Our happy graduation from Wolverhampton University 2012!
So another year has passed nearly and I've been out and about working on many things with my life. I've recently been working at Dudley Zoological gardens to gain some experience and funds. Building a portfolio of work for my dream job of becoming a creative designer as well as drawing for fun on the side. I've met some wonderful people over the year since I graduated from Wolverhampton Uni, keeping in touch with old friends as well as meeting some new ones too.
I'm currently working on a little animation I want to send to festivals at the end of the year, the details will be posted soon but here is a design of two of the characters I've been working on.
Its a small time travel comedy story about a little old lady changing her life, those designs are of May (the old lady) as an old age pensioner and a child. Might mix them up a bit over the next few weeks, so stay tuned!
The project will be animated in Flash/Toon Boom and Photoshop, my tools of choice! I will also be doodling more by hand first, you can't beat a piece of paper and pencil to get your ideas down with.
SO, today was the big day, up at 6am on a long trip to London with the University of Wolverhampton! Here is a little review of the day, and some pictures I grabbed on my camera phone.
Dining at the Ritz (or passing it in traffic) we'll eat at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 o'clock...
After a long 4 hour journey on the coach from wolverhampton, the first sight we were greeted with on entering London was the magnificent Nelson's Column towering over us, the foutains were beautiful, and there were plenty of amusing acts entertaining around the site. After stopping in the portrait gallery for an hour (and after an amusing frisk by security) we sat outside in Trafalgar square in the sunshine to eat our lunches.
Enjoying a refreshing picnic in Trafalgar square, the animation crew, in all its myserious bluury magic!
Finally, as the sky was growing dark, a picture of Big Ben from Trafalgar square, before heading to forbidden planet and the book shops for some much needed shopping!
Forbidden Planet was a very enjoyable way to end the day, getting to look at all their amazing figures and toys for sale, I got two posters for £5, as well as a cute little transformer, Starscream! Nice little souvenirs for my visit to the big city.
All in all, a very enjoyable and relaxing day out with some of my best friends, so tired right now, I need a big mug of tea and a nice sleep!
So! I got back from FLIP this evening, an animation festival that was held in the lighthouse in Wolverhampton - http://www.flipfestival.co.uk/ and I must say I've had a wonderful time there.
It cost £11 for a weekend pass (special student discount, ofcourse) and I attended on the Friday and Saturday, getting to experience alot of discussions and seminars from Aardman, Cosgrove Hall, and Bill Plympton, as well as getting an opportunity for networking, autographs, and drinks afterwards.
My favourite part of FLIP was getting a chance to chat with the animation legends, Brian Cosgrove and Mike Hall, who created alot of brilliant animation that structured alot of my childhood, from things like Dangermouse, Count Duckula, Wind in the Willows, Noddy, Chorlton and the Wheelies etc to more recent animations, such as The Fox Busters and the short series of Doctor Who animations. It was a real pleasure to hear them talk about the fun they had working together, the process of their animation technique, and afterwards we got a photo opportunity with them, autographs, and some inspirational talks about being an aspiring animation alot like they were over 40 years ago!
I also got to meet an inspiring voice actor called Marc Silk, who I recognised from certain cartoons from my childhood, such as Prosper the Shaman from CBBC cartoon, Pitt and Kantrop (when I told him it surprised him somebody remembered it!) But I didn't realise he also voiced a cartoon favourite of mine, Johnny Bravo! He was charming to talk too, and amazingly tallented with his voices, I had no idea he was from Birmingham either!
Afterwards, we had a chance to chat with some artists from Aardman, who then held a claymation workshop, showing attendees how to create their own gromit from a few chunks of modelling clay, here is my attempt at him:
Spooky eh? Think I'll just take my job as head of Aardman right now!.....heh!
All in all, it was fully worth the £11 I paid to attend, however I would have gladly paid the £23 full price for the weekend pass, especially with such tallented people attending. The theater was comfortable, and the special guests were charming and pleasant, althought I would have graduated next year, I'll definitely be attending again!
