Belfry - Animator

Beige Society - Aardman's leper scene falls off 'Pirates!'

2012-01-25T00:24:00.000Z

Let me just preface this post by saying - I f'n love Aardman, and everything they do. In their commercial and short film work, they're innovative and funny, and their features, stop-motion and computer-generated, are hilarious, well-animated, structured beautifully and always have their hearts thoroughly in the right place.

In fact, Aardman's heart has never, ever been in the wrong place. If it ever found its way there it wouldn't know where it was or what to do.

So it's extremely disheartening to see that thanks to some complaints, Aardman have not only removed the very funny leper boat scene from the trailer to The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists, the indications are that it's gone from the film too.

What a disappointment.

Here is the trailer, with the offending clip (who knows how long it'll be on Youtube):

This is what I refer to, using a Billy Connollyism, as a beige decision (if you'd like a definition of beigeism, see this video. It's an angry and foul-mouthed tirade about the overly-politically correct crowd from Connolly, but let's face it, if you take offense, you're being a bit beige).

The complaining company was LEPRA, who have now helpfully pointed out on their website, in case we didn't know, that "no - limbs don't just fall off. Not even for comic effect."

(Personally, I think that's a fantastically funny statement in itself, because it was intended to be serious.)

Well, no, obviously. In real life people's limbs don't fall off, and if they did it wouldn't have much comic effect. But this is a cartoon. Last time I checked, in real life coyotes don't hire Batman outfits to chase roadrunners around the desert - not even for comic effect. But they do in cartoons.

The thing is, I appreciate that some people can take offense at this. But frankly, so what? If artists the world over only created art that couldn't offend, or provoke, or challenge, what would they be creating?

Shit. That's what.

I understand as well why Aardman have retracted the scene. It's not often an animated comedy gets this kind of backlash, and they probably want to forget about it and move on as soon as possible. If this had been something made by someone like Ricky Gervais, he'd likely (well, definitely) have just ignored it and carried on as he was.

In fact, Gervais and his co-star Warwick Davis both tweeted a link recently to a Facebook page by a particularly beige woman who was trying to get 'Life's Too Short' off the air before it had even started as her son suffers from dwarfism. She assumed they'd just be taking the piss out of dwarfism and got offended before she'd even seen it. She thought it might directly affect her own son getting picked on when he's older for being a dwarf. The thing is, the attitude of "if someone picks on you because you're different, you tell on them and get someone to make them stop" attitude gets no-one anywhere. As Gervais pointed out, by being able to take a joke, and make one back, by rising above it, you make yourself bullet-proof.

Her page has got less than 400 'likes', despite being tweeted by both huge stars and watched by millions on the BBC. There's hope then.

Getting back to Pirates! - this was a joke delivered in a light-hearted manner about a disease that was common in the times the film's set in and isn't so much any more. Whilst LEPRA were correct to flag it up, it should not have been pressuring Aardman into changing their film, and instead upping its own ante to ensure that people know it's just a cartoon and does not represent reality. And if they're worried about kids getting the wrong idea about leprosy, how about some faith in the parents? Or teachers?

But no, the beige response is to kick up a fuss. It has to stop.

Otherwise, are we soon going to live in a world where Homer Simpson can't bash himself in the eye with a hammer in case stupid people get offended?

Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes - No Oscar nom for Andy Serkis' "captured" performance

2012-01-24T18:27:00.000Z

Hello again,

So this is the follow-up post about Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes (ROTPOTA). Thank you to all who read the last one and talked about it on Facebook and Twitter.

In this promised follow-up post, I want to talk about performance capture and Andy Serkis.

I had planned to discuss this at length, but Tim Borrelli, an animator at 5th Cell Media in Seattle, made this post which I think sums it up.

Today, Andy Serkis was not nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Caesar in Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes (as Mike Jungbluth noted on Twitter, "Guess all those animators doing the digital makeup must have ruined his performance"), despite his recent self-initiated media campaign.

This is probably why (credit to the afore-mentioned Tim for pointing out these videos on the blog post linked above):

These videos are from Serkis' own Vimeo channel, in which he "demonstrates" how his performance became Caesar in the film:

Rise of the Planet of the Apes / "Coming Back Soon" / Andy Serkis - Caesar Morph from Andy Serkis on Vimeo.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes, "Caesar Attacks Neighbor", Andy Serkis/Caesar Morph from Andy Serkis on Vimeo.

And this is the current showreel of Animation Mentor graduate and WETA animator Jeffrey Engel:

Jeffrey Engel Character Animation Reel from Jeffrey Engel on Vimeo.

These shots are on Jeffrey's showreel because he animated them. By hand. Presumably because the performance capture data was corrupt or incomplete. He used what Serkis had done as reference, and animated it by hand.

Case closed, really.

I'll end with a few quotes from Serkis from this article, and my thoughts (in italics) posted on Facebook in December.

"An actor finds things in the moment with a director and other actors that you don't have time to hand-draw or animate with a computer."

Sorry Andy - no time? Is that why we spend weeks working on a few seconds of screen time?

"If you give a bad performance, you can never make it great, no matter how much you layer and texture it after the fact."

Yes we can, mate, we can delete all your shitty keyframes and do it from scratch, after the fact.

"[Animators] are actors in the sense that they create key frames and the computer will join up the dots."

Er, sorry? That's like saying you're only an actor in the sense that you're a dick in a monkey suit connected to a computer that joins the dots and it magically appears as a lifelike monkey on a screen.

Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes - Photorealism, why it works and why it fails

2012-01-07T11:29:00.000Z

Hello everyone.

This is the first of two blog posts I'm going to make about Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes (ROTPOTA from herein). I recently saw the film and was utterly blown away by it. In fact for a short time I was border-line obsessed. I was already a fan of the original film, but had not seen any of the sequels. I have since watched them all, as well as watching ROTPOTA about 8 times in the last month or two, and subjecting anyone who'll listen to my rants not only about how good the film is, but about it's "photoreal" computer graphics and about Andy Serkis' computer-enhanced performance. I don't intend to review the movie here, that's not my place; but this first post will discuss the "photorealism" in the film, and how it can be improved; the second will discuss Andy Serkis and performance capture generally.

Photorealism, then.

Firstly, there are so many scenes in this film which, for me, are photoreal. Caesar is, in a lot of these shots, actually there in the frame with the actors, as far as I can see. This is a spectacular accomplishment and one I do not wish to play down. Weta Digital have really accomplished something here. So why then, do some shots in the film not hold up to this photoreal ideal (because clearly, many of them don't).

I don't really want to go into too much detail about "The Uncanny Valley", we've all heard it far too much. If you've not heard this term, it basically infers that the closer computer graphics get to photorealism, until it is actually achieved, the more repulsive to the human eye do human characters get. Read more here.

It's interesting to note that it's not-quite-photoreal humans that repulses us so. We have no problem with monsters, aliens, animals, etc. But let's also appreciate this - at no point do we watch a movie with a monster in it and go "Wow! That's an ugly actor, I wonder where they found him," instead we subconsciously acknowledge that we are seeing special effects at work and that said monster/alien/animal does not exist. But since these creatures do not repulse us, in the way that the Uncanny Valley repulses us, and we have a limited frame of reference as to what these animals would look like if they were real, we just accept it and move on.

But when dealing with photorealism, the effect needs to be so good that not only does it stand up to scrutiny, no one will even scrutinise it, as we do not scrutinise whether or not Al Pacino was really on set in The Godfather. He just was.

Which brings me back to ROTPOTA. This is a scene that works, the dinnertable scene, starting at 0:46 and lasting for about a minute.

This is one of my favourite scenes, and the effects work really well. I totally believe that Caesar is there, interacting with the actors. Wonderful.

But what scenes let it down? Here's a brief one, but there are plenty of similar scenes in the whole film. The tree-climbing scene at 0:07-0:10.

So where does the first clip succeed where the other one did not?

The answer is: camerawork.

At any point during Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, as soon as a non-real camera comes in, the photorealism falls down.

The non-technical reading this might be asking, what's a non-real camera? In short, it's a CG camera, and it's a shot where a CG camera is used simply because what the director wants the camera to do cannot be achieved using a real camera. It's a special effect, and the thought process amongst directors is the same: Can we film it for real? No. Well, let's do it in CG then.

The problem is - the camera has an Uncanny Valley all of its own. The human eye is conditioned, after almost a hundred years of cinema, to know what it's like to look through a camera.

So, to not break photorealism, either do not use entirely-CG shots or if you must, ensure the camera behaves realistically.

As soon as an audience sees a camera move that can not be filmed by a camera man, or looks too perfect to be real, they see The Uncanny Valley. Example:

See, as soon as a non-real camera comes into play (at any time Spider-man swings through the streets), the director might as well be popping up in the corner and shouting at the audience, "This isn't real! We faked it! Aren't we clever?!"

No, you're not clever. If I wanted to watch a cartoon I'd watch Batman: The Animated Series (which, funnily enough, is more realistic than the Spiderman movies, but I digress).

Getting back to ROTPOTA, the camera in that clip slips up between the branches perfectly, neatly, smoothly. And wrongly. Is "wrongly" a word? Anyway.

This shot should have either been re-thought, or given that they actually had the tree on-set, filmed with a real camera, tracked, and the CG apes added in afterwards.

So, that's one rule: no camera moves that could not be accomplished in real life with a camera rig and a camera man.

But what about simpler moves?

Well there's another shot in ROTPOTA, on the Golden Gate Bridge towards the end (for those with the DVD, it occurs at 01:27:03 on my Digital Copy). This shot:

In this shot, the camera slowly and steadily pans up from looking straight down at the bridge, and settles on the angle in the image above. So, what's wrong with this?

It's at the top of the Golden Gate Bridge! How would you film that? With a helicopter? Probably. But let's assume you could set up a rig at the top of that bridge, to film a non-existent ape climbing up it. The rig would be remote-controlled and on rails, perhaps? Okay, so that camera would be juddering slightly, it would begin in a jerky stop-start motion and the wind would be blowing it rather a lot. In short, the motion would be far less than perfect. If it were a helicopter it'd be all over the place, too.

But why would be strive to be less than perfect, when perfection is so easily achieved with CG cameras? Because it's not realistic.

So, there's another rule: all CG cameras to behave as real cameras, with all their inherent motion flaws.

And I have one more camera rule. Much like as an animator, you cannot have a CG character "lock off" at any point, as it breaks the illusion of life; you cannot have a CG camera "lock off". Photorealistic cameras need ambient holds, or "moving holds".

A friend of mine, Justin Summers, is a pre-viz artist at Framestore. He told me that when doing pre-viz on films, they need to keyframe the ambient holds on cameras, as all cameras, even when static on tripods, are prone to ambient motion. You can see this in any film, but I noticed it in Jurassic Park when I saw it on the massive IMAX screen. In the scene at the start where Hammond is talking to Grant and Sattler, watch the edges of the camera as Hammond talks. It's moving. It's a moving hold.

So, rule number three: No camera should ever be completely static.

Please, don't take my word for it. Go and watch ROTPOTA, and as soon as you think the effects aren't photorealistic, ask yourself why. It's not the quality of the rendering, or the animation, or the comping; 9 times out of 10, it's the fault of CG camera work.

If you're looking to buy Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes in the UK, help support this blog buy purchasing it through this link:

4D Christmas projection animation in New York

2012-01-04T13:41:00.001Z

Happy New Year!

This is my latest freelance project, on which I worked with Drive Productions in London. It was projected massively onto the Maritime Hotel in New York City. I animated the first eighty seconds, in about two weeks. A lot of work, but it was worth it!

Drive Productions bring 4D Magic to New York for Christmas for HP from Drive Productions on Vimeo.

Thanks for reading and watching!

Kaboombee! Teaser storyboards

2011-11-19T15:24:00.000Z

Some years ago I did some crude bee drawings and posted them on this blog (see here). For some reason, it's the most popular post I've ever made, at least according to Blogger's stats.

But interestingly, it prompted a fellow named Chris to get in touch. As a fellow Bee enthusiast, Chris wanted my help to develop a children's TV show about a group of exploding superhero honeybees called Kaboombee!. Needless to say, I was intrigued. So we met for some beers in London, and discovered we shared many other interests, including but not limited to a northern heritage and a borderline-obsession with The Beatles. Chris has now moved to New Zealand, but we have been developing Kaboombee! ever since, working on it here and there when time permits.

Currently we're working on a series of web shorts focusing on the villain characters, 'cause we like them the best. It's going to be called Wannabee: Behind The Schemes. I made the following storyboards into an animatic several months ago, and this little movie, though it wasn't animated, proved the genesis of Behind The Schemes, and hopefully this will see the light of day as part of a Kaboombee! teaser/trailer in the future.

I'll post more on the development of Wannabee: Behind The Schemes very soon. For now, just remember:

There's no such thing as a King Bee.

Doctor Who: The Gunpowder Plot - first preview

2011-10-15T11:18:00.003Z

A couple of weeks ago I completed animation work on the new Doctor Who game, "The Gunpowder Plot" at Kazoo Creative. The BBC have just released the first preview of the game:

Unfortunately, it only contains interactive scenes, none of the cutscene animation I worked on. It's due out very soon though so I'm sure there'll be more previews and videos coming over the next few weeks!

In other news, I'm currently doing a spot of work for those nice lads at Seed Animation. More on that soon!

Animated scene from "The Visitor"

2011-10-06T13:03:00.004Z

This is the first scene I've worked on for the film. I don't particularly know why I chose this one, though it is a pivotal scene in the film. As the vampire character has to reluctantly entertain his guest, they play chess, and the vampire starts to learn to enjoy human company. This scene takes place shortly before dawn, the guest is very tired but the vampire is at his most alert and enjoying his first game of chess in centuries.

First render of my animated short, "The Visitor"!

2011-09-04T22:25:00.004Z

I've been working on some assets for my short film, "The Visitor". I haven't started to animate it yet, I'm going to be doing pre-vis for the whole thing first. The script has been done for a while, as have thumbnail storyboards, but I simply haven't had chance to work on it for last several months. My schedule is opening up a bit now though and I managed to spend the whole day today working on it and have made some good progress.

The film is loosely based on "Dracula", and stylistically it's going to be a homage to "Nosferatu" - the initial setup is from Stoker's novel, but the story then takes its own path.

More soon! Including the main character.

Thanks for reading!

Latest Showreel

2011-04-07T07:59:00.001Z

This is my Spring 2011 Showreel, now that I've finished Animation Mentor. I'm currently working on new shots (including entries for this month's 11 Second Club and AnimationRigs.com competition) so there will definitely be another update in the summer!

Thanks for reading.

Animation Mentor complete!

2011-03-21T08:55:00.004Z

I've finished Animation Mentor! Over three years since I first enrolled (including a two-year hiatus where I couldn't afford to return to it), I've finally come through the other side.

This is the final shot I've worked on in Class 6 with James Chiang, who has been a terrific Mentor. I'll upload my showreel later this week, as I'm waiting for final feedback on this shot from James before I put it on my reel:

Click here to view on Youtube.

I'm particularly pleased with this as it's been very quick and painless to animate. I submitted my blocking two weeks ago, and James only gave me a few notes on it, and the same thing happened when I submitted my splined "refining" pass last week.

Class 6 has been great. James runs the class in a relaxed manner, allowing the students to revisit old work or start new shots if they prefer. If I hadn't been able to work on new things I'd have probably gone crazy, I didn't enjoy going back over my old work at all. Shortly, just for the hell of it, I'll post all the work I've done over AM that didn't make the reel - 95% of it. But, crucially, the important thing is that I learned lots in Class 6, and my skill level has increased dramatically.

"The Visitor" - short film character development

2011-03-12T14:23:00.005Z

"The Visitor" is an animated horror short I am currently writing, with a mind to directing and animating it over the summer. I got the idea after my Nosferatu-style animation tests (previously blogged about here and here), and will be presented in the style of the 1922 classic.

The story is a twist on the events in Stoker's Dracula novel and it's derivative works, such as Nosferatu. As a huge fan of F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu, I am styling my vampire count after Max Shreck, who played Count Orlock (the Dracula character) in the film:

I am considering a trip to Orvana castle in Slovakia, where Nosferatu was shot, to collect textures and ideas for backgrounds, as part of my pre-production for the film.

A Hound And A Rotter

2011-03-03T11:35:00.004Z

First 'finalled' shot of Class 6, heading onto my demo reel:

Click here to view on Youtube.

New animated dialogue shot

2011-02-28T15:01:00.003Z

Been meaning to post this for a while, still needs a little extra polish and tightening but it's broadly there.

Click here to view on Youtube.

Semi-finals of Animation Mentor's Animals & Creatures Competition

2011-02-12T18:39:00.005Z

Animation Mentor is currently running a competition to win free tuition to their new Animals & Creatures Masterclasses. I found out this morning that my entry is one of the final five!

This is very exciting, not least because all the effects studios here in London are all about creature animation! There is going to be a public vote next week, after which there will be a judged final.

This is my entry.

My friends Danny, Sareta and I had a lot of fun shooting it. I didn't have much of a window in my schedule, so I set myself the task of doing the animated section from blocking to polish in one day (it could still use more polish), which I did and I was quite happy with the results for a day's work. I spent a couple of hours shooting the live action portions, and maybe another half a day editing it all together with the stock clips provided by AM.

The music in the orchestral section is by my band, Third Light; and the music in the montage section is "Guybrush Threepwood (Radio Edit)" by Danny Fontaine & The Horns Of Fury.

The public vote begins on Monday!

"Nosferatu" - silent movie animation experiment #2

2011-01-18T13:32:00.003Z

Further to yesterday's post, a more refined effort:

Click here to view on Youtube.

Some of the title boards are still clipped but at least the bleaching-out effect of the previous version has gone.

I'm still not sure if this is the best way to present animation on a reel, as some of the nuances and subtleties are no longer visible, but I definitely like the feel and style.

"Nosferatu" - silent movie animation experiment #1

2011-01-17T14:28:00.004Z

Below is my previously-posted vampire shot from last term at Animation Mentor - it still lies unfinished. I will be tackling it this term and attempting to fix the problems that exist with the current animation.

But I think the problem with the shot may lie deeper than how it's animated.

For a start, it's nowhere NEAR as creepy as I initially intended. Whilst I learned a lot in the last term, I found myself almost defaulting back to - as someone pointed out - the "Animation Mentor house style". And the point of having this shot, and a character as unique as Nosferatu (voiced by Christopher Walken) in it, was to do something radically different. Not just a little bit different, as it is now.

Second, there's the helicopter sound effects in the background. The movie is from the 90s, set in the 90s, and that is a helicopter. I thought I could disguise it by having a lot of bats flying out at the start of the scene, and that's still a possibility, though I worry it will be distracting.

Third there's the timing. This is a major issue. The way I've laid this scene out, Jon (the mortal one) arrives behind Nos and almost surprises him by saying "he's dead?" In the source movie, Walken's character is having a discussion with the other character, so is anticipating a response and delivers his next line quickly. I found there wasn't enough time for Nos to process the question, which I'd have liked.

Timing problems exist later in the piece too. It's not overly clear that Nos was bleeding the dead guy's blood into a goblet, intending to drink it. Then, in solving the riddle, Jon quickly picks up the goblet, confirms his suspicions that blood is in there, and then mutters "'Cause you killed him."

Now I am in Class 6 I am free of the limitations imposed upon me timing- and frame-wise. I can make this piece longer and I can add pauses where necessary. Except it's gonna sound bad, especially with that infernal helicopter in the background.

Original version on Youtube.

Then this idea occurred to me after playing with the 8mm app on my iPhone - do it like the original movie. Almost like it's a lost scene from the original 1922 "Nosferatu". So this is a very first test - done by speeding up the animation 33% (to reflect that Nosferatu was shot at 16fps), inserting the title cards into the shot, and filming the shot as it plays on my iPhone. As it's a first test it's problematic - you can see me reflected in the screen as the title cards come up, and because they're so dark when the animation returns it whites out quite drastically.

Click here to view on Youtube.

I really like this effect, and I'm looking into ways of getting it done properly (without the whiteout, monitor reflections and getting the title cards completely in shot). It solves the issues above too. It adds creepiness, it solves the background noise problem and the timing problem.

There's still quite a lot of animation adjustments to be done, though. I want Nos to offer Jon the goblet, urging him to figure out the riddle, and Jon remains completely stupid and aloof to what's going on until he says "because you killed him" at which point he gets completely terrified.

I'll refine this idea and run it by my mentor before I start work on this shot later this term, as if I use it it will affect my acting choices for the areas I re-do. I'd also like to get Nos closer to Max Schreck's original portrayal of him - I think I watered it down too much.

I wonder how this kind of thing would play out on a showreel?

Animation Mentor Class 6 - "A Hound And A Rotter" - polishing

2011-01-15T14:47:00.003Z

First shot taken into Animation Mentor Class 6, "Polishing & Portfolio", and given a good old spruce up. I originally worked on this in Class 3 and Class 4 (click to see old versions), the first time I was on Animation Mentor in 2008.

Click here to view on Youtube.

I'm sure my new mentor, James Chiang, will have some notes for me to work on, but I'm hoping they will be minor and this will be finalled next week.

Animation Mentor Class 5 Progress Reel

2011-01-07T10:54:00.004Z

So this is all the work I've done on AM so far, minus the "Guarantee" shot I did a couple of months ago which is nothing like finished. I intend to finish that one up in Class 6, along with the vampire shot. I got great feedback on that shot from the legendary Irish ex-Disney animator Eamonn Butler last month, and I'm sure my new mentor James Chiang will have thoughts on it too.

Click here to view on Youtube.

Thanks for watching/reading.

Animation Mentor Class 5 Dialogue shot - second polish pass

2010-12-13T09:12:00.001Z

Almost finished polishing this shot. I don't really know if I hate it or not...

Click here to view on Youtube.

Animation Mentor Class 5 Dialogue shot - first polish pass

2010-12-02T19:35:00.002Z

Almost there...

Click here to view on Youtube.

Animation Mentor Class 5 Dialogue shot - more refining

2010-11-29T11:08:00.003Z

This shot is finally starting to take shape now. I've suffered, as with the last one, with a lack of planning and thought going into the shot. Lesson learned!

Click here to view on Youtube.

Animation Mentor Class 5 Dialogue shot - refining

2010-11-22T10:12:00.003Z

Click here to view on Youtube.

This is the first pass of this shot I've been happy enough with to post online. A long way to go yet though - three weeks more work in Class 5 alone.

Thanks for looking!

How To Train Your Dragon is f'n brilliant.

2010-11-16T12:22:00.007Z

I don't generally post about animated films, but I'm making an exception in this case.

Dreamworks' How To Train Your Dragon, released on DVD in the UK this week, is simply brilliant. Generally speaking I like Dreamworks' animated films but I don't love them - too full of pop-culture references, naff pop songs, wisecracking animals, dancing characters and the like for me (I swear if I see one more animated dance scene I'm going to scream - I'm speaking to you, Despicable Me!).

How To Train Your Dragon is different. This is a film so good it could have been made at Pixar, were it an original story (it's not, but it bears little resemblance to it's source material, only place and character names - and the title - are used).

It's dramatic, it's funny, it's action-packed, and it deals with grown-up themes in a way that children can understand. Furthermore, it's beautifully animated and rendered, and it's soundtrack is entirely orchestral, emotive and majestic with some lovely fiddle in places giving it a folkish bent (and I'm listening to it now), and the beautiful closing number is written and performed by Jónsi, of Sigur Rós.

This film represents a major leap forward for Dreamworks, who have so far been able to compete with Pixar at the box office, but not with critics. Together with Sony's wickedly funny Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs and Blue Sky's excellent Horton Hears A Who, it shows that really, really great animated films can come from children's books that are held in high regard by the directors and artists that work on them.

"He's dead?" - early render from new Animation Mentor assignment

2010-10-28T12:25:00.006Z

Spent aaaaages trying to compose this image, the establishing shot of my Animation Mentor dialogue sequence. How'd I do?

NB - The poses are all extremely rough, what I've been working on is getting the characters composed properly on the image.

Animation Mentor Monologue Shot 2 - polishing

2010-10-18T10:34:00.004Z

Click here to view on Youtube.

Acting and my latest AM Monologue shot

2010-10-12T07:44:00.001Z

After a really awesome Animation Mentor class last week, where our Mentor Dana took us through some really useful principles of facial animation; and the lecture class which dealt with some acting basics, I was able to turn around what I had last week which was a little unclear and stale. This new version reads much more clearly, although it still needs some tightening up.

Click here to view on Youtube.

It's becoming more clear that to be a great animator you also need to be (amongst other things) a good actor. At least a grasp of acting basics is required. I realised that my shot last week had been negatively affected by the video reference I had filmed of myself acting it out. The acting was virtually non-existent, I had just read the lines with no thought for character, objective, conflict, etc.

This week I re-did the video reference with these things in mind, and was able to produce a better version of the shot.

To ensure this doesn't happen again I consulted a friend of mine who's an actor, and he talked me through some principles and recommended some books. I'm going to go to the library to find the books and hopefully it will help with my next two shots - both of which are dialogues between two characters. One is for Animation Mentor (and is in fact the final shot of the whole course) and will be done in Maya and I can select the audio I animate to, and the other is for my Masters which will be hand-drawn and the audio is supplied. The same principles apply, obviously.

If I enjoy my introduction to acting with my friend, and find it useful, I am considering taking an evening course in it. Every little helps.

MA Animation - Walk cycle line test

2010-10-09T11:50:00.005Z

Recently I began a part-time Masters in Animation at Kingston University, where I work. My first assignment is a traditionally-animated 10-second walk cycle. To get into the task I did this quick test.

Click here to view on Youtube.M

My actual assignment will be a little more advanced than this. More updates in the coming weeks.

Thanks for reading.

Autumn 2010 Showreel

2010-10-05T09:58:00.002Z

Click here to view on Youtube

"Guarantee" - Animation Mentor Monologue shot 2

2010-10-04T11:01:00.003Z

Animation Mentor Class 2 Shot 3 - The Riddler's Dance - polishing

2010-09-13T07:55:00.001Z

Click here to watch on Youtube.

Animation Mentor Class 2 Shot 3 - The Riddler's Dance - refining

2010-09-05T06:27:00.001Z

Click here to watch on Youtube.

"Autograph" shot rendered

2010-09-01T15:05:00.002Z

This is the shot I couldn't get rendered in time to go on my reel recently.

I'd still like this done with The Beatles as the passing celebrity, and I've had a go at this in the past, but at the minute it's just too much work so I'm happy with it like this.

