I hate Instagram.

But every now and again, in between hours of bullshit, I scroll past something that makes me happy. Usually, it’s an old friend who lives somewhere exotic getting engaged to the really nice lad she met in her last year of university after going through a sward of dropkicks that seemed to only be able to text two words (you up) to her during their entire situationship. Or anything on a dog page. Or anything Show Bits posts. It was a great day when I found his page. I watched every single animation in one go, sending them out to all my friends, thereby making the world a better place. Show Bits restored a slither of faith back into the old Instagram and I got to talk to the man, Aaron Keuter, about how he did it.

Is animation your full-time job? Or is this a little hobby Instagram thing?

Professionally speaking, I am a kind of video post-production Swiss Army Knife in Portland, Oregon, where I animate motion graphics and visual effects for companies under my own business called Crabfood. Show Bits, you could say, is more of a side hobby, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't put some thought into how I might turn it into something that can be monetized. I'm still figuring that out though. Over time, it has become kind of an animation sandbox for me to play in and experiment and try new things without the burden of a client breathing down my neck. Plus I like the feeling of strangers on the internet thinking I'm funny.

Do you have plans to take it outside of Instagram? 

I've thought seriously about how it could be used to promote cool new music and artists in the future. I also think ‘expanding the universe’ of Show Bits could be cool too, by creating animated short films (or at least longer than the fifteen to twenty second snippets they are now), but that'd require more time, money, and people. For now, though, the audience I'm building on Instagram and TikTok is pretty cool. I'm glad people are able to find it there. 

Do you have a personal favourite?

I feel like ‘Michael Stipe getting a friend’s attention in a busy restaurant’ still perfectly encapsulates the joke structure I strive to hit, which is a familiar thing, in an unexpected context. Everyone recognises the lyric ‘that's me in the corner’ and everyone knows the feeling of trying to meet someone in a busy place. So whatever poetic thing you're imagining when you hear the song ‘Losing My Religion,’ this sort of strips that away and makes it the most literal interpretation of the line ever... which I think is funny.

I think all of your stuff is funny. How long does it take you to make a little video from start to finish? 

It all depends on what's involved for the scene, but typically somewhere in the realm of fifteen to twenty hours. It's great to reuse arms and legs and bits of clothes and scenery because I'm a very lazy animator. If I think of a second idea for an artist, that's the best because then I don't have to draw their face and head again. 

Twenty hours! Holy hell. What comes first, the music, the character or the scene in your head? 

The music comes first. Nearly every animation starts with me listening to a song in the car and then turning to my partner and asking, ‘Hey, what if (insert artist) is doing (thing that they're doing) and then says (line from artist's song)?’ If just the thought of it makes her laugh, then I know it's going to be a home run.

Has any of the featured artists you’ve featured hit you up or liked your stuff yet?

Yeah, Blink-182, Metallica, Brad Wilk from Rage Against the Machine, and Fred Durst from Limp Bizkit have all liked, commented or reposted my animations in some form or another. Slash from Guns n Roses has also reposted stuff but I've yet to do anything that features GNR... yet! I also kind of freaked out when I saw on my feed ‘Trent Reznor liked your post.’ It's really cool and gratifying to see when it goes appreciated by the artists.

And no one’s had any beef about it yet?

So far no issues or offence taken. Just good vibes.

You must have an impressive catalogue of music in your brain but what I’d like to know is what is your most recently played song? 

My most recently played song was ‘Hardwired’ by the Mississippi-based punk band MS Paint. Their most recent album really rocks if you haven't heard it.

Did you take art classes or something when you were younger? Like how’d you get into this? 

I taught myself photo and video editing software when I was a teenager. I've always liked messing around with digital media. I also studied film and motion graphics at the Savannah College of Art & Design in Georgia, where I also got a pretty broad education and background in art and design. I'm thirty-eight now and I've been working in video media in some form or another my entire career. Show Bits started when I was making ‘Bob Dylan noises’ to my baby son about four or five years ago. It was making him giggle, which made me giggle. I said it was a Bob Dylan siren and then started drawing a Bob Dylan siren on my iPad, and then I animated those drawings, which I then posted to social media. A friend said ‘this is what you have to do now,’ and I took it to heart.

Can you give me any tips on how to draw hands properly? 

Yes! The best tip I have for drawing hands is to get the computer to do it for you. If I'm not literally tracing an image of a hand, I'm animating a rigged 3D model of a hand and then using a shader that creates what looks like hand-drawn strokes of the edges and contours of the hand, so I don't have to draw it myself. Drawing hands is hard! Truth be told, I'm not like the most trained illustrator, so I'll take shortcuts every time if it gets the joke out more quickly.

What’s the best thing about animation? 

The best thing about animation is that you can use it to just squeeze out whatever silly idea is in your head, without involving a lot of people and cameras and location scouting and whatnot. Technology around animation today allows you to experiment with different styles and looks and stuff and can help you get that idea out more quickly. It's a perfect format for comedy in my opinion. If your idea or sketch or scene or whatever is funny, then I don't think people will really care that the drawings aren't very good. Animation is weirdly forgiving like that.