Words: Claire Spencer
Photography: Sanna Charles
Littlenobody animation
The 28-year-old animation duo who go by the name Littlenobody share their passion for fabled worlds filled with magical creatures.
“I was actually on my first holiday in a decade when the announcement was made,” begins Liam Brazier, one half of the Littlenobody duo. “I spent the next twenty minutes excitedly calculating time difference and negotiating a Turkish keyboard to email a smile back to Karen.”
Over the past year their animations have made it onto big screens at film festivals worldwide, and this recognition is one step closer to making a long-term career out of their craft. “What Cassandra Saw being BBFC certified and put onto 35mm for cinema screening was insane, and a real privilege,” enthuses Karen. “It’s our first short, and I’m so glad it got the life and the audience I dreamt it could have.”
Their stunning films are a product of everything to pair grew up loving and absorbing, and have several common threads running through them. “We both love the charm of children’s storytelling and fables,” asserts Karen. “We want to make a world for our characters to inhabit. I very much like the idea of an unseen world, magic, and creatures.”
Both are passionate about the ongoing learning curve of the animation process. “Every venture seems a departure from the last,” believes Liam. “I’m terrified that I’d become eternally bored of what I love if we just repeated ourselves, as well as wanting to try something new.”
As such, the media that they use tend to vary, as do their methods. Karen explains: “Sometimes when we’re coming up with a story, one of us will say, ‘Ooh, cookie-cutters stop-motion,’ and the medium will lead the story. Other times, we go full-steam-ahead and worry about the practicalities later. I think I have a more holistic approach than Liam. He loves to get lost in the details.”
Both halves of the Littlenobody partnership find their inspiration from similar places – directors Gondry, Burton and Gilliam to name but a few – which helps cement their working relationship. But it’s their differences that really complement each other.
“Karen helps me actually get stuff done,” laughs Liam. “When I met her, I was up at six and back at eight every day, getting sunburnt by the monitor glare – and I hadn’t picked up a pencil in over a year. That’s truly shameful thing for someone who at one point wouldn’t have minded if his hands were replaced by a giant 2B pencil.”
He adds that his creative partner inspired him to get back into creativity as no-one else had. For her part, Karen believes that the animation process would be much lonelier without Liam. “I’m more certain that an idea will work when we both agree, and we push and drive each other to complete projects,” she says. “We are each other’s audience.”