Like most of my previous work, it's lacking the polish I'm now capable of giving shots - maybe I'll come back to it in Class 6 of Animation Mentor.

Animation Mentor Class 2 Shot 3 - The Riddler's Dance - blocking plus

2010-08-29T11:39:00.000Z

Animation Mentor Class 2 Shot 3 - The Riddler's Dance - blocking

2010-08-21T08:09:00.002Z

Click here to watch on Youtube.

Animation Mentor Parkour shot - polishing

2010-08-16T08:57:00.003Z

Here's the final assignment submission of this shot. May well have some extra work to do depending on what my Mentor suggests. And at rendering stage the balls will turn to a polygonal lava mesh.

Click here to watch on Youtube.

Animation Mentor Parkour shot - blocking

2010-07-30T11:10:00.001Z

This week's assignment for Animation Mentor. Stewie is attempting to escape on oncoming flow of lava in a city environment.

Click here to watch on Youtube.

Diary of an Emergency Showreel

2010-07-21T06:56:00.047Z

WEDNESDAY 21st JULY 2010

6:55am
Wake up naturally, wondering why my alarm didn't get me up at 6:30am as planned. Check alarm. It's not set. Great start.

7:30am
Set off on my bike to work. Bright and early. Lots to do today. Call in at the shop to buy cigarettes. Gonna need 'em.

7:45am
Arrive at work. Need to check the renders of the first shot of my showreel I set off last night. With any luck, that's one in the bag that I don't need to worry about.

7:46am
D'oh! I set it to render one frame. And it rendered that from the wrong camera.

8:05am
Have made a duplicate hard drive from which I can render shots on other machines without having to stop animating. Whilst the files copy over, I might as well explain what's going on.

Let's get one thing clear:

I have a very cushy job.

I sit in an office all day long, doing what I want, listening to music with my best friend. I get paid a rather handsome wage to do so. If a student needs help, they come and ask for it, and they get it. When no student wants help I can do what I want, and what I want is to improve my skillset (for the benefit of the University, natch).

But let's get another thing clear:

I hate my job.

Now, "hate" might be a strong word. It's not like I dislike being here, so it could be worse. I just hate the fact that I'm so sheltered, so used to my life of not really having to do any work, and so used to the high salary for not having to do it, I really believe the longer I work here the less employable in the "real world" I am getting. I'm becoming more sheltered and dependent on this place, and I'm worried I'll never be able to cut the ties if it goes on much longer. (Also, the place is full of idiots, bureaucratic nonsense, and bustling mid-level managers who should have better things to do than put things like an informal plotter demo between one member of staff and another on the staff calendar. Incidentally, it's this morning at 10:30am).

Now. Aardman are hiring animators.

Aardman! The only animation company outside the US that I would love to work for. They're hiring animators for an upcoming film, "Arthur Christmas". It's a 9 month contract, this September to next May.

Problem is, I just found out the deadline's at 5pm on Friday and I have a lot to do to get my reel good enough in time. The next three days are going to be very long indeed...

8:25am
Have set up my duplicate hard drive on one of the Maya machines outside, rendering last night's failed shot. Bit concerned that many of the Maya machines appear to be failing to boot Maya due to a licensing problem... this might be a problem at some point over the next 60 hours or so...

8:48am
Working on my diving board shot. Never liked it, but it could be great. Started re-blocking it last week. Currently I'm getting it all down to stepped 2s (meaning all animation is done on every other frame, like drawings. Makes CG animation easier to change at this stage, before it gets more complicated). I hope to finish it in the next hour. Time for a cig, now.

10:04am
Have got diving board shot to splined mode, so now it's refining and polishing. If I can get it through the refining stage today, I can polish it tomorrow and render it tomorrow night. Renders on the other machine are up to 15 or so - meaning it'll take about 30 hours. More machines would be helpful.

10:30am
Afore-mentioned unnecessarily-scheduled and boring informal plotter demonstration. I really need this.

11:08am
That was the longest five-minute demo ever. Complete with bickering about job roles and various other incidental matters. I nipped off for a fag halfway through. And as if things couldn't get any worse, I have my first one-to-one with my manager in .. twenty-one minutes. Decided to break from animation til that, and lunch, is over.

11:11am
Oh, I forgot to mention. My band is playing a gig tonight at the O2 Academy, Islington. We were supposed to arrive at 4pm (!) to play a headline slot, so I have the afternoon booked off. However, our singer is currently trying to reschedule our slot to be the first one, so we can arrive later and leave earlier, meaning I'll get myself some extra hours to work. If he's not successful, I'll be taking my laptop into London to try and work. Which will be awful.

12:29pm
Registered some concerns with my manager in One To One meeting. Don't think he expected that sort of honesty. Still don't know when I'm meant to be going to London. Back to the task at hand, then.

13:18pm
Diving board shot is shaping up very nicely indeed. Almost done refining. The renders on the other machine look lovely, but doing them at 1080 is taking forever, so I've cancelled the job and switched to 720. I've added a touch of motion blur too as that should really set it off nicely.

Just found out I have to be at O2 Academy Islington for 4pm to soundcheck - stagetime 10pm. So going to have to take my laptop in and find somewhere quiet to work between soundcheck and stagetime. Won't be home til midnight, and then I'll probably have to get straight back on with it.

13:24pm
Just preparing to leave by making another duplicate hard drive to leave a different shot rendering on my work machine. Come tomorrow hopefully I'll have two fully rendered shots. Only half a dozen more to go... fast approaching the 48 hour mark.

16:14pm
Arrive at O2 Academy in Islington. We're going to be late soundchecking. If we're done soon we're going to go to the singer's house until closer to stage time, and I could work there.

17:20pm
Just finished soundchecking. Setting up workstation in Wetherspoons. Can't see me getting much done.

17:28pm
Can't use Maya on my Macbook except in Windows mode. And Windows won't load.

17:39pm
Windows and Maya booted up.

18:29pm
Can't animate here.

21:58pm
About to go on stage.

23:07pm
Rubbish gig, not worth the 9 hours out of my life.

THURSDAY 22nd JULY

00:19am
Arrive home. Going to get a few hours sleep before a full day of it tomorrow.

06:15am
Alarm wakes me up properly today. Coffee, cigarette, shower, breakfast, make lunch and head off.

07:18am
For some reason it took me an hour between getting up and getting to work. Not sure why. Was probably still half asleep. Arrive at work anyway, thankfully the two renders I set off yesterday - the first ball kick shot I did and the acting shot - look great. My acting shot still hasn't finished, worryingly, but it's not too far off.

07:45am
Getting to grips with other shots. I need to have all other shots rendered today, or rendering overnight. At a push I can leave one til tomorrow, if I need to work on the animation tonight, and come in first thing tomorrow to render it over three machines. I think this will be the diving board shot, as it still needs the most work on the animation. Fortunately, I had a good day on it yesterday and it now simply needs polishing before it's ready to go.

09:16am
Dialogue shot finishes rendering, and it looks lovely. Great stuff. Have set my character walk shot off rendering, and the volcano shot.

10:06am
Manager has arrived and declared that tidying the teaching room is a matter of priority. Which I'm sure it is in the grand scheme of things, as I shouldn't really even be doing my reel at work (especially when it's specifically to apply for another job) and there's not much else to do, but frankly it's not much of a priority as there's no classes booked in there for a month. See that's my problem with this job - a ten-minute tidy-up that can be done any time over the next four weeks is a priority! Oh, for something proper to do.

10:41am
Tidying-up resulted in a couple of side-effect jobs that were very urgent, according to The Boss. I had to make two phone calls. Back to animating, then.

11:17am
My latest Animation Mentor assignment, my second ball kick shot, is complete! It can now be rendered today and included on the reel. Now, I might get some notes from my Mentor on it, but as far as the reel goes it's good enough.

11:29am
Start to look at my autograph shot. I did some work on this not too long ago, when I was trying to dress it up as my "Meet The Beatles" short. I resolved a lot of the problems with the actual main part of the assignment then, but created a load more by adding in lots of characters I only had time to half-animate. They'll have to go, along with the Beatles. Sorry lads. I'll strip this shot down to the original idea - someone waiting for their favourite celebrity to walk past so they can ask for an autograph, and they pass straight by. Not a great deal of animation to do here, just more polish. It does have several problems but they'll be easily fixed.

12:58pm
Just when I thought I was really getting a hold on all this, and really getting there, I checked my volcano renders. The lava material I used seems to change at every frame! It's quite intriguing, it looks almost stop-motion, but doesn't sit well with the smooth animation on the character. Better try and fix it before the end of the day at the latest, as I'll probably need to animate the diving board shot tonight and won't have time to render two shots tomorrow.

15:05pm
After a couple of hours of tests, I think I might have resolved the problem. The lava material was procedurally-generated, and so the texture just sat on top of the mesh (a blobby mesh derived from an nParticle simulation), and when the mesh undulated the texture warped, making for a very strange effect indeed. I've now baked the procedural texture to a file texture, so that problem has no gone, however, the new texture is rather more bland, but not as distracting as the old one. A fair price to pay.

