Alarm clocks transforming into helicopters that fly out the window, meat-heads thumping their steak-as-heads in the shower, fish that jump through the floor, and zooming visual loops all seamlessly splash about the palette of the most relentlessly visual inventive animators working today – Run Wrake. With a decade of illustration work for the UK’s NME magazine under his belt, as well as music video clips for Future Sound of London ( We have explosive & Papua New Guinea ), U2, Stereo MCs, The Charlatans & quite a few for Howie B, Run Wrake has a long tradition of visualising music. A master of mixing together ever eclectic animation styles from photocopied textured to 3D, his work reaches it’s pinnacle in his short films, a collection of sublime and audiovisually intertwined animations ( available in a Run Wrake DVD compilation through Gasbook in Japan ). Most recent of these, his “Rabbit” short film has just picked up a few animation awards, something dwarfed by the arrival of a baby in his world (‘February has been quite a month’). Am most delighted he had time for a brief interview, be sure to catch his work in motion, where there is so much to marvel at.

Where did ‘Run Wrake’ come from?
Actually a nickname earned whilst keeping wicket particularly badly during a game of cricket aged 11. A friend was sent in for sarcastically shouting ‘’Run’‘, as the ball went thru’ my legs for four.

>>What have you worked on since the material in the Runwrake DVD?
Various projects: promos for Charlatans and Asian Dub Foundation, visuals for U2, Oasis and Live8, and a new 8 minute film called ‘’Rabbit’’ which is being very well received, nominated for a Bafta, and awarded Tiger award for short film in Rotterdam. Hopefully showing at a festival down your way soon. For more details and clips, go to http://www.runwrake.com, my recently updated site.

>>Animators, directors, musicians, writers who’ve inspired u?
Too many to mention. Currently going through a Dylan phase having recently discovered ‘Blonde on Blonde’. ‘’Hotel Rwanda’’ also blew me away, a brilliant and shaming film.

>>Currently inspiring about the form and possibility of animation?
Same as always, the endless possibilities.

>>How much time does the DVD represent, being such a daunting body of work?
The DVD covers the period from 1988 – 2000, but is by no means everything done in that period, maybe under half.

>>With so much animation under your belt, what has it taught you?
Its taught me that I’m very lucky to have the desire and ability to scrape a living doing what I enjoy, and that you will never make a piece of work with which you are entirely satisfied

>>Describe a ‘typical’ runwrake process for making a videoclip from start to finish?
I like to have as much time as possible at the beginning of the process to mull things over, not always possible with commercial work, and then it tends to get a momentum going until becomes obsessive until completion

>>Soft/hard-ware you play with?
Photoshop, AfterEffects, a little junior3D with Bryce and Poser, and hands holding a variety of implements.

>>How have animation tools improved since you’ve been using them?
Computers, and particularly After Effects/ Photoshop, have revolutionised the process for me. Everything pre-1998 was hand drawn and painted, cut out with scalpels and spray-mounted on to cel, shot and cut on film.

What animation tools do you find it incredible that we are still without?
The button on a mac that can read the images in your mind and instantly recreate them on screen.

>>Noticed you’ve been VJing – what do u enjoy / dislike about real-time explorations & tools?
Generally I enjoy the cutting loops to rhythmic music and the ability to do so whilst imbibing alcohol.

>>To what extent do you storyboard your clips? Or how do you approach narrative?
‘’Rabbit’’ is the first film that I have rigorously boarded, with a view to telling a story, and I thoroughly enjoyed the discipline.

>>What animation/video processes are you enjoying at the moment?
Same old, same old.

>>Current projects? Future plans?
Currently working on an ad for Natrel milk in Canada to pay off the taxman

>>Any desire for feature films, or longer works?
Absolutely, watch this space

PS. In response to a question about when he was going to animate a skateboarder, he even sent a tiny sk8 loop he’d made!