Mountain animation

Mountain was launched online this week, so i can finally post it here too. I was responsible for the animation of the two market ladies, the computer boys, the girlfriend, and the hikers in the end.

Work at Studio AKA

I spent 5 weeks back at Aka in June and July, helping my friend Dave out with his beautiful new film 'Mountain'. The film was produced for Sicaf, and should be online by the end of this month for everybody to enjoy! I really enjoyed working on it and learning Flash properly, and i had the opportunity to work on some lovely character animation. I went back last week for a few days to help Kristian out too with his new project, where i had to animate cats! I dont have a still for that yet, but here is a still from 'Mountain'.

Work at Nexus

I spent three months at Nexus, from February until April, working on a great project directed by Johnny Kelly for Google/Avis. Except for the pleasure of working on such an interesting project, i had the chance to work with a great time of illustrators and animators that Johnny so successfully put together, resulting in us being very upset about that project ending! We kind of hung around the studio in the last week not wanting to part from each other, but they eventually made us leave...!

The brilliant team comprised of fellow Kingston animators Joe Sparrow, Tom Bunker, Jack Cunningham and Joe Bichard, compositor Dylan White, illustrators Michael Kirkham and Laurie Hastings, Jens Blank, Felix Massie, and finally young James Hatley who was doing his interneship there with us.

Here is a picture of us at the last day of the project. The animation was mainly done using Photoshop and After Effects and some stills and animation will hopefully be available to show shortly!

 

Teaching at AUCB and City and Guilds

I had the chance to do some more teaching this year back at City and Guilds of London Art School, with their Foundation students. I first taught them for a week in September 2011, introducing all the new students in their first week of college to different drawing exercises. We mainly worked on line and movement, while their other teachers concentrated on shading and structure.

I went back to teach the Design group twice in December 2011 and January 2012. It was a great pleasure seeing them again but also seeing their progress and their drawing evolving into their personal styles. We worked with wonderful models Zoe and Lydia, to create compositions around the themes of nature and childhood. The students were asked to bring props and to decorate the models and the environment that they then had to draw. We had 4 fun days of tea cups, high heels, balloons, skulls, roses, lacy dresses, cupcakes, bicycles, and The Cure.

In February i was invited to The Arts University College in Bournemouth, to give a presentation of my work to the students, teach them life drawing and give them tutorials with their final year BA and MA projects. I was so pleased to meet such an enthusiastic group of students, who are producing very professional and organized work. Their show is on Friday morning at the Bfi in Southbank, and i can't wait to see it!

Here are some pictures from the life room at City and Guilds. Thank you girls for such a wonderful class!

 

Crane TV feature

Last year, we were asked by Crane TV if we would like to make a little film as Moth Collective to feature on their website this February. Dan, Dave and I drove down to Dungeness with the lovely crew of Crane Tv, and had a beautiful and creative day out, taking pictures, filming, and doing some stop frame animation. The day ended with a well deserved fish and chips dish, and a short stop in Rye, where we met our good old friend Silas! The final piece is a live action documentary about our collective, however we added some animation in some of the shots. I animated some creatures coming out of some abandoned buckets we found on the seaside...

Worldwider Art Project

A few months ago i took part in the Worldwider Art Project, a project set up by my dear friend Sean Davies. Worldwider is a network of collaborative art projects between artists from all over the world, that hopes to explore different cultures, views and opinions through various forms of art, and to break down barriers such as distance and language. I was sent a sketchbook, where every page was illustrated by a different artist and where i had to continue the story they had created. Here is a link to their website, and the illustration I made for them. http://www.worldwiderart.com/ 

Bolivian Instruments

I was asked to make some drawings of traditional Bolivian instruments, to accompany the text of a book written about Bolivia. Here are two of them that i liked the most.

TIQ London Animation

Earlier this year, i collaborated with my friends Sara Muzio and Daniela Negrin Ochoa on an animated promo for Lend Lease, promoting their new development, The International Quarter, in the London 2012 Olympic site. Dani and I worked on storyboarding, designing (characters and backgrounds), and animating the film, while Sara wrote the script and directed the project. Here is the final piece, some designs and a few pages of an early version of the storyboard.