Day of the Band Art Ninja

I'm Ricky. I live in Bristol.

By day, I work as an animator, which is lucky cos I love art.

I live for art, I even dream of art.

Ninja skills!

I draw, I paint...

I make things.

I hang out with my mates...

LAUGHTER

Gavin, Michelle, Rich and Sarah.

-Ah!

-Most importantly, I make ninja moves.

Some people call me the...

..Art Ninja!

Today, I'll show you how to make a guitar player with pipe cleaners,

dance to a different drum with this zoetrope animation

and I get my old band back together for slow-mo speaker art.

Because today it's...

Ugh! It's a new day.

Time to get my Ninja on.

And my clothes.

TOY SQUEAKS

They're doing drum practice next door. It's really annoying.

DRUMS PLAY

Oh, but it's making me move.

Oh, I can't control it.

It's triggered something inside of me.

Yeah! Oh, no, I'm dad dancing.

That's not dad dancing, this is dad dancing.

Ah, he's so embarrassing.

Dad's dance moves leave a lot to be desired but check me out.

Every pose is a brilliant picture.

Nice.

That's given me an idea.

I'm going to use these pipe cleaners and bend them into a figure

and put it in a dynamic pose.

If I make the model nice and elongated like this,

it'll look like it's been made by artist Alberto Giacometti.

Buon giorno, Ricky.

Hey, Alberto, I figured you'd be a figure.

Si, I loved sculpting and painting figures.

I used to keep carving my figures from soft modelling clay

and reworking them until they became very elongated and thin.

Here's some of my work.

My sculptures were often walking.

Talking of which, there's somewhere I have to walk to now.

Arrivederci.

Bye, then.

I'm going to start by just folding over my pipe cleaner

to make a head shape.

Twist it all the way down to give it a bit of inner strength,

like a spine.

You can buy pipe cleaners online or from a craft shop.

Now I'm going to do some arms.

Just going to bend that bit round like that

and that'll represent a hand.

Down to the elbow.

Hold it up and up to the shoulder.

Wrap that round the neck.

Then the other hand.

Right there, up to the shoulder.

Now go round the neck again - just to hold it in place.

Just working it back into the middle bit to make it stronger.

Now I'm going to start on the legs.

So going to give it a little foot twist there.

That's looking pretty good.

I've got a couple of pieces of cardboard here,

so I'm just going to stick his feet down.

Use a little bit of sticky tape for this.

Now just to weigh down the base

and to hold his feet perfectly in place,

I'm using a bit of modelling clay,

about that much for each foot and I want it to go into a point.

Make a little groove at the back and that groove's going to help me

grip round the pipe cleaner at the back of his leg.

Here we go, and these big feet are very typical of Giacometti's style.

"Whoa."

"Whah!"

Now, today's all about music for me,

so I'm going to make this guy a guitar.

There we are, cut that out.

Now I'm going to wrap them both in masking tape,

just to make them stronger,

easier to paint and it'll also

make him look more worked, which is

just like Giacometti's style.

I'm also doing the base

and going over the clay feet too.

I'm going to get a nice big long

bit of masking tape,

roll it into a ball to give a nice

round shape to the head.

Just go round that too.

Now I'm going to cover his guitar.

And stick it to his hands.

I'm taking a bit of masking tape

and I'm folding it back on itself

so it's sticky on both sides.

I'm going to use that to stick

the hands to the guitar.

Need to make it look like

he's playing it.

So now I can position his arms

in just the right way too.

Like that.

I think that's ready to start painting.

I've got some gold paint here that I've mixed with some black to

get that nice dirty bronze.

So it'll look more like one of Giacometti's works.

I've left the head till last so I can hold on to him

while I paint him and move him around until the very last moment.

There you go. My Alberto Giacometti guitarist.

It really rocks.

GUITAR MUSIC

You don't have to do a guitarist. Here's some other examples.

How about a silver ballerina?

Or a rad golden skateboarder?

A ninja...?

"Ha!"

Or a dog? BARKS

Think I'll get rid of this.

What is this? Oh, it's a flyer.

"Are you in a band?" Could be.

"Want to open a music festival?" Yeah, I do.

"Send your music demos to this e-mail address,

"blah-di-blah-di-blah at BlahFest.com".

Seriously, that's what it says.

Well, I'm going to need some instruments.

Guitar, bass, drums. Ordered.

Need to invite Gavin and Sarah over.

Text sent.

I can't wait for our first proper band practice.

But first, here's a quick art tip of how to draw an electric guitar.

