Musa Brooker is an LA-based animator, director, writer and producer.
Musa Brooker has worked on a wide variety of projects throughout his career, featuring different animation styles such as stop motion, 2D animation and CG animation. Although his main focus is stop motion, he is very flexible and transfers his skill set around accordingly. The most famous projects he has worked on includes "9" (2009), "Elf" (2003) and "The Boys" (2019).
Musa's career took him to some interesting projects, including some visually gorgeous advertisements. For a project done for Acura, Musa animated a car transforming into another while drifting through pixilation. Knowing it was shot frame by frame without any CG implies how much work and planning must have gone into just 30 seconds of footage.
My favorite project Musa showed was actually the fake animation and film he made for "Atlanta". I really enjoy mockumentaries, and the fact that the Musa and the show was able to produce such detailed "fake" footage for narrative needs impresses me. He specifically added an aged-film effects to mimic a rough student film from decades ago, which makes the whole narrative seem realistic. Although the final footage shown in the show is short, it makes me wonder how much footage was actually created.
Although Musa did not show it during his presentation, I was delighted to find out he also worked on the animation for "The Boys", a show I like. In the show, there are sequences in which a live action character is imagining Disney-style characters beating each other to death, and the animation is shown on top of the live action. Musa merged the two very different mediums together in a reasonable way, exploring the character's inner thoughts without conflicting the cinematography.
My biggest takeaway from Musa's presentation is that no matter what industry one works in, they should always be nice to the people around them. No matter the skill set, if one is hard to work with, they will have trouble building real connections or friendships within the workspace. Musa has had many people remember him years later for a project because he was great to work with. Most of the projects he receives nowadays are from connections and years of networking; he has a reputation within the animation industry.