Blending Animation with Music: A Look into the Work of Worthikids

By Joaquin Robles
Music Journalist

“Worthikids,” an animator and musician by the name of Ian Worthington, has been publishing his works to Youtube and Bandcamp since mid-2015. He presents his artistry with soulful, guttural songs accompanied by colorful, humorous animations designed in Blender, a 3D animation software, to create a clashing yet perfectly mixed setting.

Including songs and animations such as “Wire” and “Bigtop Burger,” Worthington blends the visual arts with the music to create a connective story full of characters and settings his viewers can follow and relate to.

Regarding the animation aspect of his work, Worthington heavily utilizes outgoing, saturated, and contrasting colors to create a vibrant world that pops. Subjects of his videos range from witches on tinder to clowns running a food truck.

No matter the subject of the video, its purely cartoonish look gets rid of any sense of seriousness within the video. However, the musical aspect of Worthington’s works clashes heavily with that of the visual.

The different genres he dips his toes into range from metal to classic rock. While Worthikids’ music differs in genre depending on the animation that accompanies it, the basis of his sound remains nearly the same.

In his music, Worthington heavily utilizes raunchy, distorted string sections, bringing a more human and realistic sound to the ears of the listeners. Likewise, with the strings, he also sings with a more raspy and guttural sound.

While these two parts of Worthikids’ artistry are complete opposites of each other, beauty and perfection are shown when the two are paired together.

His ability to make both lighthearted and serious tones mesh together so well is proof of his genius. Worthington, in his music video “Wire,” creates a suspenseful tone because of the environment and the music that accompanies it; However, the characters involved are clowns in full makeup.

The contrast creates odd humor that rarely fails to connect, keeping the viewer interested. In his “Bigtop Burger” mini-series, Worthington centers the animation around a light-hearted group of clowns who run a food truck.

The entirety of the series feels comedic until the music is incorporated into the episode. The music leads the suspense and tone of every episode, giving each transition meaning and direction. Without the music, the animation would be without direction. Worthington’s music gives his animations life and purpose.

The work of Worthikids is a blended masterpiece of childish humor and morbid seriousness. The mix of his animations and the music that accompanies them create the perfect setting and tone for each of his pieces of work.

Without one aspect of his artistry, the other would not flourish as much as it does. Worthikids mixes the visual arts with the musical arts to create something that goes beyond either aspect on its own.

Featured image via Bigtop Burger album cover.