just WOO it

Hi! I'm just making a post for one of my classes. The assignment is to choose an artist online and write about why they interest you and how they use the internet to promote their work. Check out Scott Benson!

The artist that I am writing this essay on is Scott Benson, a freelance illustrator and animator. His two main websites are http://vimeo.com/bombsfall and http://www.bombsfall.com/. Benson’s artistic style is very eye-catching and his skills are clearly shown in his understanding of lighting and composition. I am particularly interested in his work because I find that his style is not only very appealing and fun to look at, but also very original. His use of programs to create his illustrations and animations is also very inventive. In addition, Benson is one of the few artists that I follow actively who not only creates art for work and fun, but also to promote his own social beliefs.

Often times, many artists and film makers use Adobe After Effects as a means to polish off their films and use it only to composite or add effects. Benson’s work however, heavily relies on After Effects throughout his whole production. He not only uses it to composite and adjusts his films, but uses it to animate as well. Though his characters are much more flat looking due to the way in which he animates, which is to create pieces of the character and assembling them together like a puppet in After Effects, I find that this only adds to his personal style and appeal. He is clearly comfortable with this flat puppetry and it shows in how fluidly he can still animate his characters despite their limited movements.

Having this unique way of creating beautiful animations and illustrations have attracted many followers on his sites, which in turn allows him to reach out to a greater audience. His short film, “But I'm A Nice Guy” is a great example of Benson using his art to promote women’s equality. Though many people sent him hateful or mocking e-mails, the fact that he was able to make people more aware of the stereotypes and misconceptions of feminism was an important step in allowing his followers to understand his point of view. After that film was posted on his blog, he answered many questions in detailed regarding the message of the video. I believe that using art as a catalyst to create questions and awareness is a great way to bring people together to learn about issues in the world.

I think that his use of social media to promote his work and beliefs are very far-reaching. He uses both blogspot.com and tumblr.com to easily allow his followers to keep track of his new work as well as find his old work. The use of vimeo is also a great website to show high-quality videos of his work as well as keep in touch with those who are also filmmakers. Not only that, but all his websites are linked together and it’s very easy to find his tumblr for instances, through his blog or website. He also uses his sites to promote his side projects as well as other fellow artists.

In conclusion, Scott Benson is a very talented artist, who really utilizes the internet to promote his already amazing work to a wide audience. In turn, he is able to reach out to his followers not only artistically, but personally too by using his animations and internet platforms to also promote social awareness of issues he finds important.