Tim McCourt

I’m incredibly proud of this project. I can’t overstate how much of a @Hewll fan I am. My brother and I used to spend hours on the living room floor copying drawings from his Tank Girl comics. His work has had a profound influence on me, shaping not just my art but my career. Getting to work on this short film with him and the Gorillaz team is deeply special to me. I know I’ve worked with him before, but this project is unlike anything Gorillaz has done before, which makes it feel more significant. I want to shout out @maxtaylordesign , my co-director and brother from another mother, who did the heavy lifting on the day-to-day on this project. To @evaviolamaria and @mim_chi_ella , who ran a tight ship in production to make this possible, and to the entire production team, you were incredible at managing a project of this scale. To the crew, you did an amazing job! I hope you're as proud of the final piece as I am. Please be sure to check the credits in the comments to see the full team and be sure to give them their flowers! In an era of AI overload, we took great care to do this all by hand with incredible artists, ensuring everything was period accurate to the 1960s and 70s. I’m even proud of the trailers; we could have done basic cut-downs, but we thought it was more fun to play with the concept of trailers from this era. I especially love the VHS home video version. It’s so nostalgic for someone my age and makes perfect conceptual sense in the context of the film. I had a lot of fun writing them, and I'm well happy with how they turned out.

It’s been 10 years since @MaxTaylorDesign and I made @amaroandwalden Joyride! 10! Goddamn! years! (Sorry to blasphemy) I really wish I’d done more with Amaro & Walden in the decade since we made it. It almost feels shameful that I’ve probably only drawn them a handful of times since its release. I think the concept was strong enough to have kept making more content with them. I’ve since seen a few accounts do very similar stuff with a lot of success, so I really feel like we missed a trick. But I’m planning to do more with them this year. For example, Myself and Max, along with the incredible @Steve_Stamp have created a Amaro & Walden Series bible, and have been pitching it out as a show as of last month. We've had a couple of very promising meetings. One with a really cool network whose comedy I’m a massive fan of, and another with a major, major streaming platform. We have a few more pitches in the new year, so fingers crossed. 🤞 But whether someone picks it up or not, I’ve decided to make more with them. If not a full episode of some sort, then at least some short bits of content like the original short, or just some more drawings haha. Thanks to everyone who has shown love to these characters and followed their account without much reward. It’s appreciated. The bigger I can grow @amaroandwalden and their account, the more likely it is we'll see the success of it becoming an actual show. But until then...Here's the original short. 🙏 Oh and the incredible music for Amaro and Walden's Joyride, which everyone always asks about, was done by the masterful @cuznfred #amaroandwalden #THELINE #RC #car #cars #joyride #funny #london #LDN #RCcars

Maybe you've seen it on your TVs recently? But I recently co-directed a lickle ident for C4's new ident series with, my bruvah from another muvah, @maxtaylordesign . @thelineanimation was asked by @timebasedarts & @4creativec4 to create an ident that takes place in a British corner shop. The brief was for the camera to travel through the scene and into a box of crisps. The moment Max and I heard "crisps," we knew we had to do it! @timebasedarts and @4creativec4 had seen this incredible experimental film that THE LINE had made, created & Directed by @pedro_antoine , which explores a watercolour-looking character made completely in 3D. Fortunately for us, Antoine was up for helping out with this project, and along with @antoine_birot , who painted and concepted the environment, we were able to create something we're all very proud of. Shout out to @macarenagaset , who dipped her toes into producing for the first time on this job. Maca, you smashed it. Here's an infinite loop version. Also got a few easter eggs in there. My favourite one is Sunny News. It was a corner shop ran by mate @sunnyamin85 family. Client: @Channel4 Production Company: @artpractice.studio Animation Production Company: The Line Directors: Tim @tim_mccourt & Max @maxtaylordesign Executive Producer: Laura @laura_breaden Producer: Maca @macarenagaset Concepts: @antoine_birot_ Character Design: @danielclarkeart & @vanyafedorov Animator: William Lorton CG Supervisor: Pete @lonerobot Lead Compositor: Gherardo Zurla prop design by @pocoderana & @dconverio . . . #thelineanimation #Channel4 #cornershop #3danimation #3d #animation #bossman #blender #channel4idents #c4

Thanks for all the love I’ve received from the Gorillaz film. Means a lot ❤️ I wanted to share some BTS from the @buzzchickson mini series we’re working on at @thelineanimation . Here’s one of my favourite shots from the opening. It’s a super long panning shot done by @pedro_antoine . I love the art direction we landed on for this intro. One of the rules was anything in the distance used a low poly 3D maps topology, like what you might find on Google Maps. Then we colourise it, draw and paint on top of it. It's kinda a quick fun way to get through a background of a big cityscape. Plus I love the Lo-fi vibes of it. I also wanted to put in the location pins you might find on digital maps. It was fun writing the names, but there were a lot, so we asked everyone in the studio to contribute. There are some really funny ones in there if you scroll through the carousel. Also very open for more suggestions for locations we can use in the series. Rule: gotta be a pun on a London location, place, shop, restaurant, etc you’d find in London. Answers in the comments. Also leave in the comments any suggestions for BTS info you wanna see next, I'll see what I can do🙏 #lowbrowart #lowbrow #popsurrealism #london #LDN #animation #art #lofi #lofianimation #BuzzChickson #cityscape

