The Mysterious Traveller

I have managed to do something rather foolish in the past fortnight. Upon one of my cycling adventures I unfortunately, perhaps due to a lapse in concentration, lost control and ended up crumpled on the tarmac before me. Now, I do get distracted on a monumental level, but I managed to instinctively focus enough to land on my left arm. Alas, it is now fractured and it took me a good twenty minutes to write this bloody paragraph!   So I don't really have an awful lot to report. I haven't been able to work and have been advised to keep my [left] arm in this sling for another two weeks at least... and to avoid using it at all for a further month. This is very frustrating.   Throughout my boredom I have managed to watch some movies that I'd not yet seen; including Tangled, Wayne's World 2, After Earth (meh), the Alan Partridge [Alpha Papa] film, Disney's Sleeping Beauty and Mary Poppins (I know, I'm a bad man for not seeing these!), World War Z, Office Space...

  Good evening guys and girls. So this is the new Cravendale advert that the Yamination team helped make, of which I was honoured to be a part of. Our involvement was the construction of the house interior (Barry's room and the kitchen), the house exterior (with the water-wheel attached on the side), the bridge and the post box.   This was our first project as a team that has hit the television, and I think the learning curve has been tremendous. Even though Barry rushes through the house, zipping past our hard work, you can still pause and see the detail (regardless of it not being in focus). We are incredibly proud of this and hopefully is will be a springboard for Yamination Studios and future projects.   A few little facts about this advert; that is real milk in the lake and flowing underneath the bridge. Barry is actually a puppet on strings on the close ups I used to have a hair cut just like Barry's new one at the end my fav...

It's a little strange for the people of my generation to witness the rebooting of our childhood cartoons for a modern time. In a way, much of the nostalgia can be lost because of how our beloved characters are now portrayed (simply to attract a different audience) in not only the animation style, but within the storyline and aesthetics also. I bring this topic up because of the recent, and upcoming, surge of movies that are based on some of the most beloved cartoon shows from the sixties right up through to the nineties. We've already seen the likes of Scooby Doo and Thunderbirds become live-action films, but because of the reoccurring success of many 'fully' CGI animated films over the last decade studios are not afraid to remain within this creative medium (hmmm but Top Cat flopped?!). So one of the favoured trends has been to take the cartoon character and place him or her in a live action film as a CGI protagonist. This has been done with Yogi Bear, the ...

 I am incredibly sorry for such a late post. I have neglected you once again, so for those who read this and live relatively near Birmingham; find me, and I will buy you a chocolate bar. Although, these longer periods in between posts might be considered a good thing because it means I'm actually working . 2014 has already given me one heck of a project to work on and the feedback that our team received upon delivery was delightful. Myself, Drew and Yossel drove down to Clapham Road Studios in London to drop off the sets, which we had built and dressed up here in Birmingham, ready for the animators to do their thing. So now we play the waiting game. The animation workshop that I've been running has taken an exciting new turn, as they're actually beginning to animate! Unfortunately I've recently bailed on them due to a studio opportunity up in Manchester (I shall divulge in a few paragraphs time) so I am willing to accept the grief fro...

...*yawns* ...*stretches his fingers* It's taken me over ten days to write this blog so there may be some really hurried sections. Or some really naff sections. For this I can merely bequeath you to enjoy the photographs rather than my grumpy typing. There are sentences in past tense, present tense and stuff all over the bloody shop. It's just been all Thunderbirds are go at the studio in Birmingham. So I have decided to summarise my 2013 year in a post with as little writing as possible and as many visual aids (stop that) as I can muster. As the new year has already begun, I shall be typing furiously to finish this post, but have immediately jeopardised this by watching the Christmas special of Father Ted. So fifty five minutes later I can continue. It has certainly been a productive and progressive year for me within the animation industry. I have placed a hat upon my head especially to take it off again to Mr Drew Roper because without the support from him and the ...

So I've just been working on a Coca Cola advert that I probably shouldn't talk about. I know somebody involved with Star Wars Episode VII of which they really shouldn't talk about. I'm picking my nose but... you know I wouldn't hesitate in keeping that from you. So sit back and relax; this blog post is completely under control.  The animation club have finished their first draft of the upcoming Untitled Princethorpe College Animated Movie. The story itself is magnificent, albeit a little insane, as far as a narrative is concerned and I was rather impressed. I did, however, have to ask permission from certain teachers due to their controversial interpretation by the students. For any teachers who may read this, I apologise in advance. The only teaser I can give you, however, is this... robot creates monster chases teachers attacked by mutated rabbits with a dinosaur and an epic car chase. You can tell my class lacks the feminine touch.  A selection of ...

I was allowed an early birthday present! So - becoming an official member of the co-curricular programme at Princethorpe College was September; having the after-school animation club grow by three members (bringing the grand total to five) was October. I am so proud. But I wrote that sentence last week... and upon reviewing this paragraph I know have SIX members of my animation club! *sheds a tear* I have to apologise to all who are involved in this post because it was due for release before I departed on my Croatian holiday with Lucy. Therefore a few sections might not make as much sense (probably more on my account) than others. The kickstarter project, for example, has it's final 24 hours as of today...so watch read on and find out about what I'm going on about... Yamination Studios has launched a kickstarter project to help fund the final stages of the 'At-issue' short film. I think the best way to describe how this works is not via the medium of readin...