The music video for This is America by rapper Donald Glover aka Childish Gambino has arguably been the most talked about this year, with fans poring over each and every frame of the 4-minute epic looking for new layers of meaning to Glover and director Hiro Murai’s dazzling and disturbing commentary on race relations in America.
One of those fans is Indonesian animator Wahyu Ichwandardi, aka Pinot, who you may remember from his incredible retro remake of the Star Wars: The Last Jedi trailer using a 1984 Macintosh with monochrome display.
Cita-cita waktu masih kecil di th 80an: bikin trailer Star Wars pakai komputer Apple bermonitor monochrome, baru kesampaian sekarang. pic.twitter.com/kUV28VB5pq
— Pinot (@pinotski) June 26, 2017
The much in-demand artist’s latest side project is a painstaking pixel art remake of This is America using some of the most cutting edge technology available to animators… back in 1985, including a Macintosh128K and MacPaint 1.5.
Pixel art machines:
– Drawing tool: Macintosh 128K + MacPaint
– Animation too: Macintosh SE + MacroMind VideoWork
– Both connected with LocalTalk pic.twitter.com/h19c8fWFKO— Pinot W. Ichwandardi (@pinot) June 29, 2018
Wahyu has been documenting the project since he began in June with updates showing the crazy amount of work he puts into each and every meticulously pixelated frame to make sure it captures the essence of Glover’s performance.
To animate the dance properly, I examine from the video of the choreographer herself @SherrieSilver. The #gwaragwara in pixel animation art 🙂 pic.twitter.com/rJD9ZHYX5p
— Pinot W. Ichwandardi (@pinot) July 2, 2018
The artist’s latest Twitter update shows his progress, 470 frames in.
A month later: 470 frames, 38 seconds of Donald Glover dance. Timelapse of the actual MacPaint files. pic.twitter.com/7D7Uf0CdU1
— Pinot W. Ichwandardi (@pinot) July 9, 2018
And here’s a side by side:
https://twitter.com/pinot/status/1015344783047487488
In response to those who want to know why he would spend so much time (around two to three hours a night) laboriously creating an animation like this using old hardware when he could do it in a fraction of the time with modern tech, Wahyu wrote this:
Why people choosing regular road when they can use interstate?
It’s not about the final result or the destination. It’s about the experience, the process, the journey.
— Pinot W. Ichwandardi (@pinot) July 8, 2018
And what a mesmerizing journey it has been…
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bk0-6HKHGQ_/?taken-by=pinot
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