Michael Cawood.com - Animated Filmmaker

New Blog

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 04:22:00 PDT

I'm switching my normal blog posts over to blogger to make it easier to post regularly. I'll probably only update this feed when tehre are changes to my portfolio website, but even then I may post them on my blog so that's probably the best feed to subscribe to from now on.

Red vs Blue Season 10

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 02:09:00 PDT

I returned to Rooster Teeth for another stint on Red vs Blue, this time kicking off the new Maya department for Season 10. Previously Poser had been their primary 3D package and it was still in use for this season too, but it was becoming obvious that they'd need to develop a more widely adopted package for most things in order to expand the goals of the show. I headed up the initial stages of that, built up a team, techniques, tools, work flow etc... I wasn't actually around for the earnest filmmaking or animation but I had some fun creating the pipeline. One of the primary tools that was needed was a fast way to rig a large cast of characters and apply mocap/animation from one of three sources; Maya, Poser and directly from the mocap capture studio. The rigs also needed to be animator friendly, which is usually not the case with mocap related material, so that they could do all kind of crazy physical things with the characters you wouldn't want to do in a mocap suite. It was an interesting challenge I'd only ever touched on in parts before. But the end results were pretty good. I left it in the hands of Joe, another TD that joined the team a little later, who will no doubt have refined the process. By the time I left there was a small but dedicated team of people ready to start the first episode and already on deadline to produce some content for the premiere announcement of Season 10 at PAX. I had a hand in only one shot that was intended for the teaser trailer, and I'd like to have shown it here, but as always if you're not the last man standing when these things go to the wire you can't count on your work making it through in one piece, and it appears the same happened here which is always a shame. I wish them all well for the rest of Season 10 which you can see weekly episodes of on their website.

Devils in 3 festivals plus new job

Sun, 27 May 2012 08:42:00 PDT

Devils, Angels and Dating has now been accepted in to three festivals and won one award. As a direct result of the film I'm aware of a number of team members that have gotten new jobs, not least of which myself. I've started working as an Animation Director for Panda Panther in New York which is a really exciting new opportunity and very much suited to my skills and style. It can be hard to come by a company with the same goals as your own whilst still respecting you for your strengths and offering a strong creative challenge, so I'm feeling very lucky. It's going to be an exciting new adventure.

Devils wins at AniMazSpot and turns up on AWN

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 03:44:00 PST

AWN announced that Devils, Angels and Dating won it's first award over at AniMazSpot. In work related news, I've been at Rooster Teeth again helping them to setup their Maya animation pipeline for Season 10 of Red vs Blue. It's an offshoot of the type of work I usually do but presented some interesting challenges. They're primarily Mocap based but also use Poser to generate a lot of material so I had to make a pipeline that allowed for creating animation on the Mocap stage, in Maya and in Poser, and ultimately ending up in Maya for lighting and rendering. The biggest challenge was choosing a decent rigging type and finding ways to get the motion from Poser and Mocap onto an Animator Friendly Rig. With a good number of the core technical problems solved I've left it in good hands now to follow through, and I'm heading off to New York for a very cool project there.

Website and Gallery Updates

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 08:37:00 PST

It's been a very long time since I updated the gallery on my website and the whole thing needed bit of a fresh look anyway to reflect my work on Devils. So I've been spending some time updating things across the board. There's probably going to be some bugs to fix, there always is, but I think it's pretty much there now.

My demoreels have been updated

Sun, 09 Jan 2011 06:45:00 PST

I've updated all my demoreels with the final work form Devils. I'm maintaining four reels at the moment so it takes a while, and the shear amount of footage I've got makes it tricky to keep them short. In many cases when a shot was in question I'd have to console myself that it was in one of the other reels, and cut it. But there was still heaps of shots that didn't make it in that I'm still quite proud of for one reason or another. It's tempting to make a technical reel, i.e. focused on things like rigging. I've not gotten around to that yet, in part because I can't show much of my rigging work as it's still under NDA. Devils covers a good number of tricks but still wouldn't do me justice for a specialist rigging reel. I may give it a go if I get time further down the road.

Devils is finished and online.

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 12:21:00 PST

Devils went online on the 4th of January, and imediately spread around Facebook and Twitter like wild fire. So much so that the view counter hit the lesser known YouTube speed filter. Basically when a video gets a lot of views in a short amount of time it stops at around 300 views while it goes back and validates all the hits. Then the counter only goes up after certain checks are applied. It's to stop people using bots to cheat the number up artifically. So it's doing well, but it's hard to say how well yet. I found a way to get a rough idea and it was over 4000 a few hours ago.

Devils is due for release on the 4th of January

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 08:56:00 PST

We're on the approach to finishing our short film, and I put my line in the sand and chose the 4th of January 2012 as the release date. We've wound down to a much smaller crew now that animation is 100 percent complete, and the main people working on the film are in visual and sound effects. Even there a lot of the work is done so we're in pretty good shape. We now have two crowd funding campaigns going, one for perks like Producer Credits and behind the scenes videos and another one to pre-order the eBook. So it's all go and soon we'll be starting a count down to the big day.

Funding our Animated Film

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 01:03:00 PST

We've started a campaign to help us fund the back end of our short film including the festival run. If you're interested in seeing behind the scenes videos, getting signed artwork or your name in the credits check this out.

Animation reel updated

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 01:01:00 PST

I've been drip feeding my reels with new material as it becomes available. I recently finished off a 23 second shot from the ending of Devils, Angels and Dating and added that. It's rendering at the moment. This frees me up to help out on other shots in the film and I've already taken over one of the shots that has been struggling for some time (I'll be the fourth animator to have a go at it).

Red vs Blue footage online

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 14:06:00 PDT

Most of the best work I did over at Rooster Teeth has gone online mixed into their web series and the DVD is on it's way, so I've posted a few clips to highlight a small number of my contributions.

Animation showreel update

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 04:09:00 PDT

I added a few new shots to my animation showreel. They're not rendered fully yet so I've just included them as they are. There was one other really long shot I've been working on but I figured I'd wait to add that when it's done.

Happiness Factory Movie is online

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 03:44:00 PDT

The Happiness Factory Movie I went to work on in LA earlier this year is available to view now.

Red vs Blue Series, and Happiness Factory

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 12:47:00 PDT

I did a stint working at Rooster Teeth. Who are they you may ask, well co-incidentally they're just down the road from where I live and they make the Halo comedy spinoff web series Red vs Blue. The Happiness Factory short film I did a while back aslo released officially so I've posted some of my work on that. Devils, Angels and Dating is still going strong as well and we expect great things from it over the coming months.

Credits Update - CG Short Film

Sun, 17 Jul 2011 03:30:00 PDT

It's becoming quite a big job to update the credits list, so I appologize for how long it takes me to get to each subsequent update. I've added lots of new team members to numerous catagories in both the animatic and the website credits list. The latest animatic will be online and updated later today, but the website can be seen here.

New Devils, Angels and Dating Website

Sun, 03 Jul 2011 04:11:00 PDT

There is now a new full screen loading page for www.DevilsAngelsAndDating.com. Give it a go, try scaling the browser window to see what it does. It definitely prefers a big monitor (and a fast internet connection) as it's aimed at high end users, but it should cope fairly well with smaller monitors. It's better in a 16:9 aspect ratio but will adjust for vertical layouts, it just won't look as good. Let me know if you come across any serious issues and give details about what browser you're using and what computer platform. Eventually we'll need a mobile version of the page which should be fairly easy, but the trick is how to detect it's being loaded on a smaller device and make the switch. My next most immediate task is to make the next, and hopefully last version of the teaser trailer. All the shots in it are in a good state. If not completely finished they at least look strong enough to use in a trailer.

Got Married

Sat, 18 Jun 2011 19:50:00 PDT

So the big news is that Emily and I got married. It was an incredible few weeks of spending time with family and doing interesting things. Emily and I couln't be happier. Thanks so much to everyone that's shown their support.

Happiness Factory Article

Wed, 25 May 2011 08:31:00 PDT

Having spent a couple of months working at Psyop working on a new Happiness Factory short film I put this little write up together detailing my journey through the Happiness Factory.

Happiness Factory Shots added to Reel

Wed, 25 May 2011 05:12:00 PDT

I worked on the Coca Cola, Happeniness Factory - World of Coke 2 short film at Psyop and I've added a few of the main shots I did to my demoreels.

Updated Effects Reel

Thu, 05 May 2011 14:20:00 PDT

I thought I'd add a few shots from my short film to my effects reel. Many of the shots across this reel are a mix of elements made in a team environment so you'd have to contact me if you need a more accurate breakdown than the one I can fit on screen.

