Jack Stauber

Stauber is possibly one of my favourite creators, his style of claymation, stop motion and digital animation create a twisted and distorted world that sits his usually dark and thought provoking undertones of his plot. Stauber released his own pop opera on the channel adult swim named “Shop!” it is split into segments named after each item on his grocery list and is a very enjoyable watch I definitely recommend it. Mostly he works on YouTube and releases his musical shorts on various platforms such as Spotify. 

I really like the weirdness in the shorts, each one is so very different but have his own unique style and you can tell with each animation he is continuously experimenting and defining his style. The two clips I have up above show the two ends of his shorts one is dark and emotional while the other is comedic and fun. These are both animated in different mediums yet they have the same general style and colour pallet that it is clearly by the same artist. In the first clip he plays with the world he creates and uses real people edited in for the body’s and moulds clay for the exaggerated and strangely formed faces, throughout the clip he’s able to use this to exaggerate features and emotions to unease the viewer and help them identify with the protagonist, The mothers face he can’t remember is deformed and grotesque, barely registering facial features to show the distress of the character and horror at himself for forgetting. The inner mind shows their anxiety and fears completely with the audience laughing while the host which serves as his inner voice, ridicules himself. The exaggerated colour palette of the very pink faces contrasts with the beige and boring room as well as the clay face standing out.

In the second clip its much more light hearted but keeps the exaggerated colour palette and features as he creates these old characters with small squashed bodies and drooping faces. Stauber often adds distortion to his own animations making them pixelated, lower quality and adding static to give it a vintage TV feel with the high contrast and bright line outlines on the characters. This I find quite nostalgic and possibly a throwback to his own experiences watching Tv, definitely reminiscent of VHS tapes or poor quality TV. Again Stauber uses the yellow toned background and flat colours with illustrative lines create an animation i find really enjoyable to watch the style is simplistic and a bit strange but that’s part of its charm.