The Mysterious Traveller

Three major topics to cover in this post and possibly a couple of minor ones. I will start with the bad news (which might not be necessarily bad BUT temporarily it sucks). It seems as though my Brothers band is having some problems with the single and the track is on hold until further notice. Essentially, this means that the music video is not going to happen for now. If you feel that you want to relinquish your anger upon someone or something I will enclose my Brothers email address just for you.  Now on to the good news; I have finished painting my friend Ian's wall! I ought to elaborate or else this story will literally be as boring as watching paint dry. Ian and his girlfriend Leanne have been blessed with a child last October and I began painting the baby's room with butterflies, pink vegetation and a gender confused giraffe (named Jessie to bridge the gap between male and female).  A terrible thing, taking photos after dark (lighting is awful). Me and my friend St...

I recall a promise I made to you folks, or perhaps more of an incentive, so that you might keep reading my blog posts. I  was originally going to begin each post with a description of the dream I had the night before. Or a culmination of dream state highlights. It was also seen as a source of story telling fodder because my dreams are so fucked up and imaginative that some sort of tale could be taken from it. For example: the opening scene (or creature) from my dream last night. Spider moth ( biggus-dickus-arachniphobus) I mean, COME ON!!! Look at the size of this thing! This was flying towards my face at a frightful pace. So much so that when it reached impact I awoke in one of those 'jumping' fits as if I had fallen from a great height. And I hate spiders. So, of course, it took a considerable amount of bravery on my behalf to turn the light off again.  I don't even have the heart to divulge into the rest of the dream. It involves too much from my past (al...

I am so close to the animating stage I can almost taste it on the cusp of my tongue. It tastes like epoxy glue but then I have been going a little crazy recently; surely a bit of mild solvent abuse won't matter. I have completed the main character with his medieval garments and weaponry. The only thing George needs now is a pair of hands and some lovely fabric booties. The progress from the last couple of weeks I have made wire hands before but usually need some advice to get it spot on. Luckily, the 'microblogging' service known as Twitter has been of good fortune to me, where a fantastic stop motion animator and photographer known as Ben Whitehouse  kindly sent me a link to his Blog . His recent entry went over in great detail one of the best ways to construct armature hands. So all I need now is some god damn wire! After posting the cunning plan of the animation table ( episode I of 2012) I have actually constructed it to the letter. I just love it...

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...

Yes, Christmas does come early for some and for me it wasn't soon enough. I have been struggling with inspiration and/or motivation (as some might know) for the past month and have therefore put a few things on hold. The lack of finances got the better of me and I pursued the only option I had at the time (again, some might know this) which was the role of a caterer in Princethorpe College; i.e. a dinner man. Yes, you heard correctly. However, the reason I mentioned an early Christmas was because of the new Canon 600D camera I have recently bought due to PAY DAY and also a birthday/Christmas money combo from my Father. So it was basically down to him that I can now really crack on with animating with this amazing HD quality camera. I should be able to afford animating software (namely Stop Motion Pro 7.5) and in the new year I will soon get some home made animations out there. Watch this space! Here is my newborn. She came with a macro lens and a handy strap-on. Filthy slut t...

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 ...