Animating The Psyche: A Talk With Boris
In the competitive world of animation, Finland-based animator Boris stands out with his surreal and unique aesthetic. His eclectic and highly stylized works have garnered him a substantial online following on Instagram under the username @handsome_boris_. He was also a speaker at the In Motion Rotterdam 2024 festival, which will take place on September 19th-20th and is organized by Playgrounds. Boris’ works use themes of introspection and delve into the inner psyche while exploring the human condition. These aspects of his work align neatly with the United Nations Sustainability and Development Goal of Good Health and Wellbeing. In this interview with Arts Help, we discuss Boris’ artistic process, his journey as an artist in the modern internet landscape and the personal messaging behind his works.
Disclaimer: Some answers have been paraphrased for brevity and readability.
You began your early career creating 3D models and environments before transitioning into 2D animation interlaced with audio and music. What can you tell us about this transition and the process of finding your own medium?
I was studying production design in 2021 and that's why I went into 3D design at first. To basically create basic models and environments for film, just basic skills, making sketches and taking measurements in 3D space. I liked it, and I liked the idea that you could do a lot of things with it. I learned how to create using it over the course of a year or two but unfortunately there was no way of finding a job and I didn't have the necessary experience or the time to get as good as I had to be to get employed. At some point I saw a video about 2D animation, by Pablo Cabon. I thought it was very cool, and I tried it out and did more, and here we are now. I don’t think I would’ve made the switch from 3D to 2D animation if there was a job available at the time, but now I am a sort of one-man animation studio and I do commissions, so that's where the path took me.
Recently, the 1-year anniversary of your first 2D animation titled Reassure Yourself was posted; what can you say about that artwork as well as the year that has transpired since then?
You call it the first animation, but you mean the first animation that popped off on Instagram. Unfortunately, Instagram deleted another video I’ve made before that one, and it got a lot of views. I thought that was my minute of fame before I made another one, which at this point has around 4 million views. I cannot say it changed my life overnight, the lifecycle of anything on Instagram is around a few days and weeks at best. It did give me a lot of strength to believe in what I do though, you put a lot of energy in the art you create and when you don't get anything back you sort of lose hope. But when something gets back to you, some reception, you feel like you can try one more time. So for the past year, I’ve been drawing frame-by-frame animation almost every day.
You’ve recently delved back into the world of 3D animation with your most recent work STARTAFIGHT. What are the pros and cons of each art form and how do they distinguish themselves from each other?
I wouldn't call 3D my roots, I did study it for a few years but I’d never really made anything of note with it. My original specialization is screenwriting and film directing. I worked in the film industry for four years. I started as a light-worker and eventually got to produce some ad videos myself. I wanted to make films but one day a few years ago I had to move to another country and I lost all my connections, and it's very hard to start over in the film industry from scratch. I went into animation after that, as it's a path that gives you the opportunity to work by yourself or online. I love this idea of mixed media animation, which has been around for a few years. The thing I like about 2D animation is that it is free, you can do anything. You can transform a character's body and make any sort of movement, but it's inconsistent and time-consuming, so 3D solves those problems, and it gives you techniques from film like camera movement and depth of field. You can choose a lot of very cool artistic techniques that you can imitate in 2D, but it takes more effort. Right now, I'm trying to use both 3D and 2D animation for bigger projects like film. In December 2023, I came across a video by a 3D artist Nicholas, who I'm working with and the co-author of the video you mentioned STARTAFIGHT, he is very skilled and proficient, and I contacted him and asked if he wanted to collaborate. Afterwards we made a character and I used frame by frame animation on the 3D model, and this combination of 3D and 2D gave us more freedom as well as consistency. I think the result is quite interesting, but there is much, much more to discover in this medium, and hopefully in the future we’ll be able to do that and bring it to life in bigger projects.
You use both audio quotes and music. I spent some time looking for the sources of the audio and couldn’t find their sources. What can you say about their relevance to the videos, and what do they mean to you?
The audios and why you cannot find some of them is because sometimes I make them myself. I think I once saw a comment in one of my videos of someone saying something like “stop gatekeeping your audio” or something like that on a video with audio that I made myself. Sometimes I record my own voice and manipulate it to sound like it's from a scene or a clip. Most of the time however, I’m sharing with my audience where I get these audio quotes from. I tend to do more musical videos recently because it's very hard to find dialogue that matches the feeling you want to have in the video. It usually takes me days of going through youtube watching videos to find good quotes to use. A year ago I was sourcing my audio from old documentaries on psychiatry clinics and it's very hard emotionally to watch 5 hours of those a day to get good audio. Instagram wants you to post everyday, and I need at least a week to make a video, add the time you need to look for an audio, and you get arguably unreasonable production time for a platform with a life cycle of just a few days. But sometimes I do that anyway, of course. It's in terms of your own energy economy, I don't think it's the right decision to put so much time into one video because you're so dependent on an algorithm and if it doesn’t pick up your video half of your followers won't even see it, it might be frustrating.
A lot of the videos have a focus on introspection and mental health, what can you say about the themes of the videos themselves.
At some point, it becomes second nature. You put your work out there, and you just don’t get anything back. It happens the first time when you’re like 18 or 20 years old, and you think that it's okay because you're young but in a few more years nothing changes. And I feel that a lot of people encounter that feeling of it being pointless and move on with something else. I guess for me, I couldn’t go on with anything else. So, I guess, all those feelings from not getting anything back and/or any mental health issues can put you in a really dark place, that's what I was thinking about.
Do you see yourself delving into something such as a different medium or a different direction for the art you're currently making?
That's the ultimate goal in the next few years, is to create something bigger. The TikTok or Instagram format, I would say, is a dead-end for an artist. If you want to sell your work online, like physical prints or commissions, if you go into Instagram, and you want to make money off those 10/15-second videos or maybe some donations from Patreon, it basically will take all of your time. For me, it's like this because I work with frame-by-frame animation. So you need to stop making 15-second videos and start making longer videos, and films at some point. My collaboration with Nicholas is a very important step in this process. We understood that we can make something unique, and we hope we will have an opportunity to work on bigger projects.
Is there anything else you’d like to mention that we haven’t talked about so far?
On September 18th I'm doing my first print drop with characters from my animation. Scaled up to fit on your wall, which is very exciting as it's the first time I can sell my work as physical art pieces. When I'm doing my animations, I think it would be nice to be able to share the parts of it, so the person watching could have a more detailed view on it. I add a lot of details that I don't think many people notice. I think it's a great way to give people the opportunity to appreciate those details and want them to know that, that possibility is here now.
Find out more about Boris' print drop and other work on his Instagram profile.