Tuesday 23 December 2008

Tis the season...

to be jolly???

I'm off for Christmas now, so thought I'd leave with the one piece of creativeness I've produced which isn't to do with an animation craft show. Today I was editing together an interview for the series with Aardman's Richard Goleszowski. He gave a really interesting insight into the creative process behind putting an episode of Sean the Sheep together. In the show the interview is only three and a half minutes long but I've got 15 minutes worth of chat, which has some really nice content, I must throw it together later on next year as there is some interesting stuff which isn't suitable for a series aimed at 8-12 year olds.

So here's my Christmasie effort for 2008... It's an envelope but could be a xmas card, gift tag or reindeer enthusiast journal cover???

Merry Christmas one and all!

Saturday 13 December 2008

Behind the Scenes, On Set...

As promised a few snaps from my latest project the online series 'Animate and Create' which goes out at the start of the new year. I'm frantically editing away at the moment, the deadline and Christmas are lurky though...




Me on Set...


Serious me in the plasticine jungle, which is the studio...


Me again... This Time trying to find my motivation for the opening scene


My 'Man trapped in box' mime impression


Finally my Homage to the legend Mr. Tony Hart and his trusted sidekick Morph

Friday 12 December 2008

Feeling Lost

Having a down day? Me too...

I'm lucky enough to be a very energetic passionate person, but as a creative this comes at a price in the shape of a low. The dearest things to me in life are my dreams, desires and future projects, these things keep me going and something to aim for. If I was to describe how my lows feel,it would be losing my self belief in fulfilling my dreams. Now the reasons can vary from others doubting or letting you down to personal matters effecting your work.

When I'm low/down I always use the term 'Lost' to describe the feeling, as i never know how i got here or how I'm going to get out. I'm not sure how I'm going to get myself out of this current low, maybe writing this is one attempt?

This all reminded me of an article I was asked to write by an online creative mag. The theme for the issue was 'Lost', so I wrote about a creative person's eternal state of feeling 'Lost'. A link to it is below:

http://www.creaturemag.com/lostandfound/page5.html


I'm feeling more 'Lost' than usual tonight, but do hope i get back to being a plain old 'Lostie' soon enough. It's days like this, that makes the highs all the more sweeter...

Tuesday 9 December 2008

My New Baby...

You need to upgrade your Adobe Flash Player to version 9.0.28+


I thought it was about time I mentioned the main project I'm working on, which is keeping me from writing my Blog!

I'm currently producing a short animation craft show for the online channel Kent TV. The series will be made up from six episodes, each being eight minutes in length. The episodes will present animation tasks, interviews with animators and run a competition. The show is being pitched at both primary and secondary schools pupils from the county. I've written, produced, and am presenting it which has been lots of fun, but extremely straining, most of all for the crew as I forget lines!

I've been busy the last couple of months writing the shows, producing the interviews and have just finished recording the studio tasks. After presenting I have a new found respect for TV presenters in particular the likes of Tony Harts and Neil Buchanan. These guys are such an inspiration to so many young people, and they're real professionals. For them to be so good on screen, remember lines and processes and to complete all the tasks successfully over and over again is tough job.

I'll write more and throw some photos up over the next week or so.

Monday 24 November 2008

Buttons For Eyes...



I wasn't going to write anything today until a friend pointed me towards this little treat!

I've been hearing the whispers and seeing the amazing previews of Coraline, so was thrilled to see this preview of the film. The film is directed by the amazing Henry Selick, and looks like the perfect example of top notch stop-motion animation. I love the dark style and the imaginative design of this fantasy world and can't wait for the film to hit the UK.

One comment I always get asked about my short The Windmill Boy is why my characters don't have any pupils, so I'm always interested to see how characters without pupils act. This is one very excited animator, counting the clock down until February!

One of my proudest moments was hearing my short film was being screened next to Henry Selick's short 'The Moon Child' during a screening at a US festival.

Friday 14 November 2008

Doritos Ad Entry


I thought I'd add this short piece of animation I made back in May this year. The project came around when an animator friend of mine challenged me to produce a video for a competition to make a 29 second ad for Doritos. I didn't think too much about it when I accepted, but later realised I would have to make sets and models, plus animate while he only had to work at home on the computer!

