What is MWMW?

Midnight Waffles Music Workshop is a way for our studio to give back to our local community of creatives by facilitating communication between local musicians and animators who want to develop a mutually beneficial relationship on specific projects.

Music videos can be insanely long and expensive projects. In most cases, the best products are passion projects that were born from equal parts good timing and good rapport between both artists. Our music workshop just wants to create a space specifically for artists to unearth the right collaborator at the right time.

The right animator might be an animation, art or design student looking for a senior project worth spending their last semester on. It might be a freelancer struggling to make connections and build their business. It might be an artist experimenting with a new medium. It might be someone with a graphic novel that has a similar vibe/tone/themes to the song they heard. The point is, we’re trying to connect two or more artists that can harmonize and create something great together!

But why, Bruh?

To say that this is our way of giving back to our local community is only a fraction of the ultimate goal. And it’s not to say it’s entirely selfless. By supporting local artists, we can become and stay a more relevant part of the creative community. Sort of like sponsorship. It’s obviously an old corporate game. But it’s so far a natural way for Midnight Waffles to move forward into creative endeavors we care about. The entire studio at this point cares deeply about music and has been involved in music production/performance at some point.

In the future, it’d be great to sponsor events like live-performances or musician meet-ups. That’s cart before the horse, but a fun thing to look forward to!

How will this work?

We are NOT trying to create a social network. It’s hopefully simpler than that. The current plan is to host a Discord server with separate channels like the ones listed below:

• #New Releases: A channel where a musician who just released a single is specifically looking for an artist to collaborate on the project. Artists that want to collab can then DM the musician and the process can move forward from there.

• #New Artists: A channel where a visual artist can share a bit about themselves and say they are open to collaboration.

• #STOMPS: A channel where successful collaborations (a.k.a. – finished projects) are celebrated and shown off. BTS process content can be posted here too.

• #Announcements: A channel to promote the kick-off for new projects and, in the future, live events.

More to come on this front. Also, important events and projects will be promoted on our website too.

WAFFLE STOMPS

:15 music-inspired animations. A way for us all to grow as independent creatives and ultimately collaborate on bigger non-client projects together. When you are not currently involved on a client project, you can and should jump back into your in-progress STOMP and have fun. Feel free to collaborate, consult with or involve the rest of the team on what you’re doing as you create. Log your hours to MWMW001 – Stomps on toggl and put your files in your respective folders here: CHARIOT\MWMW001 – Waffle Stomps\05 Audio

Step 1

Create a :15 audio track at 128 BPM. This can be anything from a music track to an experimental sound-bed. It can be an acoustic performance, beat-boxing, or something produced digitally. Keep in mind you will be using it as inspiration to develop something visually in step 2.

Step 2

Develop an animation based on your track. You will handle all your own design and animation. The goal is for you to spearhead your own project and continue to sharpen that skill of taking creative initiative on a project and building confidence through that ownership of your creative choices. And, the reactionary nature of animation based off of sound, should help the ‘blank canvas’ effect.

Step 3

As you create, don’t be afraid to find new meaning in it. If there’s a narrative that inspired you in step 1, continue to let it develop if you’d like. It can also be completely experimental (both in audio and video).

Step 4

Finally, export your finished animation with the audio and video in 1080p @24fps. Eventually we will hope to have multiple music videos made entirely from team creations. Perhaps :60 music videos made from four of our animations. Keep in mind we will posting the :15 version on social, so you may be asked to make a version that frames in a square format a little better.