Music: animation studio Parallel Teeth has designed an abstract world of disembodied eyeballs and dancing shapes for Ladi6's Beffy music video (+ movie).
The film follows a main character in a yellow dress as she goes about her day, from waking up and getting ready to a frightening encounter with an enormous cartoon face.
As the protagonist journeys through an unusual world full of spinning shapes, she encounters a second character in very similar attire to herself. Together the pair confront the giant face, before joining a sea of robotic body parts, moving in time to the music.
Parallel Teeth, otherwise known as Robert Wallace, based the video on the track, which follows the fortunes of someone whose luck is improved when they're with their friend.
"The choruses are occupied by looping, personified machines rhythmically pumping along to the upbeat synth melody," the animator told Dezeen. "There is a strangeness to these objects, how they move and interact."
"Parts are visually connected by the same bright colours, basic shapes and abandonment of normal perspective rules."
The main character is designed as an "abstracted and simplified" version of Ladi herself. Wallace included her as a way of overcoming budget restrictions that prevented him from travelling to the musician's home country of New Zealand for a live shoot.
The animator worked on the film by himself, adopting its minimal aesthetic as a more "economic" way of finishing it alone. Everything was designed digitally and made using a mixture of keyframe animation and frame-by-frame drawing.
"A rough grade and a lower frame rate lessened the machine-Âlike qualities of the animation and gave it a more personal voice," he explained.
The film took seven weeks to finish, with three spent finalising the narrative and idea, and four dedicated to solid animation work.
Beffy is included on Ladi6's new EP, which will be released later in the year.