Narnia Footage Montage

Thu, 05 May 2011 10:09:00 PDT

I’ve had some rather rough and limited versions of my work from Happy Feet and Prince Caspian online for a while, but I’ve finally got my hands on some good quality footage. So I’ve made two montage videos that show a sample of the shots I worked on. Neither of them show-off all the shots I touched as there are just far too many, and none of these are entirely my work, as is the nature of the business. But it’s a better showcase than I had before. Here’s a link to the Narnia Montage.

Happy Feet Footage Montage

Thu, 05 May 2011 10:09:00 PDT

And here's the Happy Feet footage montage.

About Michael Cawood section updated

Thu, 05 May 2011 10:09:00 PDT

I've updated various sections of the webiste including some extra information in the about me section.

New website borders

Mon, 02 May 2011 12:00:00 PDT

This is just an asthetic update. The last set of website borders were temporary as I waited for more images to be rendered from the film. I'm waiting for one more image from another project then I'll update it again.

Game Trailer Service

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 13:33:00 PDT

I'm introducing a new local service for the games community in Austin, Texas. I have a great deal of experience creating teaser trailers and company reels and I'm offering my services as a Freelance Director. Check out my samples and get in touch if you're interested.

Devils Page Update

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 15:05:00 PDT

I updated a few things on the CG Short Film page and added some new credits.

New Layout Reel

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 09:04:00 PDT

I've posted a new Layout Reel to my site. I spend a great deal of my time doing previs and layout these days, infact I always have. But in particular I am doing all the Layout and Final layout on Devils, Angels and Dating, my short film. It's a good way to put my stamp on every shot as I setup the shot for each animator with a rough camera, supervise the animation, then typically adjust the camera, check and clean up every shot during Final Layout. It gives me a great opportunity to re-evaluate the camera again and refine the movement to best serve the story and the performance.

Updated Credits

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 00:06:00 PST

The About page for our CG Short Film has an updated credits list. I'm being quite generous with credits at the moment and including work that wasn't completed or used in the the film as it can still help us promote the project and attract talent. But it's most likely that when the final list of credits are done for the final film we'll only be able to include those people that completed tasks in a given area of expertise. The BBC tends to only offer credit to people who have done more than 10% in a given area of expertise, so I think that's fair. Regardless the credits are an evolving list that will change over time and there's ncot a lot of point in getting too picky about it yet as we'll have to make reasonable decisions about the final list when we get there. Obviously I'll give everyone the credit they've earned.

Working in Los Angeles and a new Episode of the Podcast

Tue, 01 Feb 2011 01:08:00 PST

I've started a new contract position at Psyop in LA, working on a really exciting project that should keep me busy for another couple of months. I'll be back to full time on the film after that. I'm also just about to publish a new episode of the Animation in progress podcast which talks about the reasons we do things the way we do them.

Cupid blows the smoke off his gun?

Sun, 02 Jan 2011 07:13:00 PST

Happy New Year, and to kick off 2011 I've updated my showreel with the Cupid shot I just finished compositing. It also gives me an opportunity to update the teaser trailer a little that sits at the end of my personal demoreel. I'll be doing a major update properly on the main website in a few days with lot so new elements and effects, plus a newly polished audio track.

Working on my CG Short full time now

Wed, 15 Dec 2010 04:02:00 PST

I'm just applying a bit of spit and polish to several sections of the site, including a slightly updated demoreel. Our CG Short Film has really been making progress across the board and we're over half way through the production, with more and more lit shots turning up and lots of animation going on. My main news is that I've switched to working on the film full time and I'll be available for contract work from April. Although I'm actually really looking forward to spending some quality time working on Devils Angels and Dating.

Updated short film summary page

Thu, 04 Nov 2010 02:18:00 PDT

I've updated the Devils page with new credits, Podcast listings and links to video playlists. Production is going well and we added a few good lighters to the team lately, as well as some more animators.

Talking about the film on the ReAnimators Podcast

Mon, 25 Oct 2010 12:31:00 PDT

Rick Blankenship and the Re-Animators were very kind to invite me onto their Podcast to chat with them about animation and Devils Angels and Dating. Make sure to subscribe to their great Podcast on iTunes or from their blog with the RSS feed.

Devils Angels And Dating - Desktop Wallpapers

Sun, 12 Sep 2010 10:58:00 PDT

While we're still in animation production on 'Devils Angels and Dating' we don't have a lot of Pixar quality images to provide as desktop wallpapers but as we go along I'll try my best to offer what we have so that you can decorate your animator's desktop. These images are 1280 x 720 HD.

Devils Angels And Dating - New Podcast

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 11:46:00 PDT

This update comes a little late. There's been loads of things going on over at the Devils Angels And Dating development website including a new Podcast in which Ryan and I have a nice long chat about the film, the modeling and the animation process. I had been updating this website using a trail of a new version of the software I usually use (Expression Web) but I was very dissapointed with it's instability during the trail so I don't see myself buying it and I'll have to shop around for an alternative. So for now I've reverted back to my old version and it delayed me making any updates.

Devils Angels And Dating - Credits update

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 14:41:00 PDT

I've updated the credits on the website and at the end of the film to reflect the multiple areas of assistance some of the Generalists have given to the project while also highlighting the larger contributions of some animators by creating a Senior Animator category. The list of animators was getting so long that essentially it will be necessary to break them down into different areas. They may not stay as they are now while we progress, it all depends on how much people continue to contribute as we progress.

Devils Angels And Dating - First Rendered Shots

Sun, 18 Jul 2010 10:42:00 PDT

It's an exciting period in production when the first few rendered shots start to appear. None of them are final but three shots have recently reached a stage that gives us a good indication of what to expect the final finlm to look like. The shots have been included in the latest teaser trailer animatic.

Sir Billi trailer online

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 17:43:00 PDT

After way too many years under wraps this project has finally shown it's first glimpse of a trailer. It's not too surprising to see that it's looking a bit dated and the limited budget shows. But it's good that the team finally has something to show for their efforts.

Updated my main website

Sat, 19 Jun 2010 09:03:00 PDT

Time for some spit and polish on the website. I'd been waiting for some rendered footage to arrive before updating some things but since that's taking longer than expected I've made up a temporary update for the website borders. With any luck i should be able to put a few new image up there in the next month or so. I've also moved a few of the main sections around and setup a proper Blog page that picks up posts from the development forum.

Updated the CG Short Film Page

Sun, 13 Jun 2010 05:22:00 PDT

As our team expands it was time to update the credits and I've adopted a more traditional film like credits format, the same as we currently have at the end of the animatic. We now have over 240 members signed up, a staggering 780 videos, 620 images and we're over 32 percent through the animation process. It's pretty incredible for a project that's currently not funded. But we did recently apply for a grant so we'll see if that pans out for us.

Animation in Progress - Podcast Episode 10

Mon, 26 Apr 2010 00:34:00 PDT

The VFX artist known as Softdistorion and I talk about colaborative filmmaking over the internet and I take the opportunity to give a status update on Devils Angels and Dating.

Animation in Progress - Podcast Episode 8 and 9

Sun, 11 Apr 2010 08:01:00 PDT

I was very pleased to get the chance to talk to two other short film makers using a similar platform to run the project in this round table discussion. I published it spanning two Podcasts and took the opportunity to give a brief update on Devils Angels and Dating.

Animation in Progress - Podcast Episode 7

Sun, 28 Mar 2010 03:18:00 PDT

I talk to voice performer, Justin Barrett, about his work bringing the characters of Cupid and Devil to life, then give a status update for Devils Angels and Dating.

Devils Angels and Dating - 25 Animators!

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:16:00 PST

We've been gathering quite a substantial team since we moved into animation. It's getting quite tricky keeping track of everyone, but I'm managing. We're at 25 animators currently assigned to shots, plus a few generalists at the time of writing and that's not including the long list of animators waiting for shots. I've updated the credits list again to reflect the changes.

Devils Angels and Dating - Credits updated

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 00:58:00 PST

Since we've started animating in earnest on the film we've picked up quite a few new team members and the quality of the talent has been very impressive. I've updated the credits list to reflect the changes. We also have a good representation of what the teaser trailer will look like. Take a look at the Development Website to check it out.

Merry Christmas

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 05:20:00 PST

We've had an exciting year with most of the asset creation out of the way we're currently in the early stages of animation, debugging rigs and looking for any other issues that we might trip us up going forward. I'm currently planning to roll out Animation on a larger scale early in 2010, so that we can have our 30 second teaser trailer ready in the first few months. I'm going to start working on a poster which should also be a good test case to get a 'close to final' look for our characters. While Devil and Death are having some more advanced functionality added to their rigs, Cupid is nearing an animation ready state. Devil and Death are already being animated in their first shots with only a few challenges, that our team members have gallantly concurred. We've had some support from Keith Lango, and Digicel's Flipbook which has been a nice touch. We have over 240 videos and 540 images to look through, with over 140 members on the website. All very exciting but I just want to say a huge thank you to our regulars who have made the project what it is today. Have a wonderful holiday period. Don't forget you can follow our progress on Facebook.

