Will And The People - Mr Sketchy - Official Music Video - Uncut

This is a very cool Music Video my friend Jack directed.. A nice idea
carried out effectively with really good bits of 2d animation. Its a cool
example of combining live action and Animation. The track is really good
as well. Jack graduated last year from an Animation degree at Southampton Uni.



Track: Mr Sketchy by Will and The People

Blake Evans

Just a blog post to say that we had a lecture by Blake Evans. I found some of his work to be quite inspiring and I liked the way he combined 2d, 3d, live action and pixellation. Amongst his work my favourite things were the music video for flutter by bonobo and his e4 stings. These contain inventive use of 3d and a creative and illustrative drawing style with Flash.

He seemed fairly laid back and puts down a lot of his professional success to having a bit of luck - knowing the right people etc.. His work is impressive and I liked his creative 2d style. He mainly uses Flash, After Effects and Maya.

He currently works with a couple of other guys who cover more of the business side of things -

dealing with clients etc.. and are also knowledgeable with Maya. Check out their website for their professional work... (inc. Bonobo music video)

This myspace page has many of his own videos that cannot be found on the above link 

(inc. e4 stings.)

Paper plane flight animation

I had this idea (while I was bored) of a piece of paper turning itself into a paper plane and flying off... Then over the next 2 days made it happen!

In the process I developed my understanding of using photoshop, flash and premiere and compositing animation with live action. I mainly worked at just getting the plane flying along although I did also use stop motion photography to make the paper turn itself into a plane but havn't included this in the animation.

Here is several hours of work (and me risking my life running down stairs holding a camera) all for your enjoyment...

The Catsters Paradise Design Bible complete extravaganza!

Presenting.....

The complete design bible for the Animal Firm project. This was really fun at times. In particular I enjoyed coming up with the characters, writing about them and designing the family trees of how they are connected..

I learned about how important characters are when it comes to creating a show or film. Once you have a good idea of the characters the next step of developing a narrative/story becomes much easier.. In the development stage some characters looked really human just with animal heads (this was pointed out to me by my girlfriend Nina.) I took inspiration from Puss In Boots in Shrek for the character of Jazz Jules.

I did not have much spare much time for creating the animal world in which they lived and could only fit in a few single panels of situations. I think if I had another week I would have been able to come up with more situations, gags and better ideas for the world in which they inhabit. One idea I had was to base a night club underneath a pier but didn't have time to do it..

Beijing Olympics Monkey Animation 2008..

I've always loved this. Everything about it is amazing. The character designs, concept, animation, music and background art.

I would really like to learn the method they used for making it. I'm guessing the background has been done in 3d with painted textures. The animation looks 2D yet they move quite nicely in a 3d space so maybe they're actually done in 3d but made to look more

cartoony then a typical Maya character.. Maybe the characters are a mixture of 2d and 3d...if anyone has a better idea of the production process behind this please let me know !

Parkour Animation

This is really cool.. Quite original, fun to watch, clever and drawn very well !

Parkour Motion Reel from Saggy Armpit on Vimeo

Group project - Final Animation + evaluation

After much effort from all, we have finished our final animation. I have spent the whole day compositing and editing it on Premiere. This involved cutting down the scenes accordingly and making sure the whole thing flows as smoothly as possible. I have also been adjusting the sound levels and checking that voices can be heard over the music. It has been a bit of a mission and I must have seen the video a million times by now! Still, it was nice putting it all together and I picked up new skills with premiere so all is good.. It feels great to have it completed. I am a happy man and whilst incredibly tired and mentally exhausted I will make sure I celebrate later....bring on the drinks and music......woooooooooooooo !!! :-)

For anyone who is not familiar with what we had to produce - the brief was to produce an animation to the script : what, what, what, what and what !

Enjoy....

The scenes I animated were the Bouncer checking Daves I.D. scene and all of the Hospital scene..

I did the following jobs: Directing, co-producing, character designing Dave and preparing him for animation, animating, voice of Henson, helping to write the script, doing the storyboard with Sam and producing the layouts which Patrick has taken and rendered in a funky artistic style..

I have also created the sound track for the first section of animation and done the final editing and compositing. I am pretty pleased with how its all gone, I think (despite some moments of bickering) we have worked very well together and kept up the momentum and group spirit!..

My main role was being director which involved approving other peoples work, working out our methodological approach to animation and checking that it maintains a consistantly high standard. Checking that my team mates know what to do and how to do it.

I also unintentionally took on role of co-producer when I found myself telling people to come in, keeping on top of everyones work, making sure they were kept busy and that we were heading towards our target. .

I now have a clearer idea of what the different roles involve. Theres nothing quite like first hand experience when it comes to learning. I would be happy to work with the same people again in future projects... Thanks Sam, Patrick and Ryan - good team effort guys :-)

Animal Firm development work

The brief in a nutshell is to produce development work for an animated series featuring an animal criminal gang. We have to hand in a 'design bible' before the 8th of June which will consist of concept,character and setting designs. So far I have found it to be an enjoyable project with a lot of creative freedom. The tough thing is keeping it going alongside the intensive group project.

Here is all the work I have done for the Animal Firm project so far...

Group project - mid-production update

Production is now well under way. I would say we have animated around a third of our final animation. Things are beginning to get exciting.. We have now entered the nightclub! Wooo!

The work I have been doing is mainly getting Dave 'rigged' in Illustrator and ready for animation in flash. I have also started making music for the Animation using Garageband.

As the director I usually find myself preoccupied a lot with telling the others what to do and keeping them busy, matching shots up to the original storyboard, helping out with flash, filling in the gaps of production and trying to keep things smooth.

In terms of group dynamics I think we are doing fairly well, I have learned there is no point getting stressed and nagging at people for not showing up as this just leads to pointless negativity! Instead its best to stay upbeat and optimistic. If someone doesn't come in you make do with what you got.

Here are my drawings of Dave that I have prepared in illustrator. I have handed these over to Ryan for animating.

Group project - layouts

I have been working intensively producing many many layout sketches to give to Patrick which he has been rendering out in a funky style. At first I was unsure what this job involved and how necessary it was.

Now I realise it involves developing the storyboard panels:- What environmental scenery and props will be in the shot, where the camera and people will be, how it will work. It is very necessary! I have underestimated how much thought must go into each shot/scene. So here is the full array of layout sketches I have produced which I have handed over to Patrick to make all nice and arty.

House:








Street:











Nightclub:










Hospital: