Aye Aye Deadly Art

My name is Steve Backshall and this is Deadly Art.

I'm lucky enough to travel the world tracking deadly animals.

But in this show, my team of artists take my killer moment...

..and turn it into art.

And we'll reveal another unique creation.

Along the way, you'll get to pick up some tips, tricks

and techniques so you can make some art yourself.

This is no ordinary art show, this is Deadly Art.

'Coming up on today's Deadly Art,

'my crew and I track down one of the oddest animals on Earth.'

Crikey!

My artists make an extraordinary animation,

and you can make your own Deadly Art at home, too.

That's just weird!

What do you get if you cross ET with a gremlin?

Well, possibly something resembling today's animal.

It could be the oddest-looking creature on Earth. The aye-aye.

They're so odd-looking, local people think they bring bad luck.

In fact, it's thought that the name "aye-aye" might be the sound

people make if they bump into them by accident.

Despite their weird appearance, these really are deadly hunters

with well-developed night vision and several other deadly weapons.

Let's meet our artists.

I think they've got quite a challenge ahead of them.

As ever, they're ready and waiting in the Deadly Art studio.

Hey, I'm Mike, I'm a cartoon artist

and I'm up for today's Deadly Art.

I'm Nicola.

I'm an ice sculptor,

a sand sculptor,

and a power tool queen.

Mike and Nicola are representing the Deadly Art team,

who are always up for a challenge.

And this is today's extraordinary killer moment

to inspire our artwork.

For food, the aye-aye will tap around on bark,

using that extended middle finger, listening for the sound

of grubs moving around beneath the bark.

Then, it will hook them out using the claw on the end of that finger

and gobble them down alive.

Which is pretty disgusting.

I can't wait to see today's aye-aye artwork.

What a strange creature!

I do love the weird ones. But for me,

it's about how he jumps from tree to tree and grabs his food.

I like the idea of an art installation here.

An animation on a TV screen inside a Deadly Art jungle.

-Weird, just like the aye-aye.

-Excellent. Let's do it.

-Aye-aye, Captain.

-I knew that was coming.

You can't blame him, Nicola. Time for some more Deadly Art.

-Nicola's making a start on the jungle.

-Watch out!

All right, the first thing we need for our animation is a storyboard.

This is going to block out all of the moves of our aye-aye.

So, first, we're going to have him come in along a tree.

So, he'll have his head poking out here.

He's going to walk out, stop and have a little look at us.

So, we'll see him face on.

Then, have him jump down, off the frame.

Then, we'll have him disappear

and have him come back in along the right side,

along a tree branch here.

He's aiming for this point here, where he's going to find a grub,

using his long finger to tap at the tree.

All right, that's the storyboard done.

Now, all we have to do is create all of the drawings.

Heads! When Mike's finished his animation,

it's going to appear right here on this TV screen.

What I need to do is set the aye-aye into his natural environment -

the jungle. So, I'm going to turn some carpet rolls into trees

and dress them with some foliage.

We'll leave Nicola building her Madagascan jungle.

When the Deadly 60 crew and I were in Madagascar,

we got close to this extremely rare and ridiculously weird creature

in a special breeding centre.

This is such a spooky experience.

You'd almost totally forget that you're in a zoo

with this crazy goblin.

Crikey!

I think she thought my finger was something edible for a second there.

When it comes down to it, they are pretty fierce.

The first zoologist that ever discover the aye-aye

really didn't know what to do with it.

It's such a mishmash of animal parts.

It's got a great big, long, bushy tail,

so they thought it might be a squirrel.

It also has long incisor teeth, like a rodent,

that never stop growing.

So they kind of thought it was like a very peculiar squirrel,

but it's not at all.

It's a lemur, it's a primate, but the strangest one I've ever seen.

Perhaps that's the weirdest thing of all.

As a primate, she is distantly related to you and me.

The aye-aye is a very specialised feeder. Look at that front foot.

You'll notice that the middle finger is kind of all weird looking.

It has no flesh, no muscle, it's just one long, jointed,

pencil-like digit.

Look what he's doing right now, look at that!

It's so strange, I still can't believe it's real!

Now let's see some aye-aye art. How is it coming on, Mike?

We've started by drawing the deadly part of the animation.

This is where the aye-aye climbs up the branch

and goes after his grub.

In the next scene, he's grabbed the grub.

In the third scene, he's eating the grub.

You can see, if I flip this,

he's grabbing the grub, he's eating the grub.

Now, I'm going to draw the fourth scene where he's enjoying his meal.

Mike's giant flip book is coming on well.

There's a few more to go yet.

Nicola's got a lot to do to create a realistic jungle.

To transform this carpet roll into a tree,

I've added some wadding to increase the thickness, some masking tape

for texture and, later, I'm going to paint it to look like bark.

But, of course, it's going to need some branches.

I'm always amazed by the Deadly Artists.

Here's your chance to be a budding artist, too.

Nicola's taking a break to show you a Deadly Doodle.

I'm going to show you how to draw this ferocious little fellow,

the aye-aye .

We want our aye-aye to be sitting on a branch, tapping away.

So, we'll start by drawing the branch,

using two parallel diagonal lines.

On top of that, draw a big loaf of bread.

A circle for his head.

Two more for his eyes and a small triangle for his nose.

Two further triangles for his ears.

His arms are a series of oval shapes. One here,

which connects to this one here.

A larger one at the back for his back leg.

And then join that to the tree.

And the third arm we see is right up here underneath his ear.

Now we just need some guidelines for his fingers.

Just draw some staple shapes with one extra long one, of course.

And the same here. On the back, just four simple lines

and a thumb.

You can see him already,

but using a marker pen, we can fill in all the detail.

Fill in the ears, then join the eyes to the nose

with a swooping line on each side.

Fill in the nose. Two U shapes for his mouth.

And then to scary little fangs.

Draw two pupils and then a furry face.

Along this line,

do a really jaggedy edge to create that furry texture.

Give him a big, bushy tail.

And because he's tapping away at that tree,

two little movement lines.

And there he is, your deadly aye-aye.

The aye-aye may look difficult to draw,

but you all did a fantastic job when we visited Glasgow

on a Deadly Day Out.

When you get to the nose, just go over that as well.

-ALL CHEER

-All right!

BOTH: This is my Deadly Doodle.

It was kind of hard at first, but Nicola showed us step-by-step.

Here's my Deadly Doodle.

I think my drawing's really good but a wee bit weird.

Very impressive. Remember to keep trying our doodles at home.

Let's get back to the Deadly Art studio.

The animation is nearly complete.

I've used charcoal to smudge in all those really nice fur textures.

The fur will be different at each stage.

Which means, when we animated,

the fur's going to move around in a really cartoony way.

So, I've got one last one to do. And I'll show you how to fill it in.

We're just colouring in the shadows

and then drawing out the charcoal along the body.

You could try this, too, on your Deadly Doodle.

Nicola's painting is looking good, too.

Now, remember how weird those aye-aye hands look?

You're going to love this.

I'm going to show you how to make your own deadly aye-aye hand.

You're going to love this one.

All right, we need to start by making one finger.

For that, we need some inner tube from a bike.

We're going to cut off a piece, about 20 centimetres long.

And we're going to make it have a really fat end

and also a really big knuckle, just like the aye-aye.

So, for that, we need to poly balls,

one for the end and one in the middle, for the knuckle.

So you're going to need some insulating tape.

We're going to tape down that poly ball at the end.

Keep wrapping around and secure it in place.

It can be as messy as you like cos we'll to cover it up afterward.

When you've done that, we're going to fold the finger in half

and place our poly ball in the middle.

With one hand, we're going to hold it.

And with the other, we'll secure it with insulating tape.

Just keep wrapping until you've got it in place. Just like that.

All right, now we've got that poly ball in place

and it's got a fat knuckle like an aye-aye.

The last thing we need to do is add on those big claws they have.

So, for that, we get a smaller piece of inner tube

and we're just going to cut out a little triangle.

And then, with some more insulating tape,

secure that at the end of our finger.

Going to wrap it around a few times.

OK. Now comes the easy bit.

I'm just going to cover the whole thing in insulating tape

so you're hiding all the inner tube.

I'm giving it that aye-aye hand texture.

Just so it fits over your finger really easily,

we're going to do two slits, one at the top, one at the bottom.

All right, that's your finger all finished.

Now, for the hand, you need to use any old glove.

Get permission or you may be in big trouble,

because we're going to cut the tips off of each of the fingers.

OK, when you've done that, spread out that finger.

We're going to use some glue.

You can use craft glue, it just takes longer to dry.

And just slide it inside. All right, that's secure in place.

We've got one finger, now we need to add the other fingers in.

So, just like before, I've got the thumb, which is really big and thick.

That long, big finger.

Don't forget the long one is the middle finger.

I'm gluing in those other two fingers.

Make sure you have all the claws pointing the same direction.

OK, I told you this was easy. How's that for a deadly DIY?

How cool are the aye-aye hands?!

Back to the final stages of our big art.

The jungle is really taking shape now.

I finished the base coat and now I'm using this dry brushing technique

with a lighter colour to highlight that bark texture.

Doesn't it look like a real tree?

All right, all of our drawings are complete.

Now, we have to take a picture of each one of them with this camera.

Then we upload it to our computer.

That way when we played them back at speed, it creates our animation.

So I've got to line up all of my sheets.

That way the animation runs smoothly. Take a picture and repeat.

All right, I'll just play it back a little bit,

see how it's looking.

Oh, I love it! It's looking great.

OK, well, there's loads to do, so I better get on it.

So, it's nearly time for the big reveal.

All right, Nic, I can't wait anymore, I got to show you a preview, OK?

-OK.

-All right.

Wow, that looks so cool! It looks like the real aye-aye.

Yeah, but when we put the jungle in, he'll be really at home.

I love it!

Come on, guys, this is supposed to be deadly.

I asked the Deadly Art team to re-create this killer moment

and turn it into art.

So, let's take a look at the finished result.

There goes our arty aye-aye.

It's running across the branch, jumps down

and now it looks like it's climbing up Nicola's tree

on the hunt for food.

The jungle installation looks incredibly realistic

and representative of the aye-aye's environment in Madagascar.

The animation is brilliant. And take a look at that!

He's pulled out a grub with his extra long finger and gobbled it up.

Art doesn't get any deadlier than this!

What an incredible creation!

Make sure you try the doodle and the DIY

and we'll see you next time for more Deadly Art.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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