Animation in Progress - Podcast Episode 6

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 14:23:00 PST

I had a chance to sit down with Lucas Martell and talk about short animated film making for our Podcast, and it brought up some very interesting material that makes for good listening. Check it out.

Devils Angels and Dating - Credits updated

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 02:16:00 PST

I've updated the credits list for our colaborative film project. We have a very healthy number of contributors these days, which I'm over the moon about. I just want to say a huge thank you to the team, past and present, all your efforts are valued and we're going to make something really great out of all of our contributions.

Animation in Progress - Podcast Episode 5

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:23:00 PST

In this Podcast I talk to two Full Sail University graduates who have both joined the team. First up will be Modeler, Chris Culverwell then I talk to Bobby West who’s been doing some Lighting. That’s followed by a status update of the film along with some new story elements.

Animation in Progress - Podcast Episode 4

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 08:36:00 PDT

In this Podcast I talk to, team member, Iskander Mellakh and then go over a quick Filmography of my work before a status update of our short animated film ‘Devils Angels and Dating’.

The Cool Beans Movie Website

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:43:00 PDT

I worked very briefly on the Cool Beans Movie from 2008 to 2009 and they've posted some samples of the film footage on thier new official website.

Churchill Advert on TV

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 09:35:00 PDT

Nearly a year since I did a weeks work on the second of these Churchill adverts I finally found out that it's been screened on TV already. So here's a chance to see Churchill singing Karaoke, and I've updated my notes on it as well.

Animation in Progress - Podcast Episode 3

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 12:20:00 PDT

In Episode 3 I talk to team member, Andy Stopford about his work on the film. I also go over the best practices for collaborating on the website and give a status update on the progress of the film.

Animation in Progress - Podcast Episode 2

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 11:32:00 PDT

In this episode I talk to Larissa Ness and Kyle Robertson about creating the music and songs for the film. I also talk about the online community and the challenges of a volunteer team spread out over the internet.

Animation in Progress - New Podcast

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 12:42:00 PDT

I've uploaded Episode 1 of the Animation in Progress Podcast which will chart the progress of our Short Film, Devils Angels and Dating. This first episode features the story behind the inspiration and early development of the project before it become an online colaborative team project.

Credits and Friends Websites

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:45:00 PDT

I updated the Devils, Angels and Dating credits list. It's getting quite extensive now and it takes a while to sort it all out. I may drop the additional links in future versions since most team members now have those links on their film profile pages anyway. I'll just link to that instead, so I suggest everyone makes sure their profiles are up to date. But I've left them for now. I added a bunch of links to some of my friend's websites on the links page. While I was cleaning things up I discovered there wasn't an official kameo website anymore which is a shame as there was some cool storybaord work of mine on there and an interview. I've uploaded my copies of those instead.

Devils Angels and Dating - Major Progress

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 11:08:00 PDT

We've been making loads of progress over on the Devils, Angels and Dating development website. The team is growing, we have all three characters well in progress; one being rigged, one textured and another modeled. Most of the Environments are coming together, as are the props. I've posted a vew animatic that's a work in progress. We have our first sample of the music from Larissa, and loads more all going on over at the Development Diary.

Devils Angels and Dating - Story Pitch Video

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 03:56:00 PDT

I've posted a story pitch video to explain the animatic and go over the storyboard. It's lengthy at twenty-five minutes but packed with information. I've also updated the animatic, and the credits list.

Devils Angels and Dating - New Animatic

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 15:05:00 PDT

I post updated versions of the animatic to the development forum for my short film all the time but this one also includes some revealing character thoughts in the text below the picture.

Naked Lunch - Life Drawing for Animators

Sat, 30 May 2009 10:19:00 PDT

I just got back from a great Austin based life drawing session with a bunch of animation professionals. Good short poses, no heavy critiques, just hardcore drawing time. I like to hit the Zoos from time to time and draw but I've not done anything like that since my University days.

Devils Angels and Dating - Credits

Sun, 17 May 2009 06:12:00 PDT

I've updated the credits list and a few other links and videos related to the film. The whole project is really making progress with two character models largely done and one more on it's way. We're putting together most of the assets into one scene now as well to work out all the big picture issues.

Devils Angels and Dating - Introduction Video

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 11:31:00 PDT

I've put together a video introduction to the short film we're working on.

Devils Angels and Dating - Lots of new content

Sat, 18 Apr 2009 06:11:00 PDT

We've had so much new content at the Development Forum for Devils, Angels and Dating it's been hard to stay on top of all the updates, but I've polished the page up a bit to include new links, team mates, images and content. We've recently had some pretty images for the textured Devil Wand added to the gallery (textured by Bobb Strongman, modelled by Pritish Dogra). The Animatic has been labeled, catagorised and sliced up into sections ready for the team to colaborate on a more refined second pass draft. There's also a video showing a rough idea of what content might end up in a teaser trailer. The design for the character's chairs is nearing completion, ready for modelling. We have some tech tests being done for the environment. There's already some early sound design work being posted. Some colour refinement going on with several of the characters and props. You can view the complete storyboard so far in one long filmstrip and the forums are starting to address several issues around how to get the film done. All in all, lots going on.

Pigeon Impossible

Sat, 18 Apr 2009 06:11:00 PDT

I was fortunate enough to be able to hang out with Lucas Martell for a few hours at our local sketch night. He's just finished up on his CG Short Film 'Pigeon Impossible'. I'd highly recommend checking out his website and taking a look at what he's been up to. I can't wait to see the final film myself.

Devils Angels and Dating - Updated Animatic

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 17:02:00 PDT

The development commuity for Devils, Angels and Dating has really been picking up steam, with contributions from people all over the world. There's been a lot of work done on the Devil character and the model is really making progress. I've uploaded an updated animatic with several new ideas in it plus lots of timing refinements. Please feel free to drop by the development forum to give us some feedback and show your support.

Devils Angels and Dating - Development Forum

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 15:17:00 PST

Devils Angels and Dating has gathered a small team of people and we've set up a dedicated forum and social network to gather our ideas, artwork and talk about the development of the project. Feel free to take a look and if you want to get involved or simply give us some constructive criticism, please sign up. I've also updated numerous development diary pages on this site with images appearing on the forum.

Moved to Texas

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 01:10:00 PST

I've touched down in Texas to start on site in Austin at Armature Studios as their Lead Animator.

Devils Angels and Dating - Wand model

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 01:45:00 PST

Pritish has made a decent start on the Wand model. So here's a new page to track it's progress with some notes.

Devils Angels and Dating - Environment designs

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 04:07:00 PST

Ravi has done some great new designs for the chairs, sphere and enviroment for the CG Short Film. Check them out on the Props, Concept Art and Environment Development Diary pages.

Devils Angels and Dating - Thanks for the help

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 04:42:00 PST

I just wanted to thank Richard Bentley and Paul Parkes for their help in the early stages of 'Devils Angels and Dating'. I've added them to the credits list. I've also been feeding the new sketches the team has been working on into the Development Diary pages.

Devils Angels and Dating - Ending for Animatic

Sat, 07 Feb 2009 10:45:00 PST

Another update for the animatic. No sound this time, I wanted to focus on the character's own sense of timing (the temporary music has it's own sense of timing and tends to over-ride the natural flow of the story). This verison builds on their personalities and completes the ending. I've tacked on some place holder credits and titles, and the screen time comes to a comfortable five minutes, which is bound to bloat a little but I'd hope we won't go past six minutes and I'll do everything I can to keep it to five. Enjoy.

Devils Angels and Dating - Development Diary Updates

Fri, 06 Feb 2009 03:40:00 PST

I’ve updated over half of the development diary pages on the project website with notes on sketches done by our team. Thanks Ryan for your latest round of drawings. Nick Gooch has made a solid start on the prop designs. It’s good to see everyone starting to bounce ideas off each other, it all adds to the richness of the project. I’ve put a bunch of notes in there about various things like the Environment and the Virtual Sphere. If anyone has a bright idea for a name for the Sphere or the way the characters tapper off at the bottom it would be greatly appreciated (tapper, tail, ghost effect, none of them quite fit). I’ve started using YouTube to show the videos as the bandwidth requirements were killing me, we used up over half my limit for the month in four days, and I had to pay extra for last month. On the plus side we get a nice custom video player on the website and we can start to show incremental versions of the project as we go along, rather than over writing all the videos. We can also easily add any of the Team members’ YouTube videos to this player. I’ll still keep the latest QuickTime videos on the main website for those that want frame by frame control.

