About two years ago I received a message on Instagram from an Art Director at Google requesting my email address. The following day I received an email with an NDA and then the brief for the project. The Doodle was to be “a celebration of the Steel Pan”, the national instrument of Trinidad & Tobago which was invented right here in T&T. When I was first approached to tackle such a culturally significant topic for this Doodle I was a bit nervous because I wanted the story being told to be one that Trinbagonians worldwide would be proud of. I was also very excited because I love creating art that showcases Trinidad & Tobago and this Doodle will allow my country to be showcased on one of the biggest online stages
The Steel Pan is the national instrument of Trinidad & Tobago and was actually invented here. It is an instrument that was born from resistance and rebellion and is truly emblematic of the people of T&T. At the time, African percussion was banned among other things, and the steel pan developed out of that. The fact that such a sweet tune can be extracted from industrial oil drums is something that should be cherished. The steel pan is also closely associated with our national Carnival celebrations, and therefore is a great source of national pride.
The initial brief was for a static illustration, but after some more conversations it was decided that the essence of the pan, and the music should be showcased. It was decided to postpone the initial launch date in 2020 to work on a full length animation with original music. Mick Seegobin (motion design), Etienne Charles (composer, arranger, producer) and the living legend Lennox “Boogsie” Sharpe (composer) were brought on to the project.
Once the decision was made to do the Doodle as an animation, the next step was to do a storyboard and create sketches that could direct the flow of the storyline. The truck was used to tie together the different scenes and to be a motif used throughout the animation. The initial sketches were done really rough simply to show the idea behind the piece. Below, you can see some of the initial sketches.
Before animating anything, we created an animatic that showed the basic timing of each scene and gave an idea of what the final flow of the animation would be. The animatic also gave the music team an idea of what was needed as far as the length of the piece of music that had to be composed. It was also decided that we would create one long tracking shot of the truck which meant that I had to illustrate a panoramic scene that the truck could drive through. This scene turned out to be one of my favourites in the entire animation.
The final step for the animation was to refine each scene illustration as well as to refine the actual animated movements throughout the video. Once this was done, the music team of Etienne Charles and Boogsie Sharpe were then able to make sure that the music and sound effects matched perfectly with the visuals.
Overall, this was a great project to be a part of, and hopefully the end product is something that Trinbagonians and Steel Pan lovers everywhere can be proud of. I hope that people can take away the sense of the industriousness and creativity of the people of Trinidad & Tobago. We are a small country on the global stage but the fact that we have given the world such a beautiful instrument is something to be held in the highest regard.
And of course a special big up to the team that worked with me on this:
Mick Seegobin : Motion Design
Etienne Charles : Composer, Musician
Lennox “Boogsie” Sharpe : Steel Pan Soloist
See the final piece below -