I'm going to start with four lines going diagonally across my page.

Going to draw each one slightly longer than the last.

At the bottom here, going to draw a little rectangle

and that's going to be the bridge.

Then at the top, where the lines start to end,

we're going to draw a kind of bean shape with a flat bottom

and that is going to become the head.

On the top here, four little lollies

and they're the tuning pegs and then about a third of the way up,

going to draw a kind of horn shape

and this is going to be the body of the guitar.

Lines on the strings are going to be the frets and then we draw

a little oval shape underneath the strings there for the pick-up.

Now I'm going to decorate with some knobs, add some little wobbly lines,

so it looks like it's playing music.

And some musical notes.

There you go. Another quick art tip.

Why not have a play at drawing a guitar yourself?

GUITAR FEEDBACK

The last time Gavin, Sarah and I were in a band together,

we literally had everybody on their feet.

Not leaving the venue, dancing.

A bit like these guys in...

The Art Ninja zoetrope.

Every film or TV show you've ever watched is made up

of individual pictures speeding by at quick succession.

A zoetrope is a just an early version of that.

So take your paper plate, now, I've painted mine black,

and with a bit of modelling clay to protect the table,

poke a hole through the centre with a pencil.

With a pair of scissors - just cut a simple little X.

Now that's going to work as a cradle for a marble.

It's going to help the zoetrope spin

and I'm going to hold that in place with some sticky tape.

Cool. Now take a long sheet of black card,

long enough to fit around the outside of your plate.

Now, I'm going to cut 12 slots into it, equal distances apart

and I'm going to mark out where I'm going to make the cuts.

I think they're going to be eight centimetres deep

and they're going to be about five millimetres in width.

With some scissors, carefully cut those slots out.

Now go back along and just cut off all the waste bits you left behind.

Now these slots are going to be what I'm going to watch

the animation through, like little viewfinders.

Now I just stick that round the outside of the paper plate

with a little bit of double-sided sticky tape.

You can use glue or normal sticky tape.

Just run that along the bottom.

And I'm going to put a little

bit on the edge here as well, to stick it together where it overlaps.

Just going to prepare my plate by rolling over the sides.

So I've got a nice surface to stick the double-sided sticky tape to.

Right, peel off the backing of my double-sided sticky tape.

Just going to roll the plate along and anywhere where it needs a

little bit more stick,

I'm going to use some sticky tape to hold it down.

Just where it overlaps.

There you go.

So the zoetrope is a bit like a drum

and when you place a sequence of photographs or

images on the inside and spin it -

they animate in smooth motion.

So I need to draw my sequence of images.

I'm going to grab a long piece of white card with a little

bit of overlap, so it fits nicely on the inside of the drum.

Right, so now I need to draw my 12 pictures...

Equal distances apart,

so they line up with the slots on the zoetrope.

I'm going to draw someone dancing.

As you can see, I draw my figure in a different position each time,

so it animates nicely,

but so it flows, I need to return it to the starting position.

The word zoetrope derives from the Greek word meaning "life turning".

There we are - my last frame is

nearly at my starting position.

That should animate well.

So I've got my 12 pictures and my 12 slots in the zoetrope

and now I'm going to pop 'em in and make 'em dance.

Now give it a spin

and watch that tiny dancer spin across the dance floor.

MUSIC: Tiny Dancer by DJ Ironik and Elton John

# Hold me closer, tiny dancer... #

It's better than my dancing.

But not nearly as good as Dad's.

You don't have to do a dancer.

You can make your figure do whatever you like.

This one's jumping.

Or a dog going for walkies.

KNOCKING

Enough spinning, let's rock.

Hey, guys, you ready for band practice?

Yeah, been doing my vocal warm-up exercises.

# Me-me-me-me-me-me-me

# Me-me-me-me-me, meeeee! #

Yeah, great. So, bass guitar for you.

Oh. Talking of which, where are the instruments?

Well, I ordered them earlier. Should be here by now.

Oh, there was this box on the doorstep.

Well, that can't be them, it's too small.

-Don't know what these are.

-Mm.

Oh, no, it is the instruments but these are tiny.

They look bigger on the internet.

Must have ordered the wrong thing.

No band practice, no festival slot for us.

I'm going to have to pack you guys off

until I think of a different plan.

I can't play this, it's tiny.

PHONE RINGS

Hi, Ricky, it's your mum!

Just wanted to tell you what you've got coming up.

You learn how to make a bubble snake.

You'll make a music box that goes boom, for your bedroom.