Stratford College - A day with the students

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 05:05:00 PST

Michael Cawood, an animated filmmaker, who has worked on Happy Feet and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, visited Stratford-upon-Avon College on Monday 12th January to talk to students. Michael talked to students throughout the day giving an insight in to the industry as well as focusing on the specifics of animation techniques for students studying on the BTEC National Diploma in Interactive Media (Games Design). He has been involved in a broad range of high profile animation projects as well as a number of video games including Perfect Dark, Kameo: Elements of Power and Starfox Adventures. “It was a pleasure to visit the college,” commented Michael Cawood. “ I hope it gives the students a real boost.” Chloe Attenborough, a student at the college said: “It has given me so much more confidence in ‘Maya’ (animation software) and I feel that I can now develop my skills even more than before. It was a very interesting and useful day” Lecturer, Tim Losinki said: “Michael has helped us to take leaps and bounds in our understanding of both the industry and the software that we use. We hope that Michael’s visit is the first of many animation events at the college.”

Devils Angels and Dating - New Sketches and Character Profiles

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 04:39:00 PST

Some new sketches of Death by Ravi and I've updated the character profiles.

Devils Angels and Dating - New team members

Sun, 01 Feb 2009 16:17:00 PST

I've just updated the group project page for Devils, Angels and Dating with new concept sketches for the Devil by Ravi Govind and images of the character's model by Ryan Hagen. You can also check out their website links from here as well, in the credits list. If anyone wants to find out more you can also follow the project's progress at the 11 Second Club.

Devils Angels and Dating - Animatic with sound

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 12:08:00 PST

Another animatic update. This time most of the essentials are present and there’s a temporary audio track in place. I probably shouldn’t have done the audio yet but it was an interesting experiment. Unfortunately I had some technical issues that really made it rather painful to get done (Premiere didn’t seem to like speeded up mp3 files with fade offs). It also gives you the illusion that the action scene has finished before it actually has, since the music isn’t a perfect fit. But I figured one version of the animatic with sound would give a few people a taste of the mood... although I have to admit, this music is probably a little too big too soon! Anyway there’s more to refine yet, not least the added twist at the end. I’ve actually managed to skip about 30% of the script overall and keep it relatively logical, but it’s suffering from a lack of depth and character setup time that the script has. It’s always possible to add this stuff later, but I’m going to try and see how much I can get away without at first to keep the film short. I’ll layer in what I need in other passes until it feels right.

Devils Angels and Dating - Animatic Update

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 10:33:00 PST

On today’s animatic update I’ve reworked the intro for Devil and done Death’s mysterious reveal. It also establishes the character personalities and the dynamic of how the characters interact. Some of the drawings are a little bit rough to really tell what their expressions are, but it will be refined later.

Devils Angels and Dating - Animatic

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 10:28:00 PST

I’ve updated the animatic. I switched to smaller thumbnails to get it done quicker though; I can make it more detailed later when I’ve edited it down. I cut the food box section from the intro as it was slowing things down and didn’t really have a good enough payoff. It was there to help establish the Devil’s personality, but I’ll come up with something simpler and let the performance sell it. It also saves making the food box and its contents (I wasn’t exactly looking forward to figuring out how to peel a grape in CG!). There are other sections still to be inserted between these sequences, I just wanted to get these done first as they explore most of the biggest space issues. I’ve also used all the props here, so we can figure out how they need to function. The other sequences are more character based.

Devils Angels and Dating - War Room Layout Previs

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 07:08:00 PST

I spent some time figuring out the layout of the room and the positions of the characters relative to each other. This video explores some potential camera angles in a very rough form.

New character design for Death

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 07:03:00 PST

I wanted to bring Death's proportions closer to the Devil's in order to make their relationship more convincing. The new design puts her in the middle of Cupid and Devil in age and proportions. Gives her an attitude that makes her feel as though she could fend for herself, whilst still being attractive.

Stratford College News Article

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 09:06:00 PST

Here's a quick note in the Herald about our day at Stratford-Upon-Avon College. I'm the one with the goofy smile, alongside the infinately cooler students.

Churchill Insurance Commercail on TV

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 10:37:00 PST

At a time when Glasswork's in-house animator was busy on another project I was brought in as a Freelancer to handle half of the new batch of Churchill adverts. Only two and a half weeks, this one. I setup the shots and animated the Churchill dog for two adverts. There was actually a total of four to do but Alastair handled the other two. Setting up the cameras was a manual affair of lining things up crudely based on some rough numbers we had from the shoot. Not everything fit as it was supposed to though and it all had to be jiggled around to make it look right. The Director wasn't onsite so we had to interpret the performances ourselves. We had a some guide dialogue to start from but we knew it would change so it was a case of roughing out the performances knowing we'd be changing them later. Some shots I was fairly close, others went through lots of changes. Even over just two weeks the gags changed and so did the dialogue. Eventually we had the final audio and things started to slot in for most of the shots. It was quite satisfying to see it all come together so fast. It's only an animated head so it was very easy to make alternative versions. One shot wasn't really defined very well and had no specific lines of dialogue, and since it was the final 'product shot' it was obvious it was going to go through a lot of iterations. I must have done at least seven different takes and it still wasn't approved when the in-house animator became available and took over from me. It was Churchill's reaction to Roy Walker laughing at his own joke, and I tired everything from confusion, panic disguised by a smile, smiling and nodding, side-ways looks to the waiter, panicky looks around the restaurant and laughing with him to shaking his head at a poor joke he's heard too many times. You name it I tried it. But in the version of the end shot that was used wasn't one of mine. The second advert wasn't due to be shown for many months so it was more a case of getting something down that would be refined by someone else further down the line. But I managed to almost finish it anyway with a first pass for every scene so that the director would have something to respond to, and build on. The animation for Churchill was refreshingly simple and character based with very few technical hurdles. In fact the biggest challenge was simply that he's only a nodding head... you can't shrug his shoulders, you can't translate the head too much without revealing the gaping hole in his neck. It became an interesting challenge just to make him act. He also had to be kept 'on model'. We had a printed sheet of approved facial expressions to try to keep to and it was surprisingly easy to stray from that when you're trying to do things the character hasn't done before. Alastair was hotter on that than I was, having worked with the character before, and it took a few passes on some of the shots to iron out all the 'un-Churchill-like' poses. but we nailed it eventually, and got some nice little moments out of the old dog.

Presentation on an Animated Filmmaker

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 11:05:00 PST

I've posted a link to the presentation for anyone taking notes. This covers a brief history of my work as an Animated Filmmaker.

Devils Angels and Dating - Animatic

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 11:19:00 PST

I've posted the opening scenes in animatic form for my CG short film, Devils Angels and Dating. There's more to come.

Teaching in Stratford-Upon-Avon

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 08:36:00 PST

I'll be spending Monday the 12th of January at Stratford-Upon-Avon teaching and talking to the students about animation, filmmaking and games development.

CG Short Film update

Sun, 21 Dec 2008 06:00:00 PST

I've posted a series of updates to my development diary for my CG Short Film, 'Devils, Angels and Dating'. The story has been evolving and I felt it was time to update the synopsis and character profiles. Take a look and feel free to get in touch if you're interested in collaborating.

My gaming credentials

Sun, 14 Dec 2008 15:18:00 PST

I've been rediscovering my games collection and catching up on new demos on XBox Live. I was impressed with Fracture's new ground deformation concept, it seems like it will add another dimension to a tired genre. But it was Portal that really bowled me over. It must be one of the smartest games I've ever played... it really gets you thinking. And again, it's just an original idea implemented in a simple way. Streetfighter 2 Turbo HD the remake was pretty cool, basically a classic game with a face lift. Then off course there's Geometry Wars 2 an almost mandatory purchase. I'm pushing ahead to finish off Kameo and its coming back to me just how good this game is. Interestingly it seems to have had additional content added to it since I worked on it, so I'm never quite sure what to expect, which is saying something since I worked on it for three years! I'm also a fan of the new dashboard for the Xbox 360, I never had a problem with the old one as it was already pretty slick. But there is now so much content it was getting hard to find it all, so the new interface has done wanders to make it accessible. I just need a dynamite internet connection to take advantage of all the new features and content. I've posted my Xbox Live Gamercard on my 'About Me' page, so you can see my score and what I've been playing lately.

