The..AM -Transit. (with insight from creator Martin Jung)

I really love the comedic timing on this 8-bit masterpiece by Martin Jung for the artist The..AM. (Be sure you watch the film before you carry on reading… ) Martin tells me he was inspired by early 90’s LucasArts and while the influence of Zak McKracken etc. is clear, it took me back even further to 1985 and Activision’s – Little Computer People, a game that would have been infinitely more fun had it been invaded by 3 monkeys and a small bear!

I caught up with Martin and asked him a bit about the process behind the piece.

Martin: First of all I drew the characters and the whole setup using open source program Pixen. Then I arranged the different layers with Photoshop and finally exported approx. 700 images. Following the stop motion idea these images were imported to Final Cut Pro and were arranged in a sequence. It took about 48 working hours.

Martin is also Part of a trio who run the German site KritzelMusic. Founded by Amal Das (The..AM), Marc Klaesius (Sius) and Martin himself in 2008. The label releases art as well as music and videos.

Martin: There is no specific music genre we prefer. All three of us like different kinds of music so we are open minded to any style but of course we have our favourites.

The..AM – Sturgeon