Aye, even Einstein recognised ze beauty, ze efficiency of ze humble spoked two wheeler, ze human powered transporter, ze deadly treadly, ze bicycle. City riding can be tricky though, a fact countered each month by the International carnival of bikes that is Critical Mass ( see www.criticalmass.org.au for a list of Aussie meeting points, byo musical instruments ). Another champion of the cycling underdog in the city is the bunnyhopper behind Melbourne’s urbanbicyclist.org, a site full of street-savvy bike riding tips.

What inspired your Urban Bicyclist Project?
All the amazing people who use their bikes every day for transport and living. Every day, at all hours, in all parts of the city there’s a breed or cyclist separate to the more official professional bicycle world – a world that tells us to ride on bike paths, wear our helmets, buy more stuff, dress funny and don’t worry because it’s all being taken care of. Go into a bike shop and the only cyclists you see are lycra clad professionals or bike path bound weekenders. When it comes to support or acknowledgement for “urban” cyclists who ride for transport, not just fitness, sport or recreation, there’s little information support or advice.

The city rider guide started with a few small tips on avoiding car doors. There was a real need for some sort of official campaign to tell car drivers to watch out. In Europe you’re taught to open your car door with your opposite arm which forces you to turn and look. In San Francisco, and New Zealand the Department of Transportation produces stickers which go on rear vision mirrors as reminders. But in Melbourne we just got campaigns targeted at ensuring cyclists wore their helmets and bright clothes.

But a campaign targeted at drivers was beyond the capabilities of the urbanbicyclist project to address. We thought it was smarter to empower cyclists with the skills and information to better handle themselves. It’s also much easier to reach the right kind of cyclists by leaving notes on bikes parked on the street. The tips and tricks grew into riding at night, riding in the wet and other traffic tips, and the guide became fridge worthy (or back of the toilet door material).

Critical Mass also inspired the urbanbicyclist project, as one of the very few things that street cyclists have as a playground for their ideas. Bicycling organisations have been conservatised by their size and wanting to please everyone all the time.

What kind of effect do you think the monthly Critical Mass bike rides have?
Critical Mass rides have a reinforcing, re-energising effect on its riders and are a breeding ground for urban activists. I can personally name dozens of people who are active in the transport planning community, an interest initially sparked by their involvement in Critical mass. There’s also an emerging breed of engineers, planners and other professionals entering federal, state and local government working towards reducing the role of the car in our society. On a broader level, car drivers also notice Critical mass and even the mainstream media has registered the Critical mass rides that have travelled onto Melbourne’s privately owned CityLink tollway.

Memorable Critical Mass moments?
So many – from the epic bridge and tunnel rides, to the sublime winter rides weaving through the back streets of Carlton.

3 things car drivers should be aware of?
Walking, cycling, public transport.

We’ve inherited cities based on car-transport, how can we improve that?
That’s not necessarily true, we’ve lived in cities for thousands of years, we’ve had cars for a hundred. Cities are a reflection of the society that inhabits them. Streets are amazing places, public spaces are the lowest common denominator, the mixing place where people interact with each other. If we start to remove car traffic from our streets, they instantly come to life, the built form of our city responds to our changing behaviour as much as it influences it.

Inspiring examples of urbanised transport solutions / projects in cities around the world?
The most creative solutions to problems, in my humble opinion, come about when people work together. When the bicycle planners are activists who now work for city hall, where the mayor catches public transport to work or where the police know that riding bicycles makes sense. Breaking down barriers that we unnecessarily build around ourselves is the key to improving our cities which are essentially the spaces we live in.

Tips 4 new cyclists in the city?
Explore the city! There’s always 3 ways to get everywhere, sneaky back street shortcuts are so plentiful. Get a map of the city and investigate alternative routes. Don’t let the wet weather hold you back – a normal visor on your helmet can help to keep rain off your face and clear glasses can keep rain out of your eyes, mud guards can help keed road grime off yourself, and a bit of planning with a change of clothes (or just a change of socks) can make a big difference on the way out. Get a copy of the ‘city rider guide’.

Last time you had car envy?
Cars are beautiful because there is an entire culture founded on making them look good, cars are comfy because they couches in them and I like sitting on couches. But as soon as you take a step back and think outside the car, it really puts things into perspective and brings you back to earth.