Vodafone on my Demoreel

Sat, 13 Dec 2008 01:23:00 PST

The Vodafone advert I worked on at Passion Pictures with the Mix Tape Club directors has been on TV for a few weeks now so I added a couple of shots to my reel.

Started at Glassworks

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 12:25:00 PST

I started at Glassworks in London a couple of weeks ago and I'm doing some really cool animation on an advert under the Director, James Howorth, who has an interesting gag based advert reel.

Madagascar Escape 2 Africa - Film Review

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 02:55:00 PST

I was a big fan of the first Madagascar, and this is no disappointment. It has great animation, fun characters and lots of laughs. It touches on a deeper plot line but it's not the Lion King and it stays pretty light hearted. At one point they drop an adorable squirrel off an airplane and for some reason in this universe it's ok... don't worry the squirrel comes back before the end of the movie. The audience was laughing out-loud throughout, as was I, so it's not short on jokes. I love the visual style, and the textures looked even better this time around (that could have been the fact that I saw the first one on DVD and this one in a Digital Cinema). Anyway, highly recommended.

Rockband 2 featured on CG Society

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 12:54:00 PST

There's a write up on the Rockband 2 cinematic on CG Society. No mention of the huge amount of work done on the animation though, it seems to focus more on the mocap and facial animation capture.

Narnia: Prince Caspian on my reel

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 07:06:00 PST

I added a few shots from my work on Narnia: Prince Caspian to my reel.

Vodafone Texts and Dominos Commercail

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 06:48:00 PST

Back to Passion Pictures and I did the Previs on this advert for Vodafone involving shot setup and more uniquely... a lot of Dominos! Julian was handling the tech side of the Dominos as I gave him feedback to get the tools to work. Working closely with the Directors from the Mixtape Club, who came over from New York for this, I tried out lots of shot and Domino setups, figuring out how the Live Action elements would fit into the shots while making key phrases read as the Dominos get more and more ambitious. It was a simple yet fun project and I really enjoyed working with Michelle, Chris and Jesse from the Mixtape Club. There are a few other versions out there, with different edits and endings. I just saw one on the TV with my spinning phone ending!

Devils Angels and Dating - Character Designs

Sun, 23 Nov 2008 05:27:00 PST

I put some time into the character designs for my CG Short a few months back and I've uploaded the latest images to my character design gallery and wallpapers page.

We Need a Hit - Walsh Family Media

Sun, 23 Nov 2008 04:32:00 PST

I'm doing some part time work on this budget CGI film featuring the Cool Bean characters. It's an interesting challenge working form home, but very familiar territory in every other respect and involves some interesting characters and strong cartoony animation.

Banjo Kazooie - XBox 360

Sun, 23 Nov 2008 04:30:00 PST

Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts was released recently. I had a long session with the Demo and it's changed a lot since I had anything to do with it. I like the character re-designs.

Viva Pinata 2 - XBox 360

Sun, 23 Nov 2008 04:26:00 PST

Viva pinata 2 was released a little while ago. I discovered recently that my animation was used in the sequal rather than in the expansion packs that were intended for the first game.

Bradford Animation Festival 2008

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 15:08:00 PST

I was at BAF 2008 talking about my 'Life as a Freelance Animator'. As one of the only speakers not representing a company it gave me the opportunity to talk about a lot of issues that most of the other speakers weren't addressing and as such it went down very well. I also took the opportunity to catch up with some old friends and regular faces at BAF and tried to see a few things, although unfortunately I didn't ultimately have enough time to really make the most of it. Still, I'm a firm supporter of the event and I can heartily recommend it... make sure you check out Alan's writing workshop too (unless you're of a shy disposition!).

The Life of a Freelance Animator - BAF 2008

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 09:36:00 PST

I'll be at the Bradford Animation Festival talking about my life as a Freelance Animator at 4.45pm in the BAF Game schedule. I hope to see you there.

Running Scared - Film Review

Sat, 27 Sep 2008 03:11:00 PDT

This is the tale of a right hand man within a criminal organisation who's actions reveal him to be a much better man than you'd at first give him credit for. Gripping action, character's you care about, twists and turns around every corner and no-one is as black and white as they seem. A cracking film! I particularly liked all the symbolism and clues left for the audience to follow. It's wrapped in these fantasy like bookends, with interspersions of graphic moments throughout the action. The bookends are accompanied by a musical theme that tugs at the heart strings and resonates with classic hero movie scores in a way that makes you realise who this man really is. Well worth a look.

Effects and Compositing Demoreel

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 08:40:00 PDT

This is a reel of my varied effects and compositing work on a couple of HD CGI based projects. Most of this material was created at a budget with very few specialist professional tools, so it was quite an interesting challenge to invent this stuff with what I had available to hand.

Rock Band 2 Cinematic

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 11:39:00 PDT

I started at Passion Pictures and I was working on a really cool project which gave me plenty of room to flex my film making and animation skills. I'm a huge fan of the various styles of Passion Pictures portfolio and a few of my friends from MPC made the move too for various other projects, so it was fun. The first Rock Band cinematic was very cool and it presented a high bar to rise to. I arrived on the sequel before it was really all planned out and dived into the Previs while I refreshed my knowledge of XSI. Unfortunately I was pretty much the only person on the job for the first week so it was certainly challenging figuring out how to proceed with only a loose animatic in place. I gradually replaced shots in the time line with rough versions of the shots. Week two saw the arrival of my friend Guillaume who I knew from MPC. He made an incredible start learning XSI from scratch as we continued to fill in shots. As each week progressed more and more people switched to the project and we filled out the previs timeline. Unfortunately it became clear we’d also be bug testing the rigs, as there were a lot of issues to iron out and the modelling and rigging was taking place at the same time as the previs and eventually the animation too. We managed though and despite a few sacrifices the rigs were pretty good, although looking back I’d rather have dived head first into bug testing those rigs before we did previs as we continued to live with some rather irritating flaws. This was a mocap based project so the previs had to guide the actors. The trouble was the schedule was tight so the mocap shoot had to happen early which means not all the decisions had been made yet. Most of the mocap came pretty close to a good starting point, but it’s not surprising that the ambitious physicality of the shots meant that a very large number of the hero shots had to be hand animated. We’d put the mocap in and get it as close to the right timing as possible along with a reasonable approximation of the camera, then we’d start reworking it all. Eventually most of the mocap in a lot of the shots was almost all gone, and the changes in the performance meant that the camera had to change a lot too. In fact the camera turned out to be one of the things we spent the most time on, or at least the most changes. I would have preferred that we’d spent more time critiquing the animation, but the schedule was tight. I’d argue that we didn’t nail as many of the film making issues early enough either, so there were more wasted shots turning up at the worst time in the production than there should have been. I would have been good to spend more time editing and storyboarding before we dived into the animation, but that deadline loomed just ahead of us. I was very happy to be assigned some of the most interesting and challenging shots. They involved the whole section where the Heavy Rock Band singer was water skiing alongside the side-wheelieing car. It sounds crazy just writing it, which is why it was going to be so much fun. It started with mocap in place which gave me a good foundation, but to make it all convincing I eventually replaced it all with hand animation. I had to take into account the chain’s tension, the car moving across the road and how that would affect the singer being dragged along. There was a cliff edge to deal with, bumps in the road and his performance as a singer... all very interesting stuff. Somewhere along the line the mocap for the face arrived and it became clear that my shots were going to the hero close ups too as there weren’t many close ups in the timeline other than mine, so it became really important to get the camera right to make it look good. There were still some problems with the facial mocap so I had to refine those to really nail the lipsync and avoid intersections. But I had a choice of two lots of head orientation animation, one from each type of mocap. There was some interesting stuff in there but none of it was in time to the musical cues, so I scrapped that and did it from scratch. I was very eager to get to the point where I could animate the head because head moves to audio cues are one of the easiest things you can do to really sell the connection between sound and performance, and the appeal of the shots went up 200% once it was in there. I had another shot to do for the teaser (which doesn’t appear in the final cinematic) that proved to be a real pain. It was a combination of having eight characters, several dozen props, two cars and a complex camera. But by far the toughest element that plagued us all the most were the breaking constraints. It was an XSI bug, one of many that slowed things down. It’s a real shame when bugs turn you into a full-time tester doomed to repeat the same actions over and over until you realise you’re not doing anything creative anymore, just pressing buttons! Fortunately we had some smart people working on the project and we found ways to get around most of it. The rest was just pure endurance. In the end, despite far too much time dealing with technical issues, I was proud of the shots I produced. It looks good, and will provide plenty of cool shots to use in commercials.

