Wednesday 30 November 2011

Current Projects – Part 1

Project 1- After Effects Animation – Shadow Puppet

A few posts back I mentioned that I would list what I am currently working on and the projects I am either trying to get off the ground or about to begin. I’ve decided to separate this post into sections – one for each of my 3 new projects and a reminder of the projects that are still ongoing.


I’ve been learning to use the After Effects animation software. Instead of just following tutorials I decided to create a short film for the Neon Digital Arts Festival. This will be uploaded to my Youtube channel next week. I’ve also created some animated logos and titles – I’ll upload these later as well. Basically I’m trying to incorporate this to my work and use the character animation tools of the software. I’ve used Flash and Maya for several years now and it is time I expanded my horizons. I plan to complete a short character animation by early next year. The progress of which will be uploaded here.
A screen shot of the character design is below. After loads of sketches this is the design a came up with (the image was created in Adobe Illustrator and will be exported to After Effects). It is based on Indonesian Shadow Puppetry. In the New Year I will begin to Storyboard the animation and get started with the animation itself.

Friday 25 November 2011

Polaroid Picture Illustration - 6

Don't think this is one for the portfolio, but I created this a while ago and forgot about it. Another image as part of my Polaroid Picture Project. There is now actually quite a few of these so maybe a separate website - multimedia presentation thingy might be created to present these after all.


Wednesday 23 November 2011

Life drawing and anatomy sketches 6

I haven’t posted up any of my life drawing sketches in a while, even though I’ve done loads. Here are some below.


Wednesday 16 November 2011

360 Narratives this weekend.

This weekend (19th and 20th of November 2011) I will be attending a workshop from Playwrights’ Studio, Scotland. The event is in Stirling and is called 360 Narratives. The point of the workshop is for individuals to ‘Challenge, Collaborate and Create’.
The purpose is to create teams to develop ideas in different media, mainly Graphic Novels, books, games, film, animation and new media.

I’m looking forward to this. The list of attendees is impressive with most people having more experience than me. Hopefully I’ll get the chance to meet some new people and develop something substantial. There is a week long residency in March 2012 for successful ideas. I am registered as a graphic novelist and I am looking to develop a cross platform idea making use of interactivity. Hopefully I’ll get the chance to meet people to collaborate with and generate some new ideas. This is a great opportunity and the workshop is free as well!!
I hope my experience in comics and animation will help and I’ll blog about how 360 Narratives goes next week.

Monday 14 November 2011

Abandoned Projects

Several months ago I decided that I was going to stop customising Vinyl Toys. I had some success in getting my customised toys in galleries. As a replacement for this I thought about creating a different kind of toy – a Flat Pack Toy.
Basically a cut out and keep toy that people can print off. I designed the toy and sketched it up in Adobe Illustrator. I printed off the design on glossy paper and then cut it out and stuck it together. And it looks crap. So the whole thing doesn’t go to waste I thought I’d post it up here. I’m definitely not doing another one.

However this project got me thinking about other projects I’ve done and what value they have. This blog in general is a project. My approach to it has been not to give a commentary or an opinion but just post up work. The only exception was when I gave my opinion on the Dare to Be Digital video game design competition thing I did a few years ago.

I think I’m going to change the approach of this blog a bit and talk about what I’m up to. For example just last week I attended a few events in the Neon Digital Arts festival in Dundee. In the future if I attend an event like this I’ll post up photos and give a bit commentary. I’ll also do a bit more to promote this blog. The main reason is to promote my work a bit more but also so I don’t go around abandoning projects again – even if they do look crap.

Next week I’ll post up about the projects I’m working on at the moment and give my opinion on how they are going. I’ve pretty much got 3 things which I working on. One is learning After Effects animation, the other is a webcomic which I am currently writing (and struggling to find a collaborator on) and the final project involves photography. This will entail starting another blog on the side, but more on this soon.

Anyway enjoy the flat pack toy photos and print off sheet below.




Wednesday 9 November 2011

Cartoon Cinema

I’ve created a new interactive application to present my new Flash Animations. This is on my Portfolio website and shows 3 animations. The Dog walking, Dog Falling and the man throwing the ball. These were just animation tests, but I thought this was a good way to present them. I’m going to do some more Flash Animation over the up and coming months so I’m going to create more Cartoon Cinemas.
Please see my portfolio to view the cinema.


Thursday 3 November 2011

Animation Screening at Neon Digital Arts Festival

I am screening a short experimental animation as part of the Emerging Artists screening at the Neon Digital Arts Festival in Dundee. The screening is at 2pm on Saturday 12th November 2011 at the Dundee Backpackers – 71 High Street Dundee.
More info on the event here. Tickets are free but need to be booked in advance from here.

The animation is a very short experimental piece and it is called Walking and Running. I’ve been learning to use After Effects and the animation is the results of what I’ve been doing. I’ll post up the animation to my youtube channel after the screening. I’ll also post a link to this on my blog.