And this slow-mo paint art will be hard to beat.

Anyway, bye, Ricky.

One thing you can't fail to miss is that that picture has

a life of its own and that's because it's animated.

SPEEDING CAR

TYRES SQUEAL

Hang on, is that a runaway sandcastle?

No, it's just really cold on this beach

and we're going to do an awesome animation anyway.

So, if you want to make this awesome animation - you'll need bucket

and spade mode, a beach and a tablet with animation app installed.

And you can put it together in just three Ninja moves.

Ninja move number one.

Need to find the perfect place on the beach to make your animation.

SCREAMING If you're too close to the sea,

your sandcastle might get washed away.

And too close to the dunes and the sand's a bit dry,

it doesn't make a very good sandcastle.

Ninja move number two.

Look around the beach

and find some interesting objects to make your racetrack.

The beach is usually full of nice big bits of driftwood

and seaweed and shells.

Steer clear from rubbish and other dirty stuff, though, it's filthy.

Ninja move number three.

Sand's really, really good for drawing in, so you can add

some cool little skid marks and extra accents to your animation.

I've built the sand up to create a little

shock wave as my sandcastle skids round the corner.

Once you've made your sandcastles

and taken a photo using the animation app,

you need to slide your castle and camera

a few centimetres forward

and then take another photo.

For my dramatic ending, I've added a little bit of an explosion, having

the sand pushed away from where Richie stomped on the sandcastle.

OK, I've shot all my frames.

I've added some cool sound effects.

I think it's time to take a look at our mini masterpiece.

SPEEDING CAR

TYRES SQUEAL

Ah, yeah, awesome.

So get down to the beach, preferably in summer, get your sandcastle

kit out and make yourself an awesome runaway sandcastle animation.

Ninja skills!

Ugh, oh, it's cold.

-BOTH:

-Ricky, Ricky, Ricky!

It reminds me of those adoring crowds I played to at that gig.

Ricky, can you make art with...

a wig?

I could, but it might be a hairy experience.

-BOTH:

-Oh!

Hey, Ricky.

Oh, somebody else from CBBC trying to get in on the act.

I was wondering if you could make anything out of this yoga mat?

That is a Next Step too far, Michelle.

Hey, I wonder what this girl's got?

Hey, Ricky, can you make art with a paper cup?

All right, then, I choose you.

Yay!

-So, what's your name?

-Cady.

Hi, Cady.

So, art with a paper cup.

I know, rather than filling it with juice, I'm going to fill it

with music and I'm going to put together an old-school boombox.

Cool!

Let me just go grab my things.

OK, Cady, I've got my things.

This is the sticky stuff there.

So, first of all we're going to take the paper cups

and kitchen roll and I'm going to draw a circle

on each of the paper cups,

just around my kitchen roll tube.

Cups are great because they amplify the sound.

Just going to put some modelling clay on the inside of the cup

and poke a hole with a pencil, so I can cut out the circles.

Just easier to get my scissors in there.

So now I'm going to need my phone

cos that's where the music's going to come from in the boombox.

Find the right place in the middle

and I'm going to draw a little guideline

and I'm going to cut a slot for the phone to slide in to.

There we are.

So, put a bit of clay in the inside.

Just cut that slot out.

OK, and I'm going to slide that tube inside the two circles

that I've cut in the paper cups.

One on the other side.

OK, so I've got them together now like this.

And now we're going to use that to draw some guide holes

on the top of this cardboard box I've got,

just an old shoebox.

Here we are. So, cut two holes on top of the box.

So I'm going to take the main part of the shoebox

and I'm going to stick the paper cups to the inside of it,

making sure that the slot that

I cut is facing upwards.

I'm going to do that with a little bit of PVA glue

and I've got some masking tape to hold it in place while it dries.

I've got a little bit of card here, that I'm going to stick to the top,

and that's going to be the handle.

I'm going to pop that to one side while it dries

and I'm going to cut this little bit of black card into long strips.

In a second, I'm going to stick these strips on the inside of the

lid of the box and they're going to become the grille of the speakers.

OK, so I've got the grille now.

So I think I want to draw a little bit of detail on this, to make it

look more like a boombox but I don't have a pen.

Do you have a pen, by any chance?

-Yeah.

-Oh, can I take it from you?

Yeah.

Ninja skills.

I'm going to start on the speakers.

I'm going to build them up a little bit more.

OK, just finish drawing this part of the speaker here.

I think I need some, like, bit of detail in the middle,

make it look all technical.

Front of the boombox is looking awesome.

