Tate Movie Project

Tate Movie Project is an ambitious initiative by Aardman and the Tate to involve children around the UK in the production of an animated film. I was part of the team that developed the website, via which kids can contribute ideas, designs, sound effects and animations. The site centres around a virtual film studio, from which the bumbling director Ronnie Suitcase and his crew issue requests to the participants and give updates on the film's progress. I designed these Jules Engel-inspired backdrops for Felix Massie's brilliant character animations, and loaded them with discoverable, interactive elements.


My other contribution was to draw all the parts from which users create their avatar, reflecting the style of the site's main characters. It's great seeing what combinations the kids come up with, here are a few of my favourites.

Aardman pitch visuals

Back in the summer I was very kindly asked to contribute some designs to an Aardman Commercials pitch. The client was a Dutch appliance chain, and the brief called for me to illustrate various scenarios depicting how people relate (or not) to everyday appliances. The turnaround was very quick and though the job didn't go any further, I was quite pleased by how the images turned out. So here they are:

Shaun's Big Lunch, for Aardman & Eden Project

Once again I'm posting several months after the fact, but never mind. This was a game I illustrated for Aardman Digital to promote the Big Lunch, an Eden Project initiative encouraging communities to come together for a bit of a do. It's always a fun challenge to originate a new style for these things, in this case I went for a simple palette overlaid with fabric textures to match the homespun feel of the event. The game itself was coded by Rich Myles and is effectively a re-skin of Quartet, by Aardman's own Rich Davey.

Maf the Dog for Faber & Faber

I was recently commissioned by publishers Faber & Faber to design, direct and animate a short film to promote the release of Andrew O'Hagan's new novel, The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog and of his Friend Marilyn Monroe. The book is a fictional autobiography of the Maltese dog given to Marilyn by Frank Sinatra in 1960, two years prior to her death.

Drawing inspiration from film titles and cartoons of that era and incorporating quotes from the novel itself, I produced this minute long whistle-stop tour of Maf's early life, tracing his journey from an English farmhouse kitchen to the company of the most famous woman in the world. The piece was conceived as a single sequence without obvious cuts, using colour transitions to reinforce the sense of movement.

Home Sheep Home for Aardman

Another game for Aardman, this time a physics-based platform/puzzler to celebrate the launch of the shiny new Shaun the Sheep website (designed by the wondrous Gavin Strange).

This was a somewhat unusual project, as ingenious developer Chris Underwood designed and built the thing in it's entirety out of not much more than grey and green rectangles before I went in and applied a generous coat of graphical gloss. The hand-drawn look was based on sketches by series creator Richard Goleszowski and brought to life with subtle texture, translucent colour and gently boiling lines.
The game has proved something of a smash since it's wider release last month, picking up rave reviews on the likes of Newgrounds and inspiring a whole heap of walk-through videos on Youtube, including the frankly insane speed-run embedded below. Last I heard it was heading towards a whopping ten million plays, so thanks to everyone who's helped make it such a success!

WebbliRacers for Aardman

Gawsh, this one seems like forever ago now but it's a bit of a beaut so still worth posting. I worked on this mini-epic of a racing game towards the end of last year, handling all the design. It's a promotional game for WebbliWorld, Aardman's online virtual world for kids, and as such takes visual cues from the lovely work of Tim Ruffle. The cars were brought to beautiful 3D life by Phil Webster and the whole thing was coded by the fantastic Julian Scott.

Filler

This place is about due an update I think. I was at Aardman for a good long stretch before Christmas working on an exciting couple of projects, which I'll post about soon. In the meantime here are stills from some recent e cards for Hallmark.

Generalitat de Catalunya

The Spanish TV advert I worked on at Aardman recently has popped up online. It's a public information spot about forest fires, but much more fun than that sounds, and is one of a series designed by Adrian Johnson and directed by Tim Ruffle. I was lead animator but enjoyed expert backup from Tom Evans and all-round wisdom from Joe Wood. Spencer Cross handled the After Effects spit and polish.

Watch it below in faintly crummy YouTube-o-vision:

UPDATE!!!

It's been a good long while since I posted anything here, so I believe those exclamation marks are more than warranted. I've been plenty busy though, so thought I might round up some recent projects in one handy post. Here we go...

First up is Pet Factor, a series of three short animations parodying the X Factor, produced with the guys at Thought Den to promote a pet healthcare website. I handled the design, animation, compositing, music, and sfx on all spots, which were each completed in two or three (rather long) days. Watch them on YouTube here.


Next up is a piece I completed for Bristol's own 3Sixty, for the homepage of the Xype website. This one was exciting for me as it gave me the opportunity to work with designs by Celyn Brazier, one of my favourite illustrators and directors. It was also largely hand-animated, so I got to go mad with the inbetweens as the composite image below should show.


Lastly, I've been plugging away at the ecards for Pixillion again. Some nice varied design work in this batch I think.


