Music: Australian studio Dropbear Digital used over 330 paper illustrations to tell the story of a wandering spirit in this stop-motion video for John Butler Trio's new single, Spring to Come.
Director Jonathan Chong of Dropbear Digital collaborated with independent illustrator Snip Green to make the film.
"The story is about an Earth-bound spirit called Jack who is searching for his long lost wife called Spring," Chong told Dezeen.
"He wanders the landscape as it changes through the seasons and all around him the cycle of life continues," the director said. "In the end he finds Spring and returns to the light."
Beginning with an animation of a pop-up book opening, the film cuts to Jack and Spring's graves, before following Jack's spirit through an otherworldly landscape.
"It was directly inspired by the underlying meaning of the song that no matter how dark things can get there's always light at the end of the tunnel and things don't stay the same forever – spring eventually comes full circle," said Chong.
Australian soft rockers John Butler Trio approached Dropbear Digital about making the video after seeing a stop-motion promo Chong made for Melbourne outfit Hudson and Troop.
The director told Dezeen that almost everything in the James Butler Trio video "was created out of paper - from the plants to the animals and the human characters."
"Everything had to be cut out and created by hand. It was animated on a traditional animation stand that consisted of three to four layers of glass so that the background, foreground and middle ground could be divided up and animated separately."
While most of the effects in the film were created in-camera, some were produced after filming. "The setting sun was a practical light on a slider that was animated by hand, and then the sky and stars were a digital effect," Chong explained.
The director animated the film using Dragonframe stop-motion software. Spring to Come features on John Butler Trio’s sixth album, Flesh and Blood.