Interview with John Lumgair,Director at Quirky Motion

John Lumgair,Director at Quirky Motion, specializes in imaginative animation and illustration. His work, including the animated sitcom The Jazz Cow, reflects diverse interests from music history to architecture. He shares his creative journey through his popular newsletter.

https://substack.com/@johnlumgair

https://www.youtube.com/@QuirkyMotion

The "Quirky Motion" Style: How does the Little Black Book video—blending Art Deco, Byzantine, and 60s psychedelic art—fit into or push the boundaries of your established style?

We’ve never really had a “house style,” which, in business terms, is a mistake, as having one helps you say, “This is us”, and you can just blindly roll it out. 

But we’ve always believed that style should grow from the work itself. We don’t want to force a song into a pre-determined look. The poor song ends up at a party, wearing someone else’s outfit. It’s not about what your style can do for the song; it’s about what the song can do for your style.

Often, style comes from the unexpected. Looking at the building with the Byzantine church look and musing on Hendrix's psychedelic created the look.  Let style emerge organically, and you’ll get combinations that a rulebook would never allow—but somehow, they just work. 

Color Theory: You used complementary colors of similar value to make viewers' eyes "go a bit skewiff." How does this serve the narrative beyond just visual flair?

So the colour signals “60s psychedelic,” and it also mirrors Hendrix’s electrification. When he played in Tooting Granada in 1967, they had to bring in a specialist electrician just to rig it up for the gig. It’s no accident that electrification and psychedelia come together like that. Also, the idea that this happens and we don’t; now what is real and what is not at the end connects with people's descriptions of vivid LSD trips. 

The Yellow Submarine Look: You aimed for a "handmade" texture similar to Yellow Submarine. What techniques did you use to avoid the precision of digital or AI-generated animation?

So, we drew everything by hand (albeit into a computer). Some sections were proper frame-by-frame animation, just like they used to do in the old days, while in others I played around with a digital effect to make the lines wobble a bit, like when you’re drawing line by line.

I remember meeting Bob Godfrey at a film festival—he made Henry’s Cat, a British kids’ show from the ’70s. Back then, they just used big marker pens and didn’t test anything, because the budget was too small. This was about 20 years ago, and even then, he had a good laugh about how digital tools were try to recreate that kind of imperfection.

I also added a slight glow, lowered the frame rate, and offset the RGB channels to make it feel like an old VHS, just a few little touches to give it that nostalgic feel 

Inspiration Crossover: How did integrating live-action with animation for this video influence your approach to future episodes or the visual world of The Jazz Cow?

So, although Robert Mitchel, for whom this band was formed, is part of the team at Jazz Cow, and for course me, this project doesn’t directly relate to Jazz Cow. I don’t envisage using live action in Jazz Cow, apart from maybe for a joke sequence or something similar. Of course, I will have behind-the-scenes footage etc. That said, I do love Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and it remains an ambition to make a film like that. 

Fighting Bureaucracy: If The Jazz Cow's protagonist faced the council's "Computer says no" attitude regarding the blue plaque, how might they revolt against this logic?

He would put up the blue plaque himself! But there would be some complicated mission involved in combating Dr Popp's high-tech empire.

Visualizing Music: How did you translate Robert Mitchell’s track into visual language, deciding where to use high-chroma distortion versus subtle visuals?

I listened to the music and took my cues from there, though, in a very prosaic sort of way, some of it was also influenced by the technical limitations and deadlines.

Live-Action Elements: How did the mini shoot add a human quality that pure animation couldn't capture, such as the "paper thrower" moment?

I think it was a way to introduce the band, and a fun way to bend reality and imagination. When we were throwing paper about, I think the band thought we were a bit nuts, but they trusted us! It was actually a sweltering hot day, and having to collect all the papers after each take added allowed room for the unexpected, which you don’t have in animation. 

Preservation Paradox: The council denied the plaque because the building is "listed." Does cultural preservation mean freezing a building in time or celebrating its history through recognition?

I’d say all real traditions are living traditions, and once you set something in stone and just preserve it as it is, there’s a whiff of death around it. I love that the UK protects buildings of historic and architectural importance, and that local groups campaign for things to be kept. But buildings can—and should—develop and change, and it’s good to repurpose and reimagine them for new uses. If a building is well used, it’s more likely to be loved.

Artists' Role: What role do artists have in advocating for undervalued historical sites that local councils overlook?

I don’t know, but I think artists can often see the value in things or have imaginative ideas for new purposes. 

Next Project: This project aligned your "random interests." What constellation of interests—history, architecture, music—is aligning for your next big project?

I’m currently working on another music video—in fact, it’s another jazz one—for a renewed jazz drummer from New York. It's a cool concept and I’m just doing initial sketches. I’m also putting together a clip for Jazz Cow, and it's looking really good. 

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