So, get some music on the phone...

slide it in there.

POP MUSIC PLAYS

Ready to see the boombox?

Yeah.

OK.

What do you think of that?

Epic.

Sorry?

Epic boombox!

Yeah, it does sound great.

So, what would you give it out of ten?

I'd give it ten!

What?

I'd give it ten.

Yeah, ten, awesome.

Thanks very much, Cady, it's a great idea.

Cheers.

POP MUSIC PLAYS

What am I going to do about the band?

Hey, you there, scared of snakes? Love bubbles?

Then you'll love the bubble snake.

Here's how you make it.

Grab yourself a plastic bottle.

Remove the lid and cut off the bottom.

Maybe get an adult to help you.

Get an old piece of flannel.

Place it over the bottom of the bottle

and fasten with an elastic band.

Now decorate it with some googly eyes.

Cut out some hair from paper.

And stick it on.

I've gone with a punk rock look.

Eye-catching.

But you can do any hairstyle you like.

Take a bowl of water and add to it some washing-up liquid.

Stir with a spoon.

You may want to do this bit outside

cos it can get messy.

Dunk in your bubble snake.

Now blow into the bottle, creating an awesome bubble snake.

The bubble snake.

You wouldn't want to...

..hiss out.

HE LAUGHS

Hilarious. Ha-ha...

Really very funny, ha-ha-ha, whoa...

DOOR KNOCKS

Hi, Gav, where's Sarah?

Had any other ideas for the festival audition?

I've got one. We don't need instruments for our band.

I made some beats on my phone. Do you want to hear them?

No, I don't think that's what

the festival organisers want to hear.

BEATS PLAY

Oh, he's not listening and there it goes, Gav's trademark dance,

the running man.

PHONE RINGS

Sarah. Hi, Sarah. You've sorted out some instruments?

Great. I'll meet you at the skate park.

Ninja skills.

Hey, Sarah.

Hi, Ricky, where's Gavin?

Oh, I left him doing the running man.

Oh, here he comes now.

DRUMROLL

All right, mate?

Can I do the sitting down man now, please?

'Fraid not, bro, cos you're going to need these.

Cos we're going to make an arty pop video.

But first...we'd better get our Ninja on.

Art Ninja!

One, two, three, four.

-BOTH:

-Art Ninja.

Yeah.

So you guys want to get an awesome slot at a festival, right?

-BOTH:

-Yeah.

-Then we need to make a super rad arty music video.

-Ah, let's do it.

-Cool.

Positions, please, and I'll press record on the camera.

One, two, three, four.

Sarah, the amp.

FEEDBACK

It's not very original, is it?

I need some water.

Hey, Gav, watch this.

What are you doing?

Get drumming, mate. I'm setting the camera to slow-mo.

That was awesome.

It was... But was it arty enough for a pop music video?

If you want arty, what's more arty than paint?

We can make a music video by pouring paint into those old speakers.

Good idea.

Now, don't be doing this at home or you and me

both will be in big trouble.

Hey, Gav, watch this.

How about those beats you were trying to play earlier?

Yes!

BEATS POUND

That looks great. Even like this.

Let's try it in slow-mo.

-Wow, that looks amazing.

-That's incredible.

It looked awesome.

And it's only going to get better with a little bit more colour.

Sarah, plop a bit of yellow in there, some there, there,

there and there.

Go on, don't be shy, that's it.

Ah, I can't wait to see how this looks in slow motion.

Ready, Gav? Hit it.

BEATS POUND

Wow, that looked awesome. Red and yellow. Orange. Who knew?

Let's try a different approach to this one.

Let's pour some blue

and yellow on either side and see what happens when they mix.

Nice. Right, Gav, drop the beat.

BEATS POUND

Awesome.

That looks amazing.

It looks amazing when it's mixing.

That green is popping and I'm loving that orange.

I don't know about you, but these beats really make me want to dance.

-He is pretty impressive.

-Yeah, he ain't bad.

Look at that.

I'll just send it off to the festival organisers.

I think that'll really wow them.

HE YAWNS

Uh, bed.

I really hope we get to open the festival.

Our band is great and the video was super arty.

Today has taught me a valuable Art Ninja lesson.

If you want your band at a massive show, you'll need paint,

speakers and a camera set to slow-mo.

PHONE BEEPS

Wonder who that is?

It's the festival organiser.

They loved the video.

They thought the dancing was incredible,

especially the running man.

They want to book Gav for the festival, Gav...and not the band.

I've sent them the wrong video. Agh!