In other news, I just recently spent a fantastic few weeks at Aardman animating on one of a series of tv spots for the Spanish government. It was a great experience being part of the team and I intend to post about it more fully soon. Cheers guys!

Booty Juggler on 4mations

I'm rather proud of this one.

Booty Juggler is an original and highly addictive Flash game, one of only twelve projects commissioned for the launch of Channel 4's new animation portal 4mations.tv. I conceived and successfully pitched the game in response to their call for ideas, designed and animated all the visuals, hired and briefed a coder (the very excellent Ben Templeton of Thought Den), sourced all the sounds, produced the music (with the help of my dear dad), and voiced the octopus.

Phew! Needless to say it was something of a labour of love, but the results I hope speak for themselves. Booty Juggler has a unique look, eschewing the slick vectors of most Flash productions and inspired instead by vintage poster and animation design, the nautical tattoos of Sailor Jerry, and the techniques of screen-printing. It's also pretty damn playable, if quite fiendishly hard! Play it on 4mations here and if you're feeling charitable, sign up to the site and leave me some glowing feedback.

Chop Socky Chooks for Cartoon Network UK

This side-scrolling actioner, my second Chooks project with Aardman, really raised the stakes graphically. Many of the character and background assets were rendered straight from 3D, and I was tasked not only with processing all these into useable form but creating new elements that would blend seamlessly with the high-polish look of the show. The learning curve was steep at times with my work taking in Flash, Photoshop, and After Effects, but it all came together rather beautifully. In the shots below all scenic elements and even some of the characters are my handiwork. Click here to test your kung fu skills.



PS: Play my previous Chop Socky Chooks game here.

ecards, ecards

Another batch of ecards for Hallmark, via Pixillion. I like the challenge of these, producing designs and ideas from scratch in one or two days apiece.

Showreel on Vimeo

My 2007 showreel again, in better quality...

Gym Jam

I provided in-game graphics and animation for a brace of gym-themed games, produced by Omni Productions for South Gloucestershire Leisure. One is a button-basher in the tradition of Daley Thompson's Decathlon, the other takes it's cues from the likes of Parappa the Rapper, and both have a pleasingly naff 80s aesthetic. Click the post title to test your skills.

Ultimate Dog Racer

A game for the good folk of Team Rubber, promoting the joys of greyhound racing. This was another somewhat short-order project, and I ended up producing all interface and game graphics inside a fortnight. The result is a slick, fun little game that I think recalls the Codemasters classic Micro Machines, but adds an addictive betting element. Click the post title to have a bash.

New Ecards

I'm back on the ecards for Hallmark, via Pixillion. These three had to be turned around pretty sharpish, and were produced from scratch over a long weekend. Animation was necessarily on the economical side, but I was pleased with the individual styling and textures. They'll turn up on the Hallmark site at some point, click above for the link.

Aardman talent showcase 08

This week I attended the private view of Aardman's talent showcase, an exhibition they hold internally of work from their own staff, various freelancers and collaborators, and an international selection of colleges. It was a fun event with some great work on show and a very generous buffet. I submitted the two pieces below, reflecting my personal and professional work. I'm not really one for working the room but I chatted to some interesting folks and shifted a good few postcards and showreels, so let's hope something comes of it.

Chop Socky Chooks for Aardman/Cartoon Network

I just worked with Aardman on this game for Cartoon Network, instantly quadrupling the impressiveness of my client list. The game accompanies Aardman's new kid's series Chop Socky Chooks, soon to premiere on CN in the States, and was a pleasure to work on. I got to collaborate again with some old friends, plus a couple of new ones, and the end result is as frenetic and addictive a game as you could hope for. We got some great feedback from the network, so fingers crossed for more of the same!

The project wasn't without it's challenges though. Fully rendered cg characters faithfully reproduced in lightweight vector? On a tight schedule? With limited reference material available? Erm, no problem! I created from scratch all the in-game graphics, and handled all the presentation screens using what assets we had, see how I did below. I'll add a link to the game when it goes live.


PS: I hope I'm ok in posting these images. The series is still somewhat under wraps, but there are pictures elsewhere on the web so I don't think I'm blowing anything. From what I've seen of it the show looks fantastic, so keep an eye out for it.

Light Up Bristol 2007

Now in it's second year, Light Up Bristol sees the 400ft-wide facade of Bristol's Council House illuminated with festive projections by many of the city's creative agencies and individuals. I've contributed two pieces to the lineup this year: a trip through an enchanted forest designed beautifully by Susie Hetherington, and some zoetropic polar madness of my own devising. Here are some stills, catch the event every evening on College Green, Dec 17-21.

Debug

Debug is a viral maze game promoting Infosecurity Europe 2008, a data security conference. Admittedly not the most thrilling of prospects, so I applied a thick layer of vintage comic book/B-movie styling. This was my first project with the good people of Rubber Republic, and was a pleasure to work on (ie they let me do what wanted).