Last year saw the release of indie animation veteran Bill Plympton’s book “Independently Animated”, one of the most entertaining and well put-together animation autobiographies out there (you can read our review of it here). While its focus was on the life and career of the man himself, in its closing chapters Mr. Plympton offered up some small nuggets of advice for aspiring filmmakers who might wish to follow a similar path. While these were welcome tidbits that certainly sent this reviewer on an exciting journey of self-producing/marketing one’s own films, they also yielded a fair few follow-up questions. Boiled down to what he refers to in his touring masterclasses as “Plympton’s Dogma”, the three fundamental rules of successful short filmmaking in animation are to keep things low budget, under five minutes long and, ideally, funny.

Of course, anybody who is part of a filmmaking community will be aware that most people have their own definitions of ‘success’. Some directors strive solely for awards, some for fame and wealth, some for both combined – though hopefully in any instance they hope for a film that represents their intent and artistic vision to come out of it. Such is the nature of commissioned filmmaking that this seemingly most important component is rarely an easy ride, and the only way to truly sidestep the meddling hands of investors is to be entirely in control of your own film.

Which leads us to Bill Plympton’s own definition of success: To do what you want and love what you do, while making a decent living out of it, whenever possible. This outlook lays the foundation for his new book “Make Toons That Sell (Without Selling Out)”, an outlook not very far away from that of an increasing number of auteur animators who are embracing the changing climate of this industry. Despite the title potentially setting off alarm bells, the book has no ‘instant-fame’ or ‘get-rich-quick’ pretensions, in fact the main thing that sells it as honest and grounded is his candour as to how much of a financial struggle living by his MO continues to be. Plympton’s personality is allowed to shine through the text, establishing early on that this is not a book for those who wish to be validated by the masses. While he himself is tremendously well-respected, he makes no claims of being a giant of industry, and as such all the advice given within the book is tempered with self-aware humility and frankness about his own shortcomings and creative misfires over the years.

Said advice spans the entire production process of a film, predominantly citing his own work and experience as examples with several other practitioners (including Don Hertzfeld, Pat Smith and Plymptoons producer Desiree Stavracos) weighing in. The portions of the book which will be of most use largely depends on which rung of animated filmmaking the reader feels they occupy. Perhaps the most crucial is the attention paid to the importance of well thought-out story development, a vital ingredient of any film and one that animators tend to let slide. Various options for raising funds are presented, with some valuable guidance for budgeting, production management and casting. In many respects the text lends itself to autobiography, such as in the latter instance where Plympton attributes his current fondness for films without dialogue to the complicated legwork of hiring and direction voiceover actors. As such this serves not only as a handy reference manual, but also a companion piece to “Independently Animated”, extending and elaborating on previously referenced themes and stories.

The portion of the book that deals with animation itself is the only segment that steers close to redundancy – there are, after all, countless essential texts on the craft that any animator will already have on their bookshelves. What makes Plympton’s take on it engaging reading is how he applies the fundamentals of competent animation – anatomy, design, perspective, timing, sound – to his own style. To Plympton fans it is a fascinating look into his process; to those being introduced to him through the text itself, it serves as a notable example of how these fundamentals are beneficial to all manner of artistic directions and design styles. If skimming, one might assume that the agenda with the book is to create an army of Plympton clones; in actuality it makes a strong case for the importance of finding your own voice, much as he himself was able to.

To the recent graduate or independent who has just finished their film and wants it out in the world, the penultimate two chapters covering the logistics of sales and self-distribution are absolutely essential. Given that the author himself readily admits the subject matter of his films frequently puts potential distributors off, the importance of persistence, self-belief and casting a wide net is made very clear. Again anecdotally referencing his own successes and failures in these regards, the perks and pitfalls of approaching festivals, distribution deals, agencies and networks are presented to the reader in a way that still leaves them with a great deal of their own decision making to do, but some valuable food for thought to chew on while they do so.

With a body of work that spans six independent features, roughly forty short films and a consistent stream of commercial work (spanning bumpers, adverts, music videos and his most recent “Simpsons” guest spot) it’s impossible to deny that Plympton is one of the animation industry’s truest self-made men. An outlet such as this book to impart his warts-and-all outlook on what he refers to as the Second Golden Age of Animation (a definition that, with each passing day, seems to apply less to studios and more to fellow independents taking the reins) is something all of us who feel our audience might be out there can benefit from.

“Make Toons That Sell (Without Selling Out)” is released May 29th through Focal Press.

Ttweam s previous work at Aardman has been in the area of visual effects and it certainly shows here as the video is technically very accomplished. Yet what is more impressive still Ttweams handle on story, emotion and character. He atrributes this greatly to the music itself.
‘The emotional depth of Cate Ferris’ words charged with the power of the Nordic Giants musical interpretation immediately inspired the storyteller in me, says Ttweam. Indeed the style is simple but it fits the music like a glove.
The video’s simple yet beautiful artistic style is the work of Tristan Stevens, a sommerset based Artist whom Nordic Giants discovered and quickly built up a collaborative relationship with.

