The Mysterious Traveller

I have now got at least five different projects to keep me busy over the course of the next year. Some can be done in a matter of days, some will obviously take months. Two have recently became of high priority due to the spontaneous enthusiasm (or sponthusiasm as I call it) and has led to mountains of ideas and quick fire development. My good friend and fellow animator  Ashley Lightfoot  is helping me spearhead one project which will essentially be a music video for indy pop band  Los Campesinos!   This is the current music video for the bands song 'You, Me, Dancing!' and as you can quite tell, it is already animated. I remember playing this song to Ash about six months ago and his reaction was a little hysterical; in the sense that he laughed at the chorus and screeched it at me from time to time in the animation studios. Such a silly tall man! Anyhow, it seemed to grow on him and we both had an idea of a vague storyline that could accompany the song if we woul...

I have just returned from what ought to be a New Years resolution, however, I have been jogging constantly for the past few months. I like to think that I can keep up more of a routine throughout 2012, but between you and me... this is highly unlikely. Perhaps this year I can simply work on my motivational skills and stop watching Lost or spend hours mulling over my determination to spend a full day sculpting (when truthfully I would dedicate a forced 45 minutes). So there we go; from typing out this paragraph I have given myself a resolution to (quote) STOP BEING LAZY (unquote). This is what I can do if I am not distracted by the likes of Facebook or girls (I shan't divulge in the latter). A Christmas card I painted for my Nan. I did a whole range of name plates in the same style for the able on Christmas Day. So on a lighter note, I do believe I have enough money to finally buy some animating software now. I have been torn between the Stop Motion Pro 7.5 software I am fa...

A strange blog title I have to admit, and yet those who know me won't be surprised at all. I recently went to visit my father in Germany with my brother; a hefty road trip through five countries with a lot of red bull and many psychological challenges along the wrong side of road. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I was walking along a street and saw this old German woman getting rid of some ragtag junk. I spotted a pink and green Barbie castle/house thing and the cogs in my head started to turn. You see, with the animation I do (and many will understand this) you will find yourself picking up so much random stuff wherever you may be; whether this is a car boot sale, a rubbish tip, the park or even on a night out (I swindled some nice beer mats that could make nice paintings for a model lounge). Basically it is a habit that us stop motion animators get in to. It took me a while to figure out how the damn thing opens up. So here it is in all its glory: the Barbie house in the ...

I have entitled this entry 'freelancing' as it seems to sum up the situation I seem to be in at the moment. As well as adding to my show reel and generally polishing up the CV, I have taken on random projects to keep me busy; some of which I have mentioned on here before. My most recent one is for a friend, Taylor, who needed some illustrations for her book. I don't think I will be getting paid for this but I still like the idea that my work will still be somewhere out there....besides, I can't be picky! Maybe she'll buy me some new paintbrushes. I haven't managed to scan in the drawings but only photographed them, so the quality it a little lax. The basic storyline (as far as I understand) revolves around a school girl named Angela and her rebellious friends as they go about their daily life in an American college.     The bottom left image shows the chosen design for Angela. My client Taylor (as well as my mother actually) really liked this girl and th...