16:00pm
One hour before the building closes, allegedly. All shots rendering/rendered except for autograph and diving board. Ideally I'd like autograph done before the building closes at 5 so, er, best get on with it.

16:54pm
Five minutes before building closes and I haven't managed to get the autograph scene set up for rendering. I'll take it home and arrange it into render passes to save time tomorrow. Then just before I was about to leave I noticed the volcano renders - the lava is rendering black, like oil! This won't do, if I can't render this shot tonight then it's probably not going on the reel - and it's probably my best shot...

17:03pm
Not been kicked out of building yet. Randomly, the lava has started working on my own computer as I always intended it to! Don't know what I did, but this means I'm leaving it rendering on here and taking one of my duplicate hard drives home to work on the other bits on.

19:04pm
Home now. Just having a small break for dinner and will then be polishing the diving board shot. My Animation Mentor class is at 4am tomorrow morning, so my plan is to try and not be up too late tonight, and stay up after class working before cycling into work.

19:57pm
So tired. My feet are sore, which I often get the day after gigs for some reason. Must muscle on though. Going to the shop to replenish stocks (cigs, coffee, milk), without which I can't work.

21:54pm
Done about all I can tonight. Need to get a few hours sleep. Got some good progress made on the diving board shot. All still to play for tomorrow.

FRIDAY 23rd JULY - DEADLINE DAY

04:00am
Up at this hour for my Animation Mentor class. Intending to start work after it.

04:20am
Living room is filled with wasps during my AM class. How weird, killed 2 and every time I got one, another one arrived. Got the hell out of dodge, doing my class in the kitchen now. Hope we don't have a nest.

05:18am
Less than 12 hours to go. Better get busy.

06:34am
Diving board shot is taking shape, really pleased. Should hopefully be finished animating it by lunchtime, right on schedule. Gonna shower and head into the office now.

07:26am
Arrive at the office to find all last night's renders complete, and looking great. Then, went to open Maya on my machine. No license. Nor on any other machine. No internet either (writing this into a text file). So, they've turned the network off, presumably because it's Friday in the summertime at a University and hardly anyon bothers coming to work. How nice of them. This does NOT bode well.

7:31am
Called IT Support about network - answer machine says there's no one in until 8am. Good job I got up early, isn't it.

8:08am
Spoke to IT Support - thankfully there's no plans for the network to be off and they're looking into it. A glimmer of hope, then.

8:37am
Going for breakfast at Danny's house while they sort themselves out.

9:06am
Back in the office, all is working fine. To work!

10:54am
Autograph shot doesn't seem to want to render. Leaving it for now, as diving board shot still needs some animation on it and I'm running out of time. This shot is better anyway, it needs to take priority.

11:57am
Everything currently rendering, across 7 machines and counting. I'm going for a cig. Rather pleased with myself, but don't want to rest until the reel is on Youtube and the application is in Aardman's inbox.

12:58pm
Rendering of the diving board shot is complete! Just gathering the images to have a look at them in motion. Meanwhile, the autograph shot is rendering the rig's control objects and I really cannot figure out why. It doesn't do it on a fresh rig so my only hope now is to transfer the animation to a fresh one, and render it over several computers.

14:26pm
Having transferred the animation in the autograph shot to a new rig, I am now baffled as to why rendering this scene takes so much longer than any other, when it is less complex than most. In order to get it rendered in time, it's going to be less "sunny" than the other shots, which I've rendered on white backgrounds to really sell Maya's lovely Physical Sun & Sky effect. As such, it might not go on the reel. Fortunately, it's the weakest shot and the only reason the reel will suffer is it'll be a few seconds shorter. Which might be better, actually.

15:31pm
Closing in on zero hour. Had to re-render my latest ball kick shot, about three times for various reasons. Final version just rendering now, shaln't be long. Also, as I'm not including my autograph shot, which contained my vanilla walk cycle from the end of AM Class 1, I'm rendering that shot out too.

I've decided to put a lot more time into the autograph shot. I think it deserves it. It's this shot that should really have The Beatles in it to have it make most sense, and so I'm going to give it some extra care and get it to be a really great shot. I'll start that next week, and then if I get invited to interview at Aardman I'll have a couple of extra additions to my reel to show them.

16:23pm
All forms filled out, email ready to send, showreel uploading to Youtube as we speak.

16:31pm
Could I be cutting it any finer?

16:39pm

It was all worth it in the end.

Return to Animation Mentor!

2010-07-14T14:11:00.003Z

After almost two years with half the course still to do, I have finally returned to Animation Mentor!

Because the course has changed slightly, I have to go back and do the new Class 2 - "Psychology of Body Mechanics" before I can resume where I left off, "Advanced Acting" - which is now Class 5 of 6.

But that's probably a good thing since I haven't animated this intensively since I was last on the course, so a refresher is good. Two or three weeks in and I think I'll be better off for it, in the long run.

Anyway I have decided to piece to together the first shot in this Class 2 with the same one I did in the old Class 2 - i.e., two football kicks in one longer shot. This is the old one:

And this is the one I'm currently working on, which will be edited immediately after it:

I'm going to do a similar thing with my next shot - it's going to be precursor to this.

Thanks for reading!

"Futurama" rough pencil test animation

2010-03-14T12:43:00.005Z

Click here to watch on Youtube.

I'm working on animating a deleted scene from the Futurama movie "The Beast With a Billion Backs", by developing the original animatic included on the DVD into high-definition, full-colour, full-motion animation. I have no idea. For fun, I suppose.

This is a small sequence of the scene, in which it is implied that Leela kills Scruffy (the janitor) after he is succumbed to the tentacle. Each image has been drawn traditionally, and photographed with my iPhone using the iMotion app, which outputs complete animation video files. These files were then arranged in After Effects.

This is all very rough, there are still things I need to tweak, but I'll be posting more.

"Meet The Beatles" work-in-progress animation

2010-03-08T16:56:00.004Z

As I am [finally] returning to Animation Mentor this summer, I'm dusting down my old unfinished shots and sprucing them up a bit. First up, my "Meet The Beatles" short.

Originally starting life as a shot in the Introduction to Acting class, my animation of an eager fan meeting trying to get an autograph was never quite completed. I'm expanding it slightly to include The Beatles, and expanding it more to give it more of a story. This WIP is still sans an ending, where the fan actually gets to meet Ringo Starr and gets her autograph. It's also missing a crowd of screaming Beatlemaniacs pursuing the band.

But, a step in the right direction. More on this and other unfinished shots soon!

Click here to view the video on Youtube.

Unfinished DC Universe Online trailer shot

2010-01-21T17:50:00.004Z

I started animating this for the latest Mass Animation online animation project, but didn't have time to finish it due to Christmas, etc. I have started another shot but again am concerned about the timescale as I don't have much free time to complete it. Needless to say, the shot was not selected in this state. I think it would have had a chance if I had finished it.

Click here for direct Youtube link.

One of my goals as an animator is to animate Batman, a character I've been obsessed with from a very early age. I don't think this counts. I will do it one day :)

Thanks for reading.

Some of my animation in George Michael video

2010-01-14T14:59:00.002Z

I did some freelance work before Christmas for Moving Image Exchange, which it turns out (I didn't know this) was for a George Michael Christmas video. I only did a bit on it, I did some the background character loops you can see when the boy reaches the busy factory area. It's a nice-looking, video, eh? No comment about the song...

Click here for direct Youtube link.

Robot Wrestling

2009-10-26T09:42:00.003Z

Ages ago, right - AGES ago - Curtis Jobling (of Bob The Builder and Frankenstein's Cat fame) gave me a few doodles he'd er, doodled, of something called "Robot Wrestling". A couple of friends and I were going to bring it into existence as very short 3D interstitials packed full of cartoon violence. That fell by the wayside, and the project fell off my radar.

Anyway, last week I stumbled across Curtis' sketches again and knocked up this rough teaser for it.

Having watched it back now with fresh eyes, it's a bit lifeless. But I need to work on LBOM now!

2009 mini-reel, "LBOM" and "Surrogates" work

2009-09-12T12:01:00.003Z

It's been a while since I posted anything but I have actually been busy!

I'm currently working (and have been doing so for two years!) on a Flash-animated music video for Danny Fontaine and the Horns Of Fury's song Little Bit of Mean (or LBOM). It's four minutes long and I've been working on it in the background, when I wasn't busy with anything else. It's nearly complete now and I'd like it done in the next few weeks, but that's dependent entirely on whether anything else crops up.

The video recreates various instances of people being MEAN from pop culture and history, and replaces frontman Danny Fontaine as the antagonist in those scenes. Some such scenes can be seen in this mini-reel I knocked up recently for an MA application, along with my Animation Mentor work.

Click here for direct youTube link.