The project took 8 days to produce, 3 to make all the models and sets, 3 1/2 to animate and 1/2 a day to edit and put the sound down. The idea was knocked together by my best mate Dave Wharram and I over a few beers, while Steve Allen helped with the climbing wall, wire and podium models. In Post production Mankit Lo edited and did the cleaning up, while Leon Benning produced the sound for the project. The commentators voice was performed by my head of Department the wonderful Mr David Bradshaw!

It was a really nice short project, and very enjoyable to make using with the crew who all helped out on my short film. It has definitely made me want to do at least one short film of my own a year from now on!

Wednesday 12 November 2008

Up, Up and Away!



I thought I'd point out the trailer for the next classic Pixar feature 'UP'. Apart from the fact Pixar are the best at producing CGI features in the business, I have another couple of reasons for focusing on it.

Firstly the short animation film I made a couple of years ago 'The Windmill Boy' is centered around a boy who turns his home into a flying machine, so has a similar plot. I love the idea of people living in the sky, so am interested to see how the film progresses on that front.

The second reason I'm interested is because I have just recently produced my very first piece of 2D animation, which includes flying men. The animation which I'll add to the Blog next week is for a pilot for a feature film. The animation is for a dream sequence about a man who imagines he can fly and within the dream there is another guy who is floating in the air attached to balloons.

I can't wait to see 'Up' next summer, and hope it lives up to it's interesting teaser...

Tuesday 11 November 2008

Bagpuss, The Clangers and Me...

Me, Peter Firman and Steve Allen at Canterbury Anifest '07

Well today was a real treat and something that really warrants writing about. This morning I was lucky enough to interview Peter Firman who along with Oliver Postgate produced such wonderful animations including 'Bagpuss', 'The Clangers', 'Noggin the Nog' and my favourite 'Ivor the Engine'.

My current project which I'm sure I'll write more about over the coming months is a short animation craft series for an online channel. The series is aimed at young people in Kent, to demonstrate different animation techniques. For the series I really wanted to interview Peter Firman as he and Oliver Postgate produced all of their animation here in Canterbury in an old Pig shed.

The interview took place in two different venues, the first was the museum of Canterbury, which is where Bagpuss now lives with all his friends in his Bagpuss and Co shop window. The second location was the Sidney Cooper Gallery, which up until 13th December is holding an exhibition of Peter Firman's artwork and Bob Godfrey's 2D animation. The timing for my interview couldn't have been better as it meant the second part could be filmed on a mock up rostrum in the gallery where Peter demonstrated the cut out technique used on 'Ivor the Engine'.

As a boyhood fan of the animations, an animator and someone who teaches animation I found today a really special experience. Peter speaks with so much energy and enthusiasm about the productions, you can't help but be inspired. Peter is an incredibly creative person and his stories about his creations are tales of their own. Peter spoke for around half an hour, talking about both his cut-out and model work showing plenty of examples. I now have the challenge of editing the piece from 34 minutes down to 4 minutes! I'll try to get a clip on here over the next month, and talk more about the processes used.

I'd just like to finish by thoroughly recommending the 'Animate' exibition including Peter's work. It is along Canterbury high street at the Sidney Cooper Center, its completey FREE and includes the Clanger models, lots of cut outs from Ivor the Engine and Noggin the Nog and lots of work from Bob Godfrey. More Info at

http://www.canterbury.ac.uk/sidney-cooper/exhibition/current.asp










Monday 10 November 2008

So it begins

I've been thinking of writing a Blog for the last year or so as a way of communicating what I'm doing, but didn't want to do it through a facebook/myspace page. Can I apologise now for my incredibly bad English, my terrible spelling and exaggerated opinion on everything, that's just me really?

Hopefully I can use this Blog to bookmark everything worth seeing again online, and also show off some of my own work that hasn't really got a place to sit on my other sites.

I'm sure it's going to be a long ride with lots of barren spells, but hold on in and I'll try to make it worth while checking back now and again!

Grazie!

Dan