Animator Nicolas Ménard creates looping idents for Canadian TV channel Vrak
Animator and director Nicolas Ménard has created two looping animations for French-Canadian TV channel, Vrak as part of its new on-air branding, which caters towards teenagers and young adults. “Vrak’s idea was to feature animated loops designed by artists from around the world on which they would insert timetables and a logo,” says Nicolas. “It was the best kind of brief: I was allowed to do pretty much anything I was into, so it was a great opportunity to experiment.”
The idents were made in Photoshop and use his signature colour palette of punchy, textured colours with simple linework. “The challenge was to make an animation that could be displayed as long as they needed. I chose to stick with a 16 frame loop per animation. I sketched a lot and discarded many ideas before stumbling on the two I’ve created,” says Nicolas.
“For the first one, I experimented with a ‘mise en abyme’ of a council flat. It’s the by-product of a job I completed recently for MTV with Manshen Lo. For the second one, I wanted to design a diorama made out of multiple loops playing at the same time. To deliver in time, animator extraordinaire Anne-Lou Erambert helped out to make the little guy walk about.”
The animator’s velvety style suits the repetitive nature of the loops perfectly, smoothly transitioning from one frame to the next. While it was a short but fun brief, Nicolas is hopeful he gets the chance to make some more for Vrak: “It’s the kind of project that makes you feel really lucky that animation is your job.”
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Rebecca Fulleylove is a freelance writer and editor specialising in art, design and culture. She is also senior writer at Creative Review, having previously worked at Elephant, Google Arts & Culture, and It’s Nice That.