Over the summer I did some work with Brickyard VFX in Boston, Mass. I did some 3D modelling and texturing of some buildings in Boston for the film a Surrogates starring Bruce Willis, which is set in the city. The film is based on an awesome graphic novel of the same name, which I highly recommend, and is out worldwide in a couple of weeks.

Now that LBOM is almost done, I'll have things to post here more often, so please check back and thanks for reading!

Animation Mentor Dialogue shot

2008-11-12T12:59:00.003Z

(Click here for direct Youtube link.)

So this is my first dialogue shot* on Animation Mentor, I finished** it a couple of weeks ago but forgot to post it.

*I say "dialogue", it's a monologue really isn't it, cos there's only one character.

**I say "finished", it could do with a tad more polishing...

Thanks for reading!

Beatles run cycles

2008-09-18T20:19:00.002Z

First blocking passes of cartoony runs for The Beatles in the "Meet The Beatles" shot I'm currently working on. Added a clip from the original cartoon series, which I used for reference (limited as it is).

Click here for direct Youtube video.

Thanks for looking/reading/watching.

Belf.

The Beatles get Animation Mentored

2008-09-17T13:59:00.004Z

This is the title card of a 20-second short I'm making. Just because.. y'know. :)

It should be done by the time I start Animation Mentor Class 4 in two weeks. It's mainly the autograph shot I didn't quite finish in Class 3, finished up, added to, and dressed up all pretty.

I wonder if I'm allowed to use The Beatles' music as a soundtrack, legally... anyone?

Classic animation backgrounds

2008-09-15T10:58:00.004Z

I'm stealing them.

With respect, of course.

In an effort to visually differentiate my upcoming Animation Mentor reel slightly from everybody else's, I've taken some classic animation backgrounds from films such as 101 Dalmations and early shorts like The Skeleton Dance, and used them as backgrounds in my 3D shots. Here's an example:

(Click here for direct Youtube link.)

Thanks for reading!

Temporary animation mini-reel

2008-09-09T10:39:00.007Z

I've never had enough animation to have a showreel before.

I mean, I still don't - this mini-reel is made up of unfinished AM shots so far. It's just a test really, to see how it plays out and how much I can get out of my AM work so far, time-wise. About a minute, it turns out. But, I quite like it. When the shots are finished (very soon!) it'll be nice and concise, I think. Thoughts welcome.

Click here for direct Youtube link.

Thanks for reading.

Unfinished Animation Mentor work

2008-09-08T12:18:00.003Z

As-yet unfinished, that is.

I haven't updated the blog for a while because I never actually finished my last few AM shots, and I only wanted to upload finished work. However, I thought I'd add them now.

This first is my current shot, and isn't scheduled to be complete for another 3 or 4 weeks. Note that at this stage the only facial performance is eye blinks and 'puppet' mouth movements - no mouth shapes.

Click here for direct Youtube link.

The following two shots were not finished as I stretched myself beyond my abilities at the time. I am now getting confident enough to be able to complete this shots and will do so this month if I can, then they can happily go on my Progress Reel.

This next shot was my first shot of Class 3. I never finished it, but it was intended to show an excited fan being ignored by her favourite celebrity whilst she waits for an autograph.

Click here for direct Youtube link.

Finally, this was the third and final shot from Class 2. We had to choose either a diving board jump or pushing a heavy object - thinking I was clever, I did both and regretted it when it didn't really pan out.

Click here for direct Youtube link.

Thanks for reading!

Animation Mentor Class 2 Shot 2

2008-06-06T08:50:00.003Z

Click here for direct Youtube link.

Second shot completed this Spring term! Currently working on final shot.

Also - Annecy is next week! See you there if you're going!

Thanks for reading.

First rendered Animation Mentor shot!

2008-05-06T12:12:00.001Z

Click here for direct YouTube link.

Thanks for looking!

Animation Mentor - Class 1 is over!

2008-04-01T11:19:00.003Z

...and I was a pretty poor blogger during it. Class 2 will be different.

I finished the class on a B- grade point average, which is okay I guess. I got a couple of C+ grades and a couple of As so that balances out a little. I'm going to dedicate more time to it this semester so hopefully my grades will get better (though I hear this semester is way harder!).

Here's my progress reel from Semester One:

Click here for YouTube direct link.

I was hoping my classes would be at a more convenient time this semester, but no - 5:30am starts again. Still, it's all worth it.

Thanks for reading/watching!

Animated Exeter and Persepolis

2008-02-18T10:54:00.006Z

I spent the weekend at Animated Exeter, an animation festival in the south-west of England. On Friday, I watched Persepolis, a staggering animated feature that is up against Pixar's latest masterpiece Ratatouille at the upcoming Academy Awards. It's really very good, and will challenge perceptions of what an animated film can be, so do go watch it when it goes on general release in April.

Above: the giant automated robotic phoenix that adorns the Exeter Phoenix building. I'm not kidding.

I also attended workshops in character design and writing for animation by Curtis Jobling and Alan Gilbey respectively. They were very enjoyable and useful, and I recommend them if they take place in an area near you in the future.

Animation Mentor - Assignment 103

2008-01-30T11:05:00.000Z

Click here for direct YouTube link.

This week's Animation Mentor assignment - my first bouncing ball, an "excited" pose for Stu and a small revision from last week.

Thanks for reading!

Life Drawing 9

2008-01-23T14:42:00.000Z

Animation Mentor - Assignment 102

2008-01-21T09:56:00.000Z

Hello!

This is my first AM hand-in! Our task was to sketch people in a public place, and then circle one of the sketches and re-create it using Stu, our first AM character.

The AM community works really well. You can see the progression of my Stu pose here, the first was very rough, the second was following feedback from some of my classmates, and the final image tweaked from there following my own observations:

Life Drawing 8

2008-01-16T09:58:00.000Z

More life drawings - expect more very shortly, as I need to do some very quick ones for my first Animation Mentor assignment!

The end of 2007

2007-12-25T23:49:00.000Z

Hello!

I hope everyone had a smashing Christmas and that, like me, you got The Jungle Book 40th Anniversary DVD in your stocking. I just watched it - surely one of the finest films ever made, animated or not. Wonderful.

In my last post of this year, I thought I'd post this review of Annecy 2007, which I wrote when I got back in June but for one reason or another never posted. Here's what I wrote:

I have just returned from the Annecy Animation Festival, where I met lots of very nice people, drank beer of questionable quality for unreasonable prices, and saw lots of great, and some poor, animation!

Let's start with the screenings: Film of the week, that I saw, was Japanese animated film Paprika. Likenesses can be drawn with Akira, with it's similar intangible power story thread, but it's not as epic as that film. It is staggering though, with warped superhero sensibilities; it's genuinely surprising and baffling, but tightly written so you don't stay baffled. Paprika was in the feature film competition, and I don't yet know what film won, but this deserves it.

Flushed Away was also in the competition, and this was better than I expected, and I'd expected pretty good things. Genuinely funny and very British, if a little rushed to begin with, it could have won the competition if Paprika hadn't been so good.

Out of competition, I also had to endure El Arca, an Argentinian 'irreverent comedy' about Noah's Arc. It is truly one of the worst films I've ever seen. A waste of an opportunity to playfully rib the most ridiculous of Bible stories and, surely, a good premise for any comedy - a bunch of talking animals stuck on a boat. So how did this manage to be so not funny? Who knows. I do know they've ripped off nearly every Disney character, even the ones of different eras, so that the film just looks like a collage of badly drawn Disney characters. And, a note to the writers: shit and fart jokes don't make your film 'irreverent'. I'd also like to make a special mention to the English overdub actors: truly the worst voice acting I've ever heard. Well done.

I did see a genuinely irreverent film, though: Wood & Stock: Sexo, oregano e rock 'n' roll, an animated Brazilian stoner movie about middle-aged hippies trying to reform their old band and find a place in the world. Suitably, the plot's all over the place, the direction is very very slow, and the writing is hilarious. If you get the chance to see it, do.

I attended the Continental Premiere of Shrek The Third. Oh, where to start: please don't go watch it. It's really bad. I mean, it's not as bad as El Arca, but it's really not funny. And when you take the 'funny' out of a Shrek film, all you have left is a skimpish thread of a plot and a very ugly world where a lot of very uninteresting-looking characters live. However, throw in some half-baked sentiment about becoming parents, and the film gets even worse. Unfortunately for us all, Shrek 4 is in development and Shrek 5 will follow it. Someone help us.

I don't know why I didn't post that originally, but it seems fair to post it now, at the end of the year.

This blog's almost a year old. It's funny that at the outset I was meandering a little bit, I knew I wanted to be an animator but wasn't sure how to go about it. I have since changed jobs, which has allowed me to enroll on Animation Mentor as well as take life drawing classes and learn Flash.

I think 2008 is going to be a great year and I hope you continue to read this as I start my Animation Mentor (and therefore, animation) career!

Thanks for reading.

Christmas film

2007-12-20T10:49:00.000Z

I made this 2 years ago, in my final year of University. We had to make a film that combined live action and an animated, photo-realistic, computer-generated object. Most people filmed it in their bedrooms and had a phone/toy/clock/etc come to life. I did something.... different.