Also, when I got home today, I found THIS little item in the local newspaper, the Express and Star:
Seems we're famous right now! I was one of the 24 people who pitched my CITV idea to Dave Hickman and Sam Hope, and I'm currently working on the final ident to present to them in December, so wish me luck! Hopefully I can snag a place and finally get some work on TV.
Well, I had a meeting with the head of CITV marketing, and the dean of art and design at the university on friday, showing them my idea for the possibly ident placement they're offering on their channel sometime next year.
My animatic for the pitch is above, its a cute a quirky animation about a prehistoric dinosaur evading crashing meteors! Done in flash, after effects, premier pro, photoshop and SAI art, with the sound effects from http://soundbible.com/
There are 24 other films they could choose from, no idea how many they're going to pick right now, but heres hoping! I tried to sell it as best I could to them when I presented it, it would be a massive boost to my CV if I could get it on TV at some point.
Well, just got off the phone to my friend this afternoon, it seems my idea has been chosen by the dean of the university to be made into a viral advert over the next two weeks, so yay me!
The proposed idea is roughly a terry gilliam style hammer horror animation promoting wolverhampton, playing on the wolf in wolverhampton (as everything in wolvo is about wolves...football club speaks for itself!)
Hopefully should make a nice comission and a chance to add something else to my blossoming showreel over the next week or so, here is a picture I am using for inspiration:
So, coming to a theatre near you! wolverhampton uni's epic thriller.
After a lot of deliberating and planning today, I finally have a decent idea of what I want my final film to be, so here is a small synopsis and treatment I have written to describe it.
Synopsis: A comedy odd-couple animation about a CGI character and a Hand Drawn character living together in perfect disharmony.
Treatment: The film will be about a short, stuffy, arrogant, stuck up, rule abiding 2D hand drawn animated character, sharing a flat with a large, easy going, happy-go-lucky CGI 3D character, in an odd-couple style situation.
The personality of the hand drawn character will be that mimicking his drawn style, as the hand drawn style is governed by strict rules and methods, recycled walk cycles and backgrounds, and seen by society as a more ‘classical’ and refined animation method. His character would emulate this to a hyper-realistic degree, bordering on obsessive compulsive rules and regulations, designed to drive his flatmate crazy. The 3D CGI character would be the mirrored polar opposite of the hand drawn character, being very relaxed and easy going, determined to enjoy his life with as little fuss and drama as possible, without any lines and boarders to govern how he moves, and how wasteful he can be with overuse of things. This would emulate how in a 3D animation, once a character is created, it can be used for any type of animation, never needing to be re-drawn again and again for different poses. Leading to humorous situations between the two, with the stuffy hand drawn character imposing strict recycling rules on the CGI character, only for him to completely ignore them, much to the hand drawn character’s distress and anger.
The animation would be composed of a single hand drawn character, animated in Toon Boom/Flash. Then with a single rigged character composed in Maya, composited together in after effects with a suitable environment for them both. There would be a constant bouncy soundtrack to accompany them and their movements, with as little dialogue as possible, with the majority of their emotions and actions taking place through exaggerated facial expressions and gestures.
The film would portray the daily lives of the two flatmates, waking up in the morning, squabbling over food, rules, etiquette, hygiene and so forth. Eventually ending in a large rumble between the two, which causes an accident, which they then have to put their differences aside and work together to help each other, realising they are actually good friends who need each other, despite hating what each other do.
The working title currently for the film would be ‘Anarchy, Rules!’ as this oxymoron immediately portrays the two characters stuck together for their own particular benefits (i.e. living somewhere on a low budget) A lot like the words are, opposite terms used for an interesting effect.
Other titles planned: ‘A Fine Mess’, ‘Agree to Disagree’, ‘Perfect Mismatch’, ‘Alone Together’ etc...
By far my favourite course done last year, I thoroughly enjoyed this course, getting to learn maya and constructing my own character 'Olly the Alligator', a lifeguard at the local beach, who ends up scaring the people he saves with his big teeth!
