Final Film Characters

These are the young/old cupid characters for my final project at uni. Could go few a few changes before next year, but pretty happy with the designs for now.

CITV Ident

25 of us presented our finished idents to CITV's Creative Director yesterday. My ident was chosen as 1 of 5 deemed to be ready for use, so I'm very happy with that! As long as it passes their checks and they definitely want to use it, it should be put out on their channel some time next year! Fingers crossed.

Finished CITV Ident

The second CITV ident pitch is this Friday and after many hours and some serious cramps, it's finally finished.

Hopefully they'll enjoy it!

More Final Film Drawings...

Untitled Final Film Blurb

Since I haven't posted for a little while, I thought I'd update my blog with a blurb for my currently untitled final film:

"A young cupid is on his daily rounds when he discovers people in love with things they really shouldn’t be... he races to correct these problems until he finally discovers the source - a near-blind and elderly cupid working in the same area. But will he be able to confront him and end his destructive work?"

In the next week or so, I'll be working on some concept designs of my characters using my existing sketches and story boarding the film, so hopefully I'll be able to share those with you also!

Design Work

Some drawings for Dezigned2print for adverts to be featured on buses and papers in Derby/Nottingham.

FLIP International Animation Festival 2011

On Friday 28th October, I attended FLIP International Animation Festival. The festival is held annually at Wolverhampton's Light House Media Centre and this year offered a very exciting line up of guests and events!

After meeting up with friends, I headed for the Light House for the first event of the day, 'Open Shorts'. This event was a showcase of animated short films from various countries using differing styles, skills and techniques. 3 of these events were held during the day and it was a pleasure to see short animations shown and celebrated in this way.

The next event of the day was Bill Plympton's Masterclass. I've enjoyed Bill's work for a number of years so was very eager to hear what he had to say and see some of his drawings and films. He didn't disappoint and gave a very interesting talk and showed some of his most recent work including concept art and animatics. It was a pleasure hearing him describe his passion for his work and it was made obvious he meant it by how he was constantly drawing and doodling as he spoke!

The day at FLIP festival was a fantastic experience and I hope there's many more years of animation at the Light House to come!

www.flipfestival.co.uk

Still to come...

I attended the fantastic FLIP International Animation Festival in at The Lighthouse in Wolverhampton this weekend and will soon be writing a short review of Friday's events (including the Bill Plympton masterclass). Sadly I was unable to attend the Saturday, but thoroughly enjoyed my time at the festival.

www.flipfestival.co.uk

Also, it was nice to see an article about my uni's collaboration with CITV in today's Express and Star!

Pitch

The CITV pitch took place last week and everyone seemed to enjoy my idea. I got some very positive comments from CITV's Creative Director, so I'm very happy with that. The next step is for everyone to animate there ideas and present them again on 16th December. A handful will then be chosen to use on CITV. Fingers crossed!

I'm also working with Dezigned2print on some cartoon illustrations for an advertisement. This would be my first commissioned design work, so we'll see how it goes.

CITV Animatic #1

Here is the my first CITV idea in animatic form. The sounds aren't finalised, just there to give a better impression of what's going on!


"A little robot is annoyed when he can't switch on the CITV logo. He kicks it in anger and gets a nasty shock! A funny, bouncy and quirky 2D flash animation."
There will be a practice pitching session at uni tomorrow, with the real pitch happening on Friday 21st. Hopefully my tutors and class like my ideas!

Initial Final Film Ideas

Here are some sketches of my idea for the central character of my final film. The film stars an elderly Cupid. Click images to enlarge.

CITV Ident Pitch

Here are some sketches and designs for my CITV ident pitch. Click images to enlarge.

'Helicopter' Robot.

Small Robot.

Large Robot.

3 Wheel Robot.

'Spider' Robot.

Small Robot Poses.

Unused Robot Idea.

Robot Sketches.

Plugging In.

More Poses.

CITV-bot.

Observational Drawing

Here's a few recent observational drawings of mine.

Sting.

Drinking Horn.

Classmate.

Peg.

Stapler.

CITV Robots

This is the group of robots who will be starring in my CITV ident. In the ident, the robots work together to assemble the CITV logo. I'll post scans of the final and some discarded robot designs this weekend.

Works In Progress

With my university projects fully underway, I'll be posting a lot during the next few weeks.

The pitch for the CITV commission is scheduled for 21st October and CITV's Creative Director will be in attendance. I'm very excited for this one and now have my characters and story finalised, so more on that some time next week!

I also now have a starting point and character for my major project film. I'll post some initial drawings of these soon.

In other news, the fantastic DepicT! competition has announced its shortlist for 2011. It was great to be a part of DepicT! and Encounters Festival last year, and I'll be watching the competition with much interest! The shortlist can be viewed by clicking here.

It begins...

Well, it's been a long summer of travelling, resting and working... but now it's back to uni and getting the cogs moving again! Time to gather up all the ideas floating around and put them to use with my final project... more on those within the next two weeks!

Uni have also given us the fantastic opportunity to pitch ideas for an ident/sting to CITV! I've been working on an idea since I was told, so I'll publish some designs and sketches of all that soon. Very excited about this one!

That's all for now, concepts/designs/doodles to come soon!

Teaser...

"Music and Memory" Draft

I thought that I'd post this draft, unedited version of the film I posted yesterday. The original colours and the processes involved in making the film can be spotted here. Enjoy!

Music and Memory

A short film animated to a piece of music I was given in the Advanced 2D module at the university of Wolverhampton.

Made using ToonBoom, Adobe Flash, After Affects and Premier Pro CS4.

Tracks: "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" & "Minnie the Moocher - Cab Calloway"

Alistaire

As part of my Innovative Animation module at university, I had to create a short animation using an experimental technique. I was keen to create a film using silhouettes. Overall, despite some small problems, I'm happy with the end result and really enjoyed the process of making it. Hope you enjoy!

"In this film, a young boy fears a strange illusionist... but for good reason?"