Introducing: Intensely personal, hilarious animation from Luiz Lafayette Stockler

Brazilain-born Welsh-bred animator Luiz Lafayette Stockler studied at the University of Wales before heading to London to pursue a Masters in animation. His projects are pretty darned strange; outpourings of innermost fears and strange desires that seem intensely personal but immediately recognisable for their simple humanity. What’s more they’re incredibly funny, drawing slapstick humour from the tugging of genitals, flashes of crudely-drawn breasts and immaculate comic timing.

Luiz has just graduated from the Royal College of Art so we thought we ought to pick his brains before commercial success comes a’knocking and Luiz Lafayette Stockler is a household name – like many of his Royal College predecessors.

Where do you work?

Up until last month I worked at the Royal College of Art where I was completing an MA in Animation. I had a nice desk there with a lamp and loads of wall space. Now that we’ve parted ways I work from my bedroom in Brixton. There’s a big window in front of me; it’s distracting. 

How does your working day start?

I get up around 7:30am, eat some breakfast, do about 20 minutes of exercise in my room (while listening to my “workout” playlist which consists of the Rocky theme tune and Eye of the Tiger by Survivor…on loop) then I have a shower, get dressed, put some shoes on and sit at my desk (the shoe part is important, it’s how I trick my brain into thinking I’m actually leaving home and going to work). I then procrastinate on the web for a while – emails, Motionographer, Cartoon Brew, Sky Sports News, Wikipedia, Twitter, Facebook etc… and then when the clock strikes 10am, BOOM! I start making stuff.

How do you work and how has that changed?

I work both digitally and by hand. Up until recently my work was exclusively black and white. I was afraid to use colour and try a range of thicknesses in brushes. After being exposed to so much different stuff at the RCA I began to try new things and incorporate colour into my work. It took a while to get used to it but now I think I’m getting somewhere. 

I think I’m a lot braver now with my work, I used to be afraid of offending people and hold back on a lot of things. I feel that now I’ve gotten to a point where I can filter out quite well what works and what doesn’t and what is and isn’t acceptable.

In terms of writing, I used to have an idea and stick to it and develop it until I had something solid. Now its a bit of a free-for-all; I write down and sketch many ideas, I then type them out neatly into paragraphs which, once printed, I can tear up and rearrange until I create some kind of narrative. All that’s left to do is fill in the gaps and add details.

For me this is an exciting and fresh way to work. It feels honest and fun and I don’t get bored as easily. I think when you make animated films, because of the laborious and lengthy process, it’s very important that your idea is something that you like and you’re prepared to invest a hell of a lot of time into, otherwise it’s game over. My last two films were written this way.

Where would we find you when you’re not at work?

Either playing football, skateboarding to Tesco, walking in the park or having a drink somewhere. I like to get away from the computer as much as possible

Would you intern for yourself?

Yeah I think so. Good music, peanut butter sandwiches, loads of breaks and the most important bit about making stuff; lots of fun!