsola

I've had the very real privilege of collaborating with a number of artists from different disciplines whilst working on the music video 'Monsters Ashore' for the Singing Loins' forthcoming album '...Here On Earth.'  Amongst those already mentioned is the very lovely Fola Akinsola - a graphic artist, model and all round good sport who lives and works in Kent, UK.

I hope you like her work as much as I do...