This'll be my last post before Christmas - have a great one!

M.xx

Life Drawing 7

2007-12-17T21:56:00.000Z

The last life drawing class of the semester! The next time it starts up again I'll have started Animation Mentor!

Thanks for looking here.

Christmas card

2007-12-17T15:27:00.000Z

This year's Christmas card, made using pencil and paper, a scanner, Illustrator, Flash and Photoshop. Merry Christmas everyone! x

Life Drawing 6

2007-12-12T12:06:00.000Z

These drawings are a couple of weeks old, I just haven't had chance to post them. Thanks for reading!

New music poster

2007-11-26T11:04:00.002Z

Here's another poster I've done using Flash for my good friends Danny Fontaine & The Horns of Fury.

Thanks for reading!

Life Drawing 5

2007-11-14T13:18:00.000Z

Here are some of the more notable pieces from this week's life drawing class. I used watercolour pencils. The purple one is my favourite, and in fact might be the best life drawing I've done yet. Incidentally, the model is the same as in Life Drawing 1 - you can really see the difference 5 classes has made!

Thanks for reading.

Life Drawing 4

2007-11-07T11:22:00.001Z

A bit of colour in the class this week, I used water-soluble chunky Stabilo crayons and a bit of water to create the painterly effect in the latter pieces. I don't paint, and I never have, so I'm really happy with what I achieved this week. Next week, watercolour pencils!

Life Drawing 3

2007-11-02T14:34:00.000Z

Last week's life drawing class was cancelled when the first female model of the course didn't turn up. So, here's more drawings of naked men! This week I used ink and sticks, a medium that was completely alien to me, but by the end of the session I had got used to it. I think you can see my confidence grow in the following quick sketches, which started off at 5 minutes and got slightly longer to the last ones which were 15 minutes.

Life Drawing 2

2007-10-17T10:59:00.001Z

This week I used charcoal. The teacher seems enthusiastic about how I've taken to life drawing and is encouraging me to try different media every week - and I've only ever used pencils and pens to draw before so I think it'll be interesting in the coming weeks!

These were quick five-minute sketches:

This one was twenty minutes:

And this one was half an hour:

More next week, in different materials!

Thanks for reading.

Flash animation

2007-10-16T12:50:00.000Z

(Click here for Youtube link.)

This is an animation test I completed a few weeks ago, that was given to me by my good friends at Studio B to help me learn Flash. It's from a show called Pucca, and is my first Flash animation.

Thanks for reading!

Life Drawing 1

2007-10-12T09:01:00.001Z

Some of the drawings from my first life drawing class on Tuesday 9th October 2007:

Animation Mentor - I'm in!

2007-10-11T09:08:00.001Z

Last night, Animation Mentor, the prestigious online animation school, finally accepted my application! This was after a month-long agonising wait, an initial rejection (due to a misunderstanding about my role at Kingston University), and an appeal on my part! Still, it will all be worth it in the end. I expect to start in the New Year, so expect lots of animation on here from then!

In the meantime, I have just started a course of life drawing sessions, which as an animator I'm ashamed to say I haven't done before. The first was on Tuesday and I will post some drawings from it up here soon!

Thanks for reading.

Flash poster

2007-10-09T09:37:00.000Z

Introducing Danny Fontaine and the Horns of Fury, my friend's band. I have just made this poster for them in Flash, for their gig in Soho this Saturday. I am also in the very early stages of developing an animated video for one of their songs. Give them a listen, even come to the gig if you're in London, I'll be there!

Thanks for reading!

Brooklands Racing Simulation

2007-09-19T12:21:00.000Z

(Click here for YouTube video link.)

Brooklands was the first Formula 1 Racing circuit in the UK, and although most of it has been built over since it's closure in the 40s, a museum now exists at the site to preserve what remains.

Whilst working at XPI Simulation I made 3D elements for the Brooklands Simulator project, which is now housed in the Brooklands Museum. I made much of the Motoring Village, which still exists at the site in Weybridge, Surrey, near where I live; and also placed all the trees (hundreds of them!) in the simulation. My favourite bit was the steam engine I built in 3D, which trundles past the track, which unfortunately is barely visible in this video.

Visit the museum to have a go on the simulator yourself!

Thanks for reading!

3D Visualisation/Simulation work

2007-09-06T10:44:00.000Z

Here's a project I participated in three years ago, a real-time PC simulation I made 3D models for, which was exhibited at I-ITSEC 2004. I've only just received a video of the finished article, so I edited it up with a few sound effects and music. Basically, I made most (or maybe all, I forget) of the 3D buildings that are in the foreground of these shots. The company I worked for was Primary Image, which is now XPI Simulation, who own this content. Thanks to them for letting use the source video.

Bee sketches

2007-09-04T21:48:00.000Z

Bees are fascinating, and they'd make such great cartoon animated characters I couldn't believe no studio had done a talking Bee movie. Then of course, I realised Dreamworks have got one coming out this year, and it looks to be following in a style not dissimilar to their Shrek franchise, i.e. funny and amusing (Shrek 3 nonewithstanding) but not exactly snapping at Ratatouille's heels in the creativity or emotional depth stakes.

Anyway, point is, I've been drawing cartoon bees lately. I don't know why.

Thanks for reading!

Fruit Punch: Rhubarb Bomb #3

2007-09-02T13:23:00.001Z

All change!

2007-08-12T12:09:00.000Z

I thought it was time for a change! I have a new job starting soon, more on that in the coming weeks. So I've rehashed all this blog stuff a bit, and made the web addresswww.belfry.info actually point to a 'hub' page where visitors can access the blog, my YouTube channel and my LinkedIn profile.

With this new job (given the increase in pay) comes the prospect of being an Animation Mentor student in the new year. AM looks to be a great online education program, albeit very expensive, taught by animators from all the major studios including Disney, Pixar, Dreamworks, Blue Sky, ILM, et al. The quality of work coming from students there is staggering, and I can't wait to start work on it. It takes 18 months, so expect this to become an AM-centric blog after Christmas!

In the meantime, I am still working on a few small animation projects and these will start cropping up on here between now and Christmas, I expect. Ahem - I hope!

Thanks for reading!

Fruit Punch: Rhubarb Bomb #2

2007-08-05T10:20:00.000Z

This was printed a month or two ago, and I never got around to blogging it. The next issue of this, an indie music 'zine from my hometown of Wakefield, will be out shortly, and Pete and I have done another Fruit Punch strip for that one too. I'll post it after the mag goes to press.

Thanks for reading!

Long time, no blog

2007-07-31T19:11:00.000Z

Apologies for the lack of updates .. I have been busy, just not with anything blog-able.

Anyway, here's a bit of visual effects work I did at uni. I'll post the whole short film nearer Christmas - it's very festive and not right to post in the middle of summer I'm afraid. This was the technical bit anyway.

CG Object and Live-action background

In other news, I'm currently working on a Flash-animated 2D short, as well as writing two other short films, and I'll post more about those as and when I have something worth showing.

Thanks for reading!

Fruit Politics

2007-05-08T17:59:00.000Z

Bertie and Gertie discuss last week's election, in May's Fruit Punch one-dip. See it here.

Thanks for reading!

A little bit of Fruit Punch

2007-04-30T18:18:00.000Z

... And this one will be familiar to anyone who has seen the original animation!

Cheers!

Happy St George's Day

2007-04-23T17:00:00.000Z

I hope everyone in England (and indeed, all over the world) is having a great St George's Day!

Here's some Fruit Punch to celebrate!

Thanks for reading,

M.

"Anti-Climatic" - first look

2007-04-16T08:23:00.000Z

This week I wrote a script for a new animated short, currently entitled "Anti-Climatic" but this is subject to change. I think it's funny, especially because it comes across like it might have real messages about big ideas like climate change and war, but it doesn't, it's just a two minute fart joke.

Anyway, this is a page from my sketchbook, I drew this months ago when I first had the idea. These are the two characters in Anti-Climatic: the meat-eater is called Rex (natch) and the plant-eater is called Wally. These are very early and very rough designs, it is likely the film will look nothing like this.

Hopefully, production will begin on Anti-Climatic over the summer; with a Christmas 2007 release.

Thanks for reading!

Fruit Punch: Rhubarb Bomb #1

2007-04-09T11:04:00.000Z

This is the Fruit Punch comic that went into the first issue of Rhubarb Bomb, the Wakefield indie/rock 'zine I mentioned a couple of weeks ago. Apparantly it's been rather popular. I was in Wakefield last Monday and it was nice to see people read it for the first time and laugh.

If you're not from Wakefield, the backstory here is that Rhubarb is rather popular in Wakefield. It's their biggest export. Except me and Pete. :)

Thanks for reading!

Odds and ends

2007-03-25T22:02:00.000Z

First of all, since last sunday's post I have added a link on the left there to my YouTube Channel, and if you navigate your way over there you'll find some rather embarassing student work - including the Fruit Punch animation I mentioned last week!

