RIK MAES

animation & video for: "Rondes de printemps"

My work
I make coloured pencil drawings, larger charcoal pieces, and more recently, oil pastels. For animations, I start with quick sketches to help shape the storyboard. I don’t work from beginning to end – it’s more like cutting and pasting until everything falls into place. It may seem a bit chaotic, but I’ve found that you only start to understand a film’s rhythm during the making process.

This project
The music has a touch of mystery, but also cheerful fragments. I immediately imagined scenes of nature and spring. While sketching, I wasn’t always sure what the images meant. But soon it became clear that a story was needed to tie everything together – the music demanded it. So I added my own interpretation.

Anecdote
I really do get inspiration from anything – from old NASA archives to random encounters in everyday life. What keeps fascinating me is placing the unknown in a familiar setting: that way, you can bring a fantastical world to an audience without drifting too far from reality.

Rik is from the Kempen and studied illustration at Sint Lucas Antwerp. He works extensively with animation, which he discovered as a way to bring his drawings to life.