Siggraph 2008 - Animation Festival

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 15:43:00 PDT

A great week in LA. Lots to see and way too much information to absorb. There were loads of great companies there both showing off there work and looking for talent. I went to a few surprising talks and few duds, but that's what you expect. Ed Catmull gave a great, and very honest, talk on the business. There was an interesting forum-like chat about retaining talent, and a frank chat with the director of The Clone Wars. After three or four days though it all get exhausting and it's hard to get the most out of it, so I'm quite sure I barely scratched the surface of even just the things I'd have been interested in. The XSI party was a surprise too and all in all it was a great week.

What did I just say? - Updated Animation

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 17:24:00 PDT

I spent a little time polishing this shot, although unfortunately the rig is showing it's age and a combination of factors made it very hard to get the desired results. But it's a small improvement, mostly refining arcs, silhouettes and timing.

New Devil Concept Art

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 16:28:00 PDT

I've been posting lots of character design work recnetly but I thought it was worth pointing out the new colour concept art for the Devil character from my CG Short: 'Devils, Angels and Dating'.

Wall-E - Reviewed

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 16:12:00 PDT

I haven't been to many screenings with that many people cheering, clapping and staying for the credits. Although admittedly it was the Empire in Leicester Square on opening night at 8pm... positively the best time and place to see an animated film, as all the fans and animator's are there. Never the less it was a really good, well crafted piece of (almost) silent cinema. The environmental message was appreciated, and I'd love to be able to have the luxury of turning a company like Pixar towards the goal of making a good piece of entertainment that also delivers a strong message like that. Ultimately it's not a complicated story though, unless you count all the 'procedure' that all the machinery goes through (which occasionally took me out of the story, as it wasn't always that interesting in of itself). My biggest criticism isn't a flaw of the film so much as it's a flaw of the media, like Finding Nemo and Shrek before it, I feel that it was a little over hyped, and it's hard to see how these films demand 500% more attention than many other equal quality films. But I guess that's a matter for targeting a particular subject matter or theme at the right time in the public consciousness. At any rate, Wall-E comes highly recommended and even got me choked up at one point, although only briefly.

Adorable - Updated Character Animation

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 16:52:00 PDT

I took the opportunity to spend some time polishing the piece, and responding to some of the notes people have left me.

Kung Fu Panda - The Awesome Review

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 13:29:00 PDT

Doooood. There is nothing that can withhold the truly awesome awesomeness of Kung Fu Panda. I loved it and laughed all the way. This is a real animator's film. The visuals are glorious, but it's the animation that really screams! I don't usually like films loaded with combat unless they're really inventive and funny and this delivers in spades. Some of the characters are a little light on depth and can't really emote well through their stylised designs but fortunately the important characters really shine. Everything bounces, squashes and wobbles in an appealing a way. I can't really think of much to fault it on right now, I guess it takes what I loved about the idea of Pandas and Kung Fu in my student film Panda Pander and pluses it tenfold. Just brilliant... and ripe for a sequel.

Toyota Auris

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 06:22:00 PDT

I spent a week pre-visualising how the little people would work in the car's interior space. The results may look quite simple but it was surprisingly tricky finding natural ways to make each scenario work.

Acrobat Animation updated

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 19:55:00 PDT

I finally found some time to carry on with this, and I never liked the ending so I have done a completely different version. The render may look pretty, but it's still unfinished (I haven't even started the facial animation yet), so feedback is very welcome, including for the rendering and colours. The motion blur is only 2D at the moment to avoid the glitches I've been getting with 3D motion blur (and to save time).

Kinky Boots - Reviewed

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 14:01:00 PDT

Perhaps a little predictable but it has all the right ingredients served with a healthy dose of inspiration and earthiness. Most of the films I like to review are what I would call ‘re-charge films’ and this certainly fits the bill. It’s a feel good movie that makes you want to jump up and make a difference. As somone that’s recently started working in Soho from the alien northern lands of the Midlands, Yorkshire and Scotland, this is a big thumbs up for a very good fish out of water story that was uniquely familiar in its setting.

Devils Angels and Dating - Wallpaper

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 12:03:00 PDT

I'm finally getting serious about my short animated CG film 'Devils Angels and Dating' and I've put together a desktop wallpaper for all those digital artists out there. It features a handful of the concept art character sketches from my development diary.

Indiana Jones IV - Review

Thu, 29 May 2008 15:01:00 PDT

This is a controversial film to review. I actually really enjoyed it in its own right. The only thing that is debateable is whether it really fits in the Indian Jones universe. It steps into territory established very well in earlier Spielberg Sci-Fi films, in particular I’m thinking of A.I. It’s still really good but some people will debate if it’s perhaps a little ‘over egged’ in parts, trying too hard to better previous films whilst also taking advantage of modern techniques. It’s a very character lead film, as they always were, but Indiana Jones has so much character history thanks to the TV series it almost feels like it’s trying a little too hard to stay true to it all while justifying Harrison Ford’s age. On the other hand some of the action sequences are really good, masterfully mixing originality with fun, which is so absent from most other action films. When all is said and done, it’s definitely worth seeing, just try to judge it on its own merits and forget about Indy’s history.

New Short Film Character Designs

Mon, 26 May 2008 11:35:00 PDT

I've added a few more character sketches to my production diary for my short film. They're still some way off completion but I like the direction they're headed now, as each of the three main characters has a unique hook and an easily recognisable identity in the world I'm creating. Cupid the horny loner, Devil the innocent do-gooder and Death the untouchable fem-fatale.

Horton Hears a Who - Reviewed

Mon, 19 May 2008 16:15:00 PDT

Not a sublime piece of emotional film making... but never the less beautiful to look at and gorgeously animated. I really enjoyed it, but strangely it wasn't much more than an exploration of an interesting idea. I know it's meant to be based on an existing story but personally I rate films on how they compare alongside any other experience and unfortunately I didn't really feel like I was on the edge of my seat. Some of the scenarios could have been shoe horned in and didn't really feel like they were integral to the film's structure. But the characters were entertaining and it was so gorgeous to look at that I didn't care.

Devils, Angels and Dating - Animated Short Film

Sun, 04 May 2008 09:35:00 PDT

I've been putting a lot of thought into my short film and I did a re-write a little while a go I've been meaning to spend more time on. The concept has the same main issues to address but has changed enough to demand a new title and revised concept art. So my current character designs will need some work. While I find time to do that I'm actually interested in hearing from any decent concept artists that want to get involved.

New links to my friend's websites

Sat, 03 May 2008 08:27:00 PDT

I've been meeting lots of talented people since I arrived in London and here are a few of their websites to browse through. Enjoy!

Started at Passion Pictures

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 04:32:00 PDT

I started at Passion Pictures this week and I'm working on a really cool project which should give me plenty of room to flex my film making and animation skills. I'm a huge fan of the various styles of Passion Pictures portfolio. A few of my friends from MPC have made the move too for various other projects, so it's going to be fun.

Showreel and website updated

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 12:09:00 PDT

I've updated lots of things on my website. A bit of a catch up session... including a minor update to the showreel.

The Club - Mocap vs Hand Animation Video

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 16:05:00 PDT

I've added a video with some samples of my work from The Club which includes notes on what was animated vs what was mocaped.

Acrobatic Agent - Rendered

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 15:26:00 PDT

Still not really finished, but when is an animator's work ever really finished? So I've done a lighting and render pass to make sure it's all going to work. The rendering bugs couldn't be fixed unfortuntely so I had to render some of the buildings seperately with no motion blur then composite them on top and do a little animated masking. I still intend to continue re-working the animation so keep the feeback coming. Top of the list will most likely be some refinements to the landing, which doesn't feel 100% at the moment.

Narnia - Behind the Scenes

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 16:08:00 PST

Here's a sneak peak behind the scenes of the new Narnia movie I'm working on, Prince Caspian.

Updated Showreel

Sun, 02 Mar 2008 09:39:00 PST

I've updated my demoreel with a few shots from the commercials and game FMVs I’ve worked on.

Narnia - Prince Caspian

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 11:48:00 PST

I'm animating on Prince Caspian at the moment, meeting lots of great people while I settle into life in London. You can visit the official website here and there are various formats of the trailer here.

Renault Megane Sport - VFX Advert

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 11:46:00 PST

A last minute move to London, started with about three weeks working on this 'Pod Racer' style advert at MPC. It was a fast schedule and the advert was on air five weeks after I started on it, which is a really fast turn around the team can be very proud of. There's nothing particularly complex in the animation but the results were good, and the people I worked with were great. I did most the work on the spark plug and wheel shots moving through the corridors. You can read the MPC write up here.

