Atella 'The Monster' by Chris Ullens

Chris Ullens animated the recent London Grammar video for Hey Now out of string and lighting - a very tricky challenge, but his latest video is a real step into the unknown.

Chris's speciality is stop-motion, and the video for Norwegian trio Atella's The Monster is his first ever 2D hand-drawn animation. But working closely with co-illustrator Bill Porter, he's made a wonderful job of the video. 

It's a stream of drawings, with colour illustrations overlaid over black and white, that flow between impressionistic images of Atella singer Kristiane Eldnes and scenes from nature taken from existing footage - including man's monstrous interaction with wildlife.  

Chris Ullens:

"As the track is really strong and raw, I wanted to give the animation this raw feeling too, so there's no post, it's all pure drawn animation and each image has been drawn twice for the black and white and colour layers. 

"A real work of love, hard labour and good old sleepless nights! It's my first go at 2D hand drawn and always wanted to do it. I'm so happy with the result! And I'm really happy with my collaboration with Bill."