Speaking of Fruit Punch, this month's little strip went up on the website on Wednesday, the first day of Spring. Also, the Rhubarb Bomb launch party is this Tuesday in Wakefield I believe. I'm assuming some copies of the magazine will be floating around there, so those of you in Wakefield be sure to have a look for the first published Fruit Punch!

I've done some revision of Jonny Fu. It's looking a lot better than it did! Here are the 'before' and 'after' shots:

What's changed:

Rounder body and feet; more ‘shirt’, less ‘skirt’, you can now see Jonny’s belly under his shirt; shorter legs; reshaped mouth, to look less angry; and the headband folds have been removed. These changes were all requested by Jonny's creator, Ron Jonzo. This version has been sent to Ron for approval, but there's still a bit more work to get this version rigged and posed like the last one.

Thanks for reading!

Original Punch

2007-03-18T20:56:00.000Z

Fruit Punch, for those that don't know, was originally created in CG for a university animation project of mine. Pete helped me write it and we each did the voices. The animation's awful (it was my first ever animation) but it did make people laugh a bit.

Digging around the old files whilst working on the new redesign, I found these, the original designs for Bertie and Gertie, the two lead characters. I'm a bit alarmed, because Gertie (the smaller, more polite one) has a much nicer design here, I think. How did that happen?

The image that inspired the idea.

Bertie

Gertie

The result:

Speaking of university work, I might start putting some of the animations and things I did on my YouTube channel this week - watch this space if you want to see crappy student work (And maybe the crappy Fruit Punch animation too)!

Thanks for reading!

Published Punch

2007-03-11T20:35:00.000Z

Well, I say "published"...

Back where Pete and I come from, a town called Wakefield, there's a quite a thriving indie music scene, that we followed before we left. Rhubarb, incidentally, is the largest export of Wakefield. Hence, a new music fanzine named "The Rhubard Bomb" is shortly going to be making it's way around the town; and given that most of our friends are either in bands or reviewers or contributers, we felt a little left out. Plus, with a name like "The Rhubarb Bomb" we thought Fruit Punch would go well with it.

So, we agreed to put a unique Fruit Punch strip in every one of their issues, the first of which is being published right now.

Which is nice.

It was also a good reason to start work on the FP re-design that has been on the cards for a while, since this has to be in black-and-white. I drew it by hand, and it has a suitably 'grungy' look, especially next to the full-colour stuff that's on the Fruit Punch website. I think the final style may meet the two styles, displayed here, in the middle somewhere.

'Classic' style, as seen here earlier in the year:

Grungy new style (imagine it in colour and on-model!):

Comments on the possible new look welcome as always!

Thanks for reading!

Who ya gonna call?

2007-02-25T21:53:00.000Z

Not these guys, that's for sure:

This is my first animation in Maya, having used XSI (at uni and beyond) and 3DS Max (at work) so far. The point of this exercise was just to learn how to animate in Maya - this time last week I couldn't even navigate the thing.

For those interested, this uses the LowMan rig, and my flatmate "Johnny Fly" over at Studiophonics recorded the guitar. I had recorded it myself originally, but my computer doesn't like doing that and it complained endlessly. Jon's guitar sounds much beefier!

Comments welcome!

'Til next week,

M.

The first Street Gnome

2007-02-18T20:47:00.000Z

Today I visited a client, Ron Jonzo (mentioned in previous posts) in his studio just off Brick Lane, which is now my favourite part of London, along with Portbello Road (where the secrets of ages are stowed).

We were able to discuss the projects we're working on in person, despite technical difficulties (We had hoped to be able to use XSI to look at the 3D characters I've been creating for him, but technology predictably mocked us), which is very helpful. Also, he had some insights into the manufacturing process that I hadn't previously been privy to, and I understand this a bit more clearly now. Modelling for a manufacturer is very different from modelling for animation!

At any rate, he had some suggestions for Jonny Fu (again, see previous posts) so more work will be carried out on that in coming weeks. I'm really looking forward to seeing one manufactured!

This, then, is the first part of another project I'm working on for Ron, "Street Gnomes". He basically wants to install these small statues around London, and to do that, he needs them manufacturing in such the same way as Jonny Fu. There's three in total, and this week I've been working on the first one:

Yes, it's a hooker. The others are a graffiti tagger and a tramp. This isn't quite finished yet, there's some 'invisible' welding work yet to happen to make it manufacturable, some tidying up to do as I'm sure you can see, and some additional details to go on. Like her, um, nipples. Ahem.

Still, this is great fun to work on!

Lastly, I want to plug a couple of people. First, my co-conspirator of Fruit Punch and other projects, Pete Knee. He's been writing a very funny 'column' on his 'myspace' and I suggested he bring it to a 'proper' blogging system because I think it'll be popular. It's called "Blog Off!" and in it Pete aims his visceral wit at whatever has irked him of late. Very funny. Secondly, my colleague Dave gave this here little blog a mention on his bigger blog and I got a fair few hits out of it, so I'm returning the favour. His blog contains up-to-the-minute sport and technology news, and I hear he has a nice way of allowing you to get your hands on a PS3 if that's what floats your boat!

'Til next week, all the best!

M.

A Fruit Pun(ch) for Valentine's

2007-02-14T09:23:00.000Z

Wow, a midweek post!

Just a small one, to say Pete has tidied up the Fruit Punch website, and there's a new monthly gag up there too:

We're hoping, in these early days of Fruit Punch, to get a gag up on the web once a month on a particular day. So this month it's Valentine's, last month was New Year's, and so on.

Thanks for reading!

M.

The Animex Hangover

2007-02-11T19:18:00.000Z

I have just got home from Middlesbrough, where I spent the latter half of this week at the Animex International Festival of Animation. I had intended to take my camera and take snaps of some of the event, but I forgot. And, for the most part, was probably incapable of operating a camera anyway.

However, the wonderful Curtis Jobling, one of the speakers at the event and all-round great bloke has posted some pictures on his blog.

Obviously I've just got back and so have accomplished very little this week. Expect lots of development over the coming week though! I'm currently digging through some of my character archives, getting together models to do flyarounds of in wireframe mode to demonstrate modelling. Whilst doing so I discovered this wireframe/colour composite image of Harry, a character who featured in my character animation study in final year; so I thought I'd post this.

Tune in next week for the modelling reel and some Fruit Punch development, hopefully!

Regards,

M.

Fruit Punch - coming to a t-shirt near you!

2007-02-04T22:26:00.000Z

I've been working on Fruit Punch all weekend, aiming to get a small portfolio of strips done for Animex International Festival of Animation this week, where I might be able to get some feedback.

Whilst working on it, I had this idea. I'd like to see this on a t-shirt when we start getting Fruit Punch marketed up a bit. The characters are fairly self-explanatory, but are obviously introduced properly in the strips.

It's still just a draft, but you get the idea.

Best wishes til next week (and thereafter, obviously),

M.

A taste of Fruit Punch

2007-01-28T20:41:00.000Z

I've been working on a short film treatment for this competition this week, but I'm not going to post nine pages of storyboards on here. Besides, my scanner's broken! :)

So, I thought I'd post this, a peak at the first Fruit Punch strip. This won't be going on the Fruit Punch website, but we'd like some feedback comments where possible, either e-mail or a comment.

Thanks for reading!

Til next week,

M.x

Jonny Fu

2007-01-21T19:56:00.000Z

This weekend I've (all but) finished the visualisation project for Ron Jonzo I've been working on, which I mentioned last week.

Here's some renders:

There'll probably be a few changes to ease the manufacturing process, but they will be slight I imagine. Jonny will be going to be manufactured sometime soon, I'll post a photo of the model when I can! In a week or two I'll be starting on something new for Ron.

Til next sunday,

Thanks for reading!

Meet Jonny Fu

2007-01-14T22:07:00.000Z

This is Jonny Fu, a character developed by a London-based German artist by the name of Ron Jonzo. This is one of two projects I am currently working on for Ron, and more will be posted here every week. This is Ron's sample image and an image of the 3d incarnation I am working on:

This incarnation of Jonny will be used primarily for small figures and toys, etc. It's a crazy character and I'm enjoying working on it.

At this stage, the character model is almost done, with the exception of some welding; but obviously still needs articulating so he can be posed as Ron needs him, and I'll be working on this over the week.

Thanks for reading,

M.

A blog?

2007-01-06T20:47:00.000Z

A blog, you say?

Blimey.

Well given that Pete has joined "myspace", and therefore proved that Hell can indeed freeze over from time to time, I thought I'd do something similar. But I can't stand myspace still, so here we are.

If you don't know me and you're reading this, I'm a graduate 3d animator, currently employed by a simulation company in Surrey. I am, however, involved in projects outside of that employment, and that's what I will be putting on here.

One such project is Fruit Punch, a comic strip which Pete and I are currently working on. Keep an eye on it from here, we hope to make you laugh a little bit over the coming year.

Feel free to say hello, or leave comments about stuff I've posted/said/worked on.

Bye for now!

M.x