What never reached the viewer
A virtual band that had covers but no voices. Two animated films stopped at the animation stage. A soundtrack that arrived too late for its book and came out on its own. And a book that stayed under a different title in its English translation only.
In short: five projects that never made it
- Tata Tu — a virtual band
- An artist drew more than ten covers; no vocalists of the calibre needed were found. Two songs were released.
- «The Pocket Vaccine Tale» — an animated film
- The work stalled after four months; the project was closed and the work done was paid for.
- «Children's Wisdom» — an animated film
- Stopped at the animation stage. What remains is the cat family and the characters' emotion sheets.
- François Petit — a soundtrack for a book
- It arrived too late for its book and came out on its own: five releases, from October 2022 to February 2023.
- «Half a Clove of Garlic» — a book that does not exist
- The former title of the collection published as Personal-Public. It survives only in the English translation.
Tata Tu
The idea was bold: to build a fully virtual band by reviving t.A.T.u. — a version 2.0 with the same vibe. The name reads two ways: «that very t.A.T.u.» and two names, Tata and Tu. The larger goal was an album on the level of «200 km/h in the Wrong Lane» and a brand fit for market. An artist drew more than ten covers. Then it stopped: no vocalists of the calibre needed, and no agreement on budget with the co-author. Two songs did come out.
The Pocket Vaccine Tale
An animated version of the verse tale. The animator was found through a freelance platform, and the start was exemplary: the entire project was set up in a task-management system. Four months later it was clear the work had stalled. The author chose not to wait any longer and closed the project, paying for what had been done.
Children's Wisdom
The characters were ready and the emotion sheet was complete. At the animation stage it became clear the movement was coming out too crude. Deliberate roughness can be a style and can find its audience, but the author decided it was not his case and stopped the work.
The soundtrack that became music
The author sent his first letter to French guitarist François Petit in 2012, offering to promote his tracks in Russia. He wrote again every two or three years; the reply came ten years later — the letters had been going to spam. In the spring of 2022 the conversation turned into a commission: music for a book. The work ran so late that another musician wrote the soundtrack instead. What did arrive was released on its own — five records named after the months they came in.
Half a Clove of Garlic
This was to be the title of the fourth poetry collection. By publication it had become Personal-Public, but the old name stayed in the English translation, which still says the poems come from Half a Clove of Garlic. Nothing was ever published under that title.
Tata Tu: the girls who were drawn
The band never happened, but the characters exist. Ten scenes drawn for future covers — as far as the work got before the project stopped. Click to open the full picture.
François Petit: five monthly covers
The soundtrack came out month by month, from October 2022 to February 2023, and each month had its own cover. Five designs in a row, no two alike. Click to open the full picture.
Children's Wisdom: the cat family and its faces
The project reached the character stage but not the animation. What remains is the cat family and the thing it was drawn for: an emotion sheet for each character, thirteen to fourteen expressions apiece. Click to open a character’s full sheet.
Next How the rest was made Fifty voice artists auditioning for one book. Four reverbs inside a single voice. Russian surnames an English narrator transcribed by ear. The premiere of an English book on Portuguese radio.