So excited to finally share this with you. At @thelineanimation , we’re making a little mini-series with @BuzzChickson . It’s something we’re slowly chipping away at, but we’ve just finished the intro and I couldn’t wait to share it with you all. This project is meaningful to me. I’ve spent many years working in animation and directing projects, but I’ve never really got to explore my own visual style or character designs in animation. I’ve literally probably done it about three times in the last 15 years. So it’s lovely to do something like this. Buzz and his mates have definitely helped me explore my style over the years. He’s been a doodle character I’ve been drawing since I was about eighteen or nineteen. He’s always helped me feel free when I draw. Over time, I realised there was a lot of me in Buzz. He’s maybe even a version of me. He carries my fears, my cynicism, my distrust, and those irrational or paranoid thoughts about how the world works. He’s an outlet for fantasising, but also for coming to terms with reality, and how all those thoughts add up to something a bit perverse and kind of weird. This mini-series digs into that darkness. It’s set in an off-kilter version of the London where nothing is quite what it seems, but all grounded in my own thoughts, feelings, and experience. I hope you enjoy it. I’ll be sharing BTS via the @buzzchickson account, so go follow if you’re interested in seeing more. I really appreciate everyone who follows Buzz already! I want to give a special mention to @jonathan_djob_nkondo , who boarded the intro. I always feel super grateful when Djob agrees to work with me. He’s very particular about what he works on, so it always feels special when he says yes. I also want to shout-out @juanchocapic , who was heavily involved in the look and feel of this intro and the project as a whole. And a massive thanks to everyone at @thelineanimation who worked on this. This project really is a team effort and I’m so grateful to everyone who’s worked on it. Please check out the credits in the comments. #lowbrowart #lowbrow #popsurrealism #london #LDN #animation #art #lofi #lofianimation

I really struggle to draw. I wish I was one of those talented artists who just does a drawing one time and it looks great. But I tweak and tweak and tweak some more to get a drawing I like. And to be honest, it gets me down. I have heaps of self-doubt. Not sure if others feel the same way? But I thought maybe showing my process and how much I struggle might help some other artists. I'm definitely not one of those guys who can smash out a drawing of whatever and whenever they want (Maybe that's obvious hahaha). I take fooooooooooooorever to finish a drawing! Lemme know if this is at all useful. Feel free to leave questions in the comments. And if there's anything else you want me to talk about or show? Lemme know. I wanna try to be more present online this year... we'll see 😅

here's a drawing I done did of Ciggi Davenport, one of the hype heads. I might share a process video for this drawing. As with all my drawings they go through a bit of a evolution as I draw. I seem to be unable to commit to any line I put down. . . . #CiggiDavenport #Hypeheads #drawing

Amaro, at home chilling in his hothub. @amaroandwalden . . . #amaroandwalden #amaro #hottubtime #hottub #bath #bathtime #chillin

It's Friday, it's sexy, it's Amaro @amaroandwalden . . . . #cummingsoon #amaroandwalden #illustration #amaro

#PillEd

Been cooking up something with @buzzchickson over @thelineanimation #cummingsoon #buzzchickson #animation #pimple #pimplepopping

Next up is ARIES, the last one made in the studio before all the work-from-home madness. I think maybe we finalized it remotely, but I honestly can't remember – that time was such a blur. I know for sure we were in the studio initially because we did a little mini-shoot in our office with myself, producer @evaviolamaria , and of course Murdoc and 2D ;) I think a lot of fans thought this video's simplicity was due to the pandemic, but that was just a coincidence. We'd always planned to mix simpler videos in between some more expensive ones. The idea was to make some sort of video for every single track, so there was no way every video could have a huge budget. Jamie had shot this great footage from the window of his car while traveling in Morocco (I believe) a couple of months earlier. He inverted it and thought it looked really interesting – it suited the track's relaxing, journey-style vibe. Because the footage colours were inverted, the characters could never realistically blend into the backgrounds. Conceptually, we pretended there was a green screen and thought it would be funny if it failed for a moment, showing Murdoc and 2D in a room filming, as if they knew they were acting for the video. We loved this idea because it makes them feel more real. It was also fun to be able to say I was in an actual Gorillaz music video! In case you couldn't guess, I'm the guy in the Mexican wrestling mask eating a bucket of Buzz Fried Chicken. Gotta get my boy @buzzchickson in there. I also love that Eva is holding a fan to make Murdoc and 2D's clothes move. Fun fact: I was ill during this video. I didn't have the classic COVID symptoms at the time, so I worked through it. But I couldn't taste or smell anything – a symptom later attributed to COVID. Not saying I had it, just saying... If you scroll along, there's some BTS stuff for you to check out. Directed by @hewll ⁠ Co-Directed by Tim @tim_mccourt ⁠ Produced by Eva @evaviolamaria ⁠ Supervising Animator Venla @venlarvae ⁠ Animation by Venla @venlarvae ⁠ & @setiseto ⁠ Clean up by @setiseto & @eleonora.quario ⁠ Comp by Freddie @freddieLewis.wall ⁠& Courtney Pryce ⁠ .⁠ .⁠ .⁠ #gorillaz #2D #animation #JamieHewlett