Acrobat Animation Work in Progress

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 16:10:00 PST

This is a work in progress of a piece of acrobatic animation I have been dipping into during my spare time. The character model and texturing was done by my friend Jamie and I rigged it using Setup Machine 2. I've also added a series of facial expressions that you'll see when I get to the refinement pass. I used Flip book and Grease Pencil to help plan out the shot in the early stages, and Maya to animate in 3D. I will continue to post updated videos here as it progresses.

Started work at MPC

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 14:58:00 PST

I started a contract at The Moving Picture Company a few days ago in London. I’m getting used to the frantic rat race of a commute (about one and a half to two hours each way at the moment… yikes!) and getting to know the good folks of MPC along with some other fantastic newbie’s. It’s going to be a great experience, and I’m lapping up every second of it, while I’m introduced to all the best places to get food in the streets of Soho.

Be Somebody - TV Advert

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 04:39:00 PST

This Television advert for the Singapore Navy was an interesting piece of work. The brief was; the buildings come to life and head out to sea to engage in battle with office themed projectiles, we then cut back to a man waking up in his office before we see the tag lines. We bounced a number of ideas around and Steve put together the first version of the storyboard. Once it was all edited together we went through numerous concept changes that involved losing some close ups on a Seagull, which was a shame. I was looking forward to animating him flying. I got started on the Previs and the Seagull was still in there for the first few test shots but we dropped him shortly after that to cut back on expense. After a bit of re-thinking from the clients I started previsualising everything, but I only had a week to do the whole 60 seconds so Andy lent a hand and by the end of the week we had most of the advert in a crude watch-able form with a temp track. I continued to evolve the edit and the shots trying out lots of different things for the clients over a period of a month or so while the design and modelling got started. We dropped some interesting ideas, like rewinding time, before coming to something resembling the current edit. In the mean time I’d rigged an early version of the lead character in the office so that I could start planning that out. I shot some reference footage of myself and fired that off to the clients in the edit for feedback. Eventually I did some rough versions of various animation performances on the early character and played with loads of different ways to move the camera. The original idea for the man in the office had over six seconds of screen time and the camera looked out of the office across the cityscape. Over the production that changed to looking in from outside, then zooming in from miles away (with time reversing), then eventually zooming out. We had cameras that pulled out of his eyes in one shot all the way out of the city, but settled on a couple of calmer shots with the zoom out. When Jamie finished the character model I rigged it with Setup Machine 2 and added a load of other controls and facial expression expecting to need a good range. Richard helped me setup a neat dynamic telephone cord as well. Unfortunately we lost a lot of screen time on the character until he really only had time to wake up and reach for the phone. My biggest concern was that we were losing the thought processes the character went through to go from waking up to realising where he was and considering a change of career… that requires a fair bit of screen time. But the end result worked for the client so we were happy. Along the way we had lots of fun with sailing buildings, populating shots with people, photocopier cannons, plant pot projectiles, helicopter chairs, floating cubicles and rocketing water coolers. All in all, a lot of fun for something that wasn’t much more than moving pretty boxes around for the most part. I played a round with loads of ways to edit this and the sound, some versions came out far more dynamic and exciting than this version but the client was happier with this version. I also got to make a few 30 second versions, which was seriously intense... the kind of thing you don’t blink for! Anyway, the long version was aired for the first time on Singapore TV on Christmas Eve 2007 as the front line in a new recruiting campaign for the Singapore Navy… they certainly know how to have fun with it. Check out the previous adverts on their website.

Shaggy Dog Wallpaper

Fri, 28 Dec 2007 13:02:00 PST

I updated the Silk Sacks website and put together a print advert for it. So I've posted a themed desktop wallpaper with Chester the Shaggy Dog on my website.

Updated Animation Demoreel

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 14:21:00 PST

This reel features my animation from my 11 Second Club entry, Dogs on a Seesaw and some samples of my work on Happy Feet. It also shows highlights from my cinematic/FMV work on Kameo and my other personal projects, In case I don't see ya and What did I just say?. If you'd like a showreel shot breakdown or a more up to date demoreel please contact me.

Acrobat WIP Linetest Previs

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 06:58:00 PST

Here's a link to my work in progress for an acrobatic shot I'm working on at the moment for fun. This is using a combination of Maya Previs and 2D Flipbook drawings to plan everything.

Beowolf Reviewed

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 01:31:00 PST

At long last I went to see Beowolf yesterday in a 'Real-D' screen, and I was a lot more impressed than I thought I'd be. It's certainly one of the best 3D film experiences I've had. But controversy aside it's actually a very good film. If I were to judge it on live action standards then, some of the performances could be considered a little weak...and if I judge it on animation standards then many of the performances are a little weak! I say that just so that there's no technical defence angle from which to come at this. But despite that it was still a captivating experience and I really liked the story and characters. I'll put my animator's hat on now and point out the usual flaws. The mouths were not animated as strongly as they could have been, much like Final Fantasy before it although not as noticeable as that. The camera does some very amateurish moves at points, although you can tell it may have something to do with the need to make the 3D experience feel justified. There are a few too many cheap 3D tricks for the same reason which just reminds me that I'm sitting in a 3D cinema instead of being absorbed in the film. There are a few character gestures that seem half hearted, presumably due to the mocap (or an animator that's had enough of the mocap process). But the worst sin of all is the eyes. Most of the time they look like they are either too far apart or too close together, they look dead a lot of the time (I was convinced one of the characters was supposed to be blind for most of the movie). But basically there were too many shots where the characters failed to convince me that they were looking at anything. It's really not that hard to do, but it seems to be an indefinable flaw that I see far to often, and this film is one of the worst examples I've seen. It's possible that the 3D technique make this harder to achieve, so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and hope that it's better next time. Despite all of these flaws, leading me to spend too much time thinking about the process than the story, I still really enjoyed it and would consider it a success as a piece of entertainment. Whether it should sit alongside an animated movie in the Oscars is debatable, since it's not clear whether that category is rating the best film in animation, or the best animation amongst animated films.

Which 3D software package?

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 09:33:00 PST

I'd love to come storming in here with my old tried and tested line of... it doesn't matter which package you learn. But that was in the days when there were so many 2D people converting to 3D that a lot of companies took it for granted that they would most likely have to train you in their choice of software anyway. These days there are so many fresh 3D graduates applying that most companies have the luxury of choice for whatever their package is and they can forget the rest. Sounds harsh, but it means that you have to be unbelievably good (not going to happen straight out of education 99.9999% of the time) or you have to have learned on the software that will most likely be used in the first studio you work in. So look around, decide for yourself...

Maya Shelf Icons Available

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 03:16:00 PST

If you’re like me, you have a load of MEL scripts on your shelf in Maya with no suitable icons to go with them… so you forget which one is which and you never use them. So I have converted the Icons above for use in Maya, and they work great. You’re free to use them and distribute them for use in any tools interface. I hope they help you remember which button does what. They are just BMP files so they should work anywhere that you can use a 32x32 Icon, although I actually haven’t tried them in other programs.

Happy Feet animation added

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 06:29:00 PST

I've added a couple of videos with samples of some behind the scenes animation on Happy Feet

Completed my 11 Second Club entry

Sat, 01 Dec 2007 04:04:00 PST

I decided to have a go at the newly re-furbished ‘11 Second Club’ Animation Competition, where you are given one month to animate a character to a sound sample. Follow this link for a brief diary of my progress, a few other notes and videos at various stages in the process.

11 Second Club deadline nearing

Sat, 24 Nov 2007 16:35:00 PST

I'm nearly there on my 11 Second Club entry. Just a bit of polish to do here and there and lots of finger posing.

Bradford Animation Festival 2007

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 05:52:00 PST

This year's Bradford Animation Festival was a really good event. I didn’t get to spend as much time there as I’d have liked but I had a good time while I was there. Firstly I managed to catch the presentation on Stardust by one of Double Negative’s Head of 3D. He really knew his stuff and managed to field some interesting questions about the way the VFX industry works in Soho. Then I went along to the Curry Quiz night, which was really good fun. Our team won third place and picked up some suitably trashy prizes for our efforts. On the second day I got to see Red Star’s ‘The Curse of Skull Rock’. Their Creative Director put on a very interesting presentation about doing stereoscopic theme park films. I was impressed by what they’d achieved in a short period of time with very little man power and I wish them the best of luck with it. After that I caught the BAF awards ceremony which had a number of short films on display. There was a very funny Russian children’s film that kept the audience laughing (even with subtitles) and I was particularly captivated by a dramatic film about a Priest that accidentally killed a young girl by running her over, and his encounter with a creepy man out to get revenge. It was a bit of a shock when the lights came back up and we all remembered we were at an awards ceremony, which just shows how well it captured our imaginations and sucked us into its story.

