Promoting Good Animation: Washed Out — “Hard to Say Goodbye”, Directed by Jonathan Hodgeson

I chose to promote the music video for “Hard to Say Goodbye” by Washed Out as an example of good animation. This animation is part of the visual album titled, “Mister Mellow”(2017); which is a half hour long psychedelic, “chillwave”, electronic, pop album that glides through themes of stress, drugs, sanctuary found in music, and the fast pace of day-to-day life.

In terms of story, this animation stays fairly simple; a man wakes up before noon, hops on the metro, and walks through his day in the city until he goes back home and falls asleep on his couch. While this animation does not push itself for a complex narrative, it excels at complimenting the somber lyrics of the song while keeping pace (sometimes literally) with the dance-able rhythms that keep the song floating by.

Blue and pink overlays interspersed between solid, brightly colored silhouettes create the primary design found throughout this animation. The lo-fi feel created by this video’s grainy quality and film noise creates a much more personal feel to the animation, as if you were viewing someones home footage of their daily life. The swirling, fuzzed out look of the main character shown throughout did an excellent job of keeping my attention and provided some sort of visual relief among the chaotically changing styles of rotoscoped city life.

Left (A face that looks like it has been made from coffee stains emerging from the word “Time” leads us from the verse to the pre-chorus.) Right (A rotoscoped metro tunnel takes us out of the bridge and into the final chorus of the song.)

Some of the most creative scenes found within this animation, such as faces emerging from words or a train exiting a tunnel filled with strobing lights, can be seen at various transition points during the song. Clever usage of editing merges many scenes together as layers slip past one another or engulf the camera. The overall busy and impressionistic feeling created by this style of rotoscoping fits within the rest of the visual album very well and is probably one of the best videos among the tracklist.

Overall, this animation does an excellent job of exploring the mixed media potential of rotoscoping, all while creating a window into a crowded city filled with morphing faces, skeletons, and pulses of glowing colors. If you enjoy this song and animation as much as I do, I would highly recommend setting aside 30 minutes to watch the entire album, or at least giving a listen/watch to “Floating By” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvJfiuvDfeo