Ryan Mauskopf

ART  .  June 19th, 2013

Interview of  Ryan Mauskopf, the creator of this lovely video !

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Hi Ryan, can you introduce yourself ?

Yes I can! I’m a New York City-based designer and musician. While I have a soft spot for cloudy days, I happen to love bright colors and whimsy.

Your last personal creation, Spacetime Fabric Softener, is a lovely stellar trip with great colors and sweet designs. Where the idea of this last piece comes from ?

Typically while I’m sitting on the subway or walking across Central Park I’ll pop my headphones in and just let my mind wander. I grew up with sic-fi––2001, Star Wars, Blade Runner––so that’s naturally where my thoughts grativate towards. A little smoke now and then doesn’t hurt, either.

Can you tell us more about your process of creation for this animation ?

My process is very tightly organized, I’d say. First I compose the song on my keyboard. Typically I’ll try out several versions of the same track until it’s got the right feeling––in this case, bouncy and bubbly. Then come the storyboards, which are carefully timed to musical cues (you can see some of them over at profsoap.com/art). The animation itself is hand-drawn frame-by-frame in Flash for a frenetic, organic look with some rotoscoped 3D elements thrown in here and there. Eventually everything is composited in Premiere and color-treated for that grainy, glowing retro feeling. I think it’s very important to know precisely what your project will look like before you even start any physical production, so make sure you plan it all out in your head first!

One big part of this video is the delicious soundtrack that you have composed by yourself, under your musician name, Professor Soap. Can you tell us more about this second identity professor ?

Hey, thanks! Professor Soap was a pet project I started a few summers ago. I wanted to push myself to do a song a day for a week, just to see what came of it, you know? I got into a groove pretty quickly and never stopped tinkering on my keyboard. Music is subjective, but the mood a song can put you in is a pretty universal thing so I always strive to create uplifting and relaxing sounds.

Do you know how long this whole creation took for you ?
Is it easy to find the time to work on personal projects like this one ?

This was my 2013 New Year’s resolution (and the first one I’ve actually stuck with, hah). It probably took around five months of off-and-on doodling after work. If you’re really having a blast with a project then finding some time here and there isn’t hard.

After traveling all your work, I wonder one last thing. What can we find in your head ? :)

The only time I ever really know what’s inside my head is when something pops out and surprises the hell out of me.

Thanks a lot Ryan !

ryanmauskopf.com

profsoap.com