Cupid Character Desktop Wallpaper

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 03:50:00 PST

A new desktop wallpaper is now available featuring a character design from my CG short film

New trailer for 'The Club'

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 08:19:00 PST

I arrived at Ark VFX just as this project was nearing completion so all I did was help where I was needed for a couple of months until it was all done. It was a mixture of scene setup with mocap performances. Mocap fixing, and full hand animated replacement where the mocap wasn't providing the necessary performance. I also animated a lot of hands and faces since the mocap doesn't provide that. Then there was lighting and rendering, and a bit of editing and titles work. For more information go to the Official Website. In the mean time there's a good sample of the work in this trailer.

My WIP at the 11 Second Club

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 00:44:00 PST

I had a shot at the 10 Second Club last year, but hopefully the website won’t come crashing down before I submit my entry this time. The idea for this piece is that he’s talking to someone off camera (screen left) while looking at himself in the mirror. The (screen right) foreground figure will break out of sync with the mirror when the second person speaks and the (centre screen) mirror figure will react independently.

Bradford Animation Festival 2007

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 02:39:00 PST

I'm heading off to this year's Bradford Animation Festival on the 15th and 17th of November. Check back here for a write up of it. If you'd like to catch me at the event drop me a line in advance.

Using an Animation Production Tracker

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 10:38:00 PDT

If you're developing an animated project more than half a dozen shots long you should always use some sort of production tracker. They goes by many names and come in many forms but if you don't use one at all, and you don't maintain it, you're wasting large portions of your resources and time. Many people moan about doing this sort of 'paper work', but it pays for itself many times over once you get used to it. If your project isn't too complicated and you don't have specialist expertise to track the production then a simple spread sheet will do the job. It doesn't have to be filled with maths, it just has to be organized and clearly laid out, that's why a table of some sort works well. I've made up a dummy Animation Production Tracker here for you to look at, just to give you an idea of one in it's simplest form. It's really not that complicated and you can see at a glance how far the production has progressed and where it's floundering. It's so simple to update anyone on the team can do it, and yet it shocks me how often projects have been allowed to wallow aimlessly without anything like this in place. So don't risk it, learn from this simple tracker… experience it's benefits and progress to greatness from there!

More Communication in Animation Please

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 03:29:00 PDT

Put simply, I have wasted a large percentage of my career (lets just say more than 75% to be kind) on projects that lack sufficient communication and asset management. It's one of the main reasons I've had to slip into a semi management role myself to fill the inevitable gaps. I look back now and realize that I've spent most of my time waiting for other people to do their part, then finally being rushed to do my part (usually incurring unpaid overtime). What's worse is that when you are rushed quality goes out of the window. I usually do my best to pre-empt problems before it gets to my part, this helps. But this usually has the effect of building up the expectations of the final product, only to have them all dashed as the time limit crushes the quality. The solution for all of this? Communicate more effectively at every stage, don't wait weeks or months or years to talk to the client about an important issue. Show progress regularly and with everyone that needs to see it. Be open about offering criticism and open to receiving it. Make sure that the communication is effective, use images, emails, telephones, webcams, videos and even face to face. Close the communication gap in every way possible, and you just might be able to finish the project 75% faster… or dare I say it… better!

Getting back to cartoon animation on Viva Pinata

Sat, 20 Oct 2007 13:06:00 PDT

I spent a month or so working on in-game animations for this game. I’d been busy with numerous departments whilst I was writing up pitch documents for a dozen game ideas and I decided I wanted to find something focused to do while I was waiting for these projects to work their way through the management pipeline. I was stretched thin, so I volunteered my time on the new Asset Creation Team that was currently creating animations for new characters. I spent most of my time working on a cute little cartoon Robin character which made a nice change from the more serious things I’d been animating for years. It was really bouncy and squashed beautifully even though the geometry wasn’t all that sophisticated. The design was very round so it was like animating a ball with personality. I moved on to another project after this, but it was the last proper piece of animation I did for Rare before finally saying my good-byes after seven and a half years.

Supervising Animation on a Feature Film

Sat, 20 Oct 2007 09:08:00 PDT

I spent six months in Glasgow, initially as a Senior Character Animator but quickly taking over as the Animation Supervisor on this CG feature film featuring the voices of Sean Connery, Alan Cumming, Gail Porter, Ruby Wax, Richard Briers, Miriam Margolyes. At first there were a number of interesting character animation shots to do and I took a back seat to my usual role while I learned the pipeline and evaluated the film's character rigs. It wasn't long before there were some staff changes and suddenly lots of slack to be taken up in other departments which revealed new opportunities for development in the pipeline. In time I took over as the Animation Supervisor and once we were moved into our new animation room things started to really get going, with a small but dedicated department of animators and a number of outsourced studios in numerous locations supporting and subsidising our work. We got into a good routine of weekly group animation critiquing sessions, on top of the usual one on ones I would do dozens of times per day. Doug and I would also go over the dailies for one of the external animation studios to give them feedback and guidance. We were just getting going when personal circumstances dictated that I had to move to another area, and I leave them in the capable hands of my friend Roberto. I wish them the best of luck and look forward to seeing the finished film soon.

Editing a VFX Showreel

Sat, 20 Oct 2007 08:45:00 PDT

I edited together two new showreels for Ark VFX, one short Teaser Reel and one longer Professional Reel. The main idea behind these was to show the breadth of Ark's portfolio whilst leaning it more in the direction of the character animation work they'd done but hadn't shown much of up to this point. First I put together the longer video paying close attention to keeping sequences of shots (related to each other) close together within the edit so that they made sense to the viewer. They were then split into smaller chunks and sprinkled in key places in the edit to effectively provide 'sub-plots' that weave together. The second edit was much shorter and had to be cut purely for the spectacle value in a way that only gave you enough of a glimpse to tease you into finding out more... or watching the longer video.

Review of Pixar's Ratatouille

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 01:42:00 PDT

An excellent film, but not quite as inspiring as I was expecting. But that's hardly a criticism after the likes of The Incredibles set the bar so high. On the plus side it's not as commercial as films like Cars and The Incredibles and it doesn't lean on childhood memories like Toy Story and Finding Nemo. In many ways Ratatouille went out on a limb…. a long limb, at least according to the stories that have circulated about how the marketing men didn't like a film about rats, cooking and Paris. Unfortunately the late arrival of the film in England coupled with these fears has meant that we've had large chunks of the film rammed down our throats for some time and much of the surprise is gone before we've even seen the movie, which is a real shame. But I really related to Remy the rat, I see a myself and a lot of my own story in his plight to bring something to the world. Overall, a great movie that will be the pride of any studio's collection. Of particular note was when the critic reads aloud his own final review. It brought a lump to my throat and echoed my inevitable words here. I wonder if that was what Brad was thinking of.

My Happy Feet Experience

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 02:05:00 PDT

I was lucky enough to have an all expenses paid stay in Sydney Australia for four months working on Happy Feet for Animal Logic. It's about singing and dancing penguins and in case you haven’t heard about it… it’s the one that won the Oscar! After a couple of weeks learning XSI I started an Audition piece along with all the other animators, to learn how this production wanted us to do things. Most people got a week or two to work on these and had numerous sessions of feedback with the Animation Supervisor. Unfortunately my department was busy and I was pulled of it to get started on some proper work after just one day. I stuck with the audition pieces though and worked on them every chance had with very little feedback until I came up with something I was happy with. Most of the rest of the time I was problem solving and picking up the pieces of other shots that needed something or other to be polished. I switched from XSI to Maya and back again to deal with every penguin related issue you could imagine. What you'll see on this main video is just a tiny sample of some of the shots I contributed to in some small way amongst the sea of talent that was the Happy Feet team. Other than the audition pieces the work wasn't as involving or interesting as other projects I've been a part of but it opened my eyes to a number of aspects of the industry. It was a strong reminder of what it takes to be at the top of your game in this industry and has affected my career choices ever since. It even gave me the boost to work on my own animation in my free time, you can see some of those on the Movies page. The film has done very well at the box office, much better than anyone could have expected and the awards it's attracted has certainly been a bonus. What sticks in my mind afterwards is the friends I made, the experience of living in Australia and being part of a big feature film release. I worked with some great people while I was down under and made so many new friends, many of whom I hope to work with again some day.

New Events Section

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 15:16:00 PDT

A new Events page has been added to my Blog, dedicated to my trips to various animation festivals

New RSS Feed

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 12:00:00 PDT

New RSS Feed for people that want regular updates from Feedburner

Kameo Cinematics

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 12:00:00 PDT

I've added lots of new notes on the making of the Kameo Cinematics

Welcome

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 12:00:00 PDT

Most of the site has been given a new lick of paint