Dezeen Magazine

Gustaf Holtenäs animates a space cartoon for Fabula Spatium music video

Gustaf Holtenäs based his animated video for Russian musician Mitya's track Fabula Spatium on surreal sci-fi art from the 1970s (+ movie).

The Swedish artist was approached by Mitya to create a video after the musician saw his work on Instagram. Upon listening to the album, Holtenäs chose a psychedelic song as he felt it best matched his illustration style.

Gustaf Holtenäs animates a space cartoon for Fabula Spatium music video

"The only guideline I got from Mitya was that he wanted some kind of space cartoon," Holtenäs told Dezeen. "I tried to make something as free of thought as possible and create something in a style that I prefer the most."

His process began by listening to the song on repeat while sketching whatever came into his head. He then began to build the narrative, which is based in another world.

Gustaf Holtenäs animates a space cartoon for Fabula Spatium music video

Throughout the video, the main character rides around space on a flying galleon, encountering bizarre-looking creatures along the way.

"The video is set in a completely other world and tells a story of something that a human like you and I don't fully grasp or find any strict logic in," he said.

Gustaf Holtenäs animates a space cartoon for Fabula Spatium music video

When creating the visuals, Holtenäs experimented with a number of graphic styles.

The video features a combination of digitally and hand-drawn imagery, as well as some 3D-rendered models and effects. The animation was created using a frame-by-frame technique.

Gustaf Holtenäs animates a space cartoon for Fabula Spatium music video

"I prefer to have as much hand-drawn material as possible in the video" he said. "It takes much more time to make, but the hand-drawn strokes have these natural irregularities that I love and I think they add so much to the atmosphere of the production."