Animation takes centre stage for the first time at NDP
Lyric video for National Day original song Breathing City features drawings by 623 students
Home-grown animation takes centre stage for the first time - through music and lyric videos and a feature film - at this year's National Day Parade, with its creators hoping the breakthrough will draw new interest to the art form.
Among the talent to be featured on Saturday are 39-year-old film-making twin brothers Henry and Harry Zhuang, who used drawings by 623 students in their lyric video of National Day 2021 original song Breathing City.
Said Mr Henry Zhuang, who co-founded Weaving Clouds animation studio with his brother: "The lyrics written by Sezairi Sezali and Charlie Lim tell a story of the older and the younger generations building a future home... So we wanted to capture the children's imagination and ideals but instead of using adults to draw their dreams, we wanted (the children) to express themselves."
With the help of Mr Henry Zhuang's wife, who is a teacher, the film-makers collaborated with six schools, including Mee Toh School, PCF Sparkletots @ Sembawang West Block 789 and Serangoon Secondary School, to find young artists to hand-colour the frames.
Each colouring, which bears the name of its creator on the top left corner, was photographed and digitally stitched together to form four different animated segments in the video. The song is performed by singer-songwriter Sezairi Sezali.
Said Mr Harry Zhuang: "We were actually not sure whether this would work... But we received some feedback about how having the names in the corner was (a) very touching (element) for some, just seeing the creation of the young coming together."
HAMPERED
But the work was hampered by safe management measures. Home-based learning for all schools in May put an unexpected end to the brothers' collaboration with primary and secondary schools.
"Some of the schools... completed (only) half the frames, so we had to collect all of them because if we had left them... the teachers would next see the students in July," said Mr Harry Zhuang, adding that the lyric video was due in June.
Robot Playground Media, the animators of a 14-minute feature film that complements the parade, spent 10 months designing and revising between 12,600 and 21,000 hand-drawn frames. The team of over 30 included animators, background artists and character designers collaborating remotely to bring stories from the past and present to life.
With animation being a central feature of this year's National Day celebrations, local artists hope this will help Singaporeans discover its beauty.
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