"Right in Two" is a song by the progressive rock band Tool which has an accompanying animated music video, something unique of which likes I've never seen before. The most flabbergasting part about the animation is the technique used, or need I say, techniques. In other words, the animation is a perfect assemblage of stop-motion, 2D animation, 3D animation, greenscreening, and live-action film elements - a real fusion of the art of the moving image. Every element of animation is used to define an aspect of the animation's characters, backgrounds, or miscellaneous effects, in a way that it juxtaposes all of them but also blends them to emphasize the power of their differentiation. The main character of the animation is a stop-motion animated puppet, whose eyes are segments of the live-action filmed eyes of a real person, whereas everything that happens upon the little lump of clay that transforms into a cartoonish paragon of our world is 2D with individual frame drawing and bold and repeating contour lines. In order to place an accent on the theme of the animation - the destructive degradation of society - the style in which the animation is drawn has a sense of chaos within it due to the line inconsistency of every drawn frame, as well as the shading (which is done with non-technical parallel lines). Constantly switching dynamics, the way the characters are drawn allows them to easily be transformed and distorted with every consequent frame without the movement seeming choppy, unnatural, and sudden (something similar to the style in which Pink Floyd's "The Wall" is animated). However, in my own opinion, I believe that the background is the primary element that adds all the techniques together in a perfect blend due to its slow but smooth tempo (the greenscreened animated clouds). So, we are presented with a fast-paced 2D animation, a mid-paced stop-motion figure, and a slow-paced background, all distinguishing the foreground, midground, and background ever so effectively that it makes the whole film aesthetic eye candy along with the pale colors that help us focus on detail (because our eyes are more sensitive to strong colors, making it difficult to "zoom in" on detail). Tool's well known for having animated music videos in different styles, which makes their video material a real analytical journey - even more so with their visceral yet harmonious tone.Tool - "Right in Two" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fj-10lIrboM
