Spotlight focusses on Creative Commission members with stories to tell. Next up, we hear from Cleveland-based animator Francesca Moore, whose relationship with creativity has blossomed this year after rediscovering the process of animation. Over to you, Francesca...

My name is Francesca Moore and I am an independent 2D rotoscope animator specialising in lyric and music videos. I have been animating since my high school days, so about eight years or so now, playing around with stop motion and various 2D styles in After Effects. When I saw the video for Kanye West's Heartless in class one day, I fell in love with rotoscope animation and my style really blossomed from there.

My entry as an artist into the music world has been through musician friends. I will hear a friend's song or they will see my work and the collaboration happens naturally, often turning into music videos or album covers. This year has been a big year of prioritising media-making for me. I have been working as a freelancer part-time and have been lucky enough to create lyric and music videos for some incredible artists like Liv Dawson and Anthony Frijia. I am striving to be a full-time creator for musical artists.

What I love so much about my job is that I get to be my weirdest, most fun, and real version of myself. I feel like when I am creating, there is no front I am trying to put up, it really just comes down to amplifying the emotions, the mood, and story of a song. That is just so fun. I also love the problem-solving aspect. I love that feeling where I have been going through a lot of possibilities of what kind of animated scene or shot could work and then I finally land on one that feels good and right.

It was so cool to breakthrough those barriers and say 'woah, I actually can make that'

This year has really transformed my relationship with creating. I had kind of put making things on the back burner, but quarantine opened up a tonne of free time where I was so lucky to have time to create and rediscover the beautiful process of animation. I began working with a friend's song to create a 2D rotoscope animated music video and it became a process of rediscovering this passion for putting things together and finding ways to visually tell the story of a song.

Through losing a job at the beginning of the year to luckily finding a full-time job months later, the project kept me grounded through a lot of changes and uncertainty. It really served as this awesome reminder to come back to my dream of making things for music, even if that is just after work or on weekends.

The project I am most proud of from this year would be the animation I did for Anthony Frijia's Charlie's Spaceship. I am so proud of this project because I was really able to grow as an artist. From the first listen, I had no idea how I was going to do what I envisioned, but it was so cool to breakthrough those barriers and say 'woah, I actually can make that.'

Creative Inspiration

The campaign I have enjoyed the most in 2020 is 100% Taylor Swift's folklore campaign. She has done an incredible job with stripping everything down on this album; it is raw, real, classic, magical and the campaign has captured that in every way from a single music video for Cardigan to the folklore photoshoot done by Beth Garrabrant.

I am really inspired by the work of Zachary Zezima who just has the coolest, weirdest, most colourful sense of style and storytelling. Whenever I need a hit of inspiration, I visit their videos. I am also always inspired by the work of a friend, Paige Hahs, who seems to have a Midas touch when it comes to having a strong sense of design while also thinking out of the box.