What’s the largest animal you’d be able to bunny-hop over?
Bunny hopping is so damn useful, and there are kids in the city who can jump a metre or more over steps and onto ledges. I can do cats and dogs, but try and ride around animals that may be too big.

As predicted last week, eeet isss happpening aaa-gain… and the 2004 Melbourne International Animation Festival (June 22 – 27 @ACMI, see www.miaf.net ) is the biggest selection of animations you’ll see all year. Eyeball feast on 100 films from 25 countries, an Estonian surrealist animation focus, a Priit Parn retrospective ( google the genius), a Phil Mulloy Special, a spotlight on animated documentaries, twice the usual number of digital animations and loads of Australian works including ‘Harvey Krumpet’ and the quite delightful ‘Grey Ave’ by Eugene Foo, who speaks now:

What inspired you to transform Melbourne like that?
The idea of these bizarre creatures really began with just several doodles I did over at a friend’s place. The initial sketches were by far a lot more weird and demented – some of which consisted human body parts and features, making them look very disturbing. These random and spontaneous sketches I had done are what I believe to be a combination of fantasy art and surrealism (specifically a sub-group of surrealism called ‘automatism’ – drawing thoughts from the subconcious psyche). I have been doing this for a very long time, but never really saw the potential of it being an animated film, and I certainly didn’t expect it to come in full bloom when I was in Melbourne. Being a foreigner in Melbourne, even the most mundane of urban objects seemed to have a different effect on me compared to when I am back home in Malaysia. Everything seems so ‘alien’ – just the same way these surreal creatures are alien to the real world.

How much did sound influence your visualisation / animation?
Music, I would say is the prime essence of the animated film. In fact, it was the very element that helped me string my ideas together. I used to walk to college in Melbourne listening to Madonna’s song, ‘Frozen’ from her album ‘Ray of Light’. I had this strong affinity to the tempo and beat she had in that piece – very dark and enigmatic. While doing this everytime I went to college, I had my sketches incubating in my head, sort of like waiting for an idea to hatch. I don’t know how, but one day, I just saw the sketches in my head coming to life and moving with the tempo of the music – that was when the core foundation of the idea was born.

What’d you enjoy about the tools & processes you used for ‘Grey Ave’ ?
I used a lot of Adobe Photoshop and Adobe AfterEffects in my film. These softwares were able to cut my time down to almost half compared to if I had done things manually. The texturing and colouration of objects for instance, was done in Photoshop entirely. AfterEffects was used to animate almost all of the creatures and even the walking charcacter. The softwares gave me the results I needed extremely fast and often times even more than satisfactory. Everytime I completed a shot, I get very excited and was eager to go on to the next – wanting to see how each one would look like when I brought bringing mere sketches from a static storyboard to life.

Explain ‘rotoscoping’ in terms of how you used it in your animation?
The only element rotoscoped in the animated film was the walking character – which in fact are footages of me that my housemate helped record. I felt the treatment of the rotoscoped sequences and the irregular shaky lines all incurred a certain mood and feeling I wanted. It made it feel more organic, and a whole lot more personal reason being that it is myself that I see in my film.

What animators are pushing animation ahead these days?
I’ve thought technique and technology was the driving force in the animation world, and feared 2D animation was slipping away with the explosion of 3D animated films like Shrek, and previous Oscar winning shorts like The ChubbChubbs and For the Birds. Nevertheless, it is masters like Koji Yamamura, Hayao Miyazaki and Australia’s very own Adam Elliot (this year’s short animated film Oscar winner) that proved my assumptions wrong. It is the substance and story that is most crucial. In fact, good storylines and substance is being emphasized even more now than ever because stunning imagery has been made so conveniently easy to achieve, the only way a film can stand out from the rest is from the story they each tell.

What projects are you working on now?
My next short animated film is a dark & twisted tale of a biologist whose wife is delivering their first child in a hospital. I also do paintings whenever I have free time from lecturing at a local university here in Malaysia.

3 Amazing animation URLs?
Flash Animation – www.transience.com.au, www.happytreefriends.com
Indie Animation Archive – www.zed.cbc.ca