hand-drawn abstract figures dance along max cooper’s music in film by masanobu hiraoka

Masanobu Hiraoka’s hand-drawn film for Max Cooper’s ‘On Being’

Animator Masanobu Hiraoka presents a new hand-drawn animated film created in response to On Being, a track and album by electronic musician and creative Max Cooper. The album explores personal reflection, inner experience, and the shared nature of human thought. The film approaches these themes through an intimate visual language rooted in drawing, movement, and transformation, allowing sound and image to exist in quiet dialogue.

Masanobu Hiraoka: On Being | all images courtesy of © Masanobu Hiraoka, 2025

On Being: Exploring Perception Through Drawing and Sound

Masanobu Hiraoka is a Tokyo-based animator known for his hand-drawn films. Working primarily with pencil and frame-by-frame animation, his practice foregrounds the physical act of drawing and embraces imperfection as a record of time and thought. His work often moves between figuration and abstraction, using transformation as a way to reflect inner experience rather than narrative structure. The animation unfolds with pencil lines forming figures and abstract structures that shift gradually, as human gestures appear momentarily before dissolving into organic forms, while biological patterns echo bodily systems and natural processes. Throughout the film, the hand of the animator remains present, with visible lines and subtle imperfections reinforcing the physical act of drawing and the passage of time.

Max Cooper is a London-based electronic artist whose work sits at the intersection of music, science, and visual art. With a background in computational biology, his compositions often explore patterns, systems, and emotional states beyond language, frequently extending into collaborative visual projects. His practice treats sound as a tool for inquiry, using music to investigate perception, identity, and what it means to be human.

animator Masanobu Hiraoka presents a new hand-drawn animated film

Hiraoka and Cooper in exploring perception beyond language

Hiraoka’s process is grounded in frame-by-frame hand-drawn animation, favouring spontaneity and intuition over strict planning. Rather than mapping images directly to musical cues, the artist responds to the emotional tone of the composition, allowing imagery to surface from memory and internal sensation. This approach results in a visual rhythm that feels measured and reflective, closely aligned with the pacing of the music without attempting literal translation.

Personal experience plays a central role in the film’s imagery. Scenes suggest childhood, family, and human connection, while remaining intentionally open-ended. Contemplating personal interpretation, these moments are interwoven with abstract sequences that reference growth, decay, and regeneration, creating a visual continuum between individual memory and universal biological patterns. This collaboration reflects a shared interest between Hiraoka and Cooper in exploring perception beyond language. The music itself is rooted in collected human reflections on existence and emotion, while the animation responds through drawn movement rather than symbolic explanation. Together, sound and image operate as parallel investigations into what it means to experience memory and presence. The result is a quietly immersive work that presents being not as a defined state, but as something continuously unfolding.

the film responds to On Being, a track and album by Max Cooper

the animation is created using pencil and frame-by-frame techniques

the imagery responds to the emotional tone of the composition

biological patterns echo bodily systems and natural processes

human gestures appear briefly before shifting into organic forms

project info:

name: On Being: Masanobu Hiraoka translates memory into hand-drawn motion for Max Cooper
animator: Masanobu Hiraoka

musician: Max Cooper | @maxcoopermax

designboom has received this project from our DIY submissions feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: christina vergopoulou | designboom