‘Tristan’s work feels like a complete world, it is dense and ethereal at the same time, and the creatures who populate this world have a poignancy and depth that really intrigues.’ say Nordic Giants.
The same could be said of the video which has a wonderous simplicity to it, and a story that I found genuinely affecting. Whilst simple in style this helps to convey the story and perfectly suits the sublime vocals. The animation too is excellent and there is a real poignancy and emotion expressed through the animation that makes you believe these characters are real. As Ttweam puts it “This video may tell a simple story but it doesn’t shy away from packing an emotional punch.”

To explain the story would be to ruin the fun of the video and as with all great animated works this has to be experienced first hand.

On the larger scale of things, TV, Feature Films, CG is almost exclusively being used to recreate realism. It seems that increasingly within the genre of the animated music video in particular, there is a reaction against that. To have a style that is low key and simple yet allows you to believe in it not through the look but through the ideas and the characters.It is interesting and refreshing to see work that uses this technology in an entirely different way, to create a world which is not realistic but hangs together through the art design and the animation and of course the music. Shine is a fantastic example of this and a reminder if one were needed how essential good story, character and emotion are, above and beyond the visual style.

Paperman, the new short by Disney is shaping up to be something really special.  Stylistically its a bold departure for Disney, as it is shot in minimalist black and white. Much fuss has been made already of the style which will utilise a groundbreaking new technique that will seamlessly blend computer generated and hand drawn animation techniques together.

The story for Paperman too is wonderfully simple.It follows the story of a young man in New York City, whose destiny takes an unexpected turn after a chance meeting with a beautiful woman on his morning commute. Convinced the girl of his dreams is gone forever, he gets a second chance when he spots her in a skyscraper window across the avenue from his office. With only his heart, imagination and a stack of papers to get her attention, his efforts are no match for what the fates have in store for him.

Paperman is the directorial debut of John Kahrs who has previously worked for Disney on Tangled, you can read a previous interview with him and his Disney animation co-workers Paul Briggs and Clay Kaytis here.

Kahrs explained that he first had the idea for Paperman whilst commuting to work, crossing paths with people. Kahrs says, “ you look at them, they look at you, you feel like there s some connection there….then that persons gone and that connection is gone forever…and you never see that person again.” He says Paperman is about exploring the idea of two people with such a connection, and how the fates conspire to bring them together.

All in all the combination of a bold and interesting style and a simple and interesting premise make Paperman a must see when it premiere s on the opening night at Annecy this June. It will also be the accompanying short for Disney’s Wreck It Ralph when it opens in November.

Disney have released “Paperclips” a series of making of videos on their facebook page, which also features artwork and more detail from the film as the premier gets closer and closer.

David Heyman – the producer of all eight Harry Potter films – will adapt this “modern take” on the tail of the iconic brown bear from Peru who is found at Paddington Station and adopted by the Brown family. He said, “Paddington Bear is a universally loved character, treasured for his optimism, his sense of fair play and his perfect manners – and of course for his unintentional talent for comic chaos.”

The project has been picked up by France’s StudioCanal, and will be directed by Paul King, the British director behind surreal comedies such as The Mighty Boosh and The Bunny and The Bull.

Paddington was created by BBC Cameraman Michael Bond and made his debut in 1958.  His books have sold more than 35 million copies worldwide and been translated into 40 languages.  Bond was inspired to write these adventures when he bought a small toy bear for his wife on Christmas Eve 1956 after he saw it left on a shelf in a London shop.

The animated BBC series Paddington was first broadcast in 1975 and was animated and directed by Ivor Wood (The Magic Round About, Postman Pat, Bertha).  The series had an extremely distinctive appearance.  Paddington was a stop-motion puppet moving in a three dimensional space in front of two-dimensional backgrounds (which were frequently sparse black-and-white line drawings), while all other characters were 2D drawings.  This was most likely due to time constraints and small budgets however it gave the series a certain charm that made it stand out from other animations of the time.

Earlier this year Paddington Bear was named the UK’s best animated character of all time at the British Animation Awards, proving he is still as popular with audiences today as ever.

StudioCanal will distribute the film in U.K., France and Germany and also will handle international sales.  Chairman Olivier Courson remarked, “Mr. Bond’s Paddington is beloved across generations throughout the world, and David Heyman has had tremendous success adapting great British literary works for cinema.”

So will the remake be any good or should we send it packing on the next train back to Peru? Only time will tell and I can’t bear the wait.

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We are very pleased to present you with the second Skwigly podcast! We want this to be just as interactive as our Twitter account and Facebook so if you wish to get involved or have any topic you wish us to address in the next podcast then please get in touch with us on either Facebook or Twitter or by email at podcast [@] skwigly.co.uk or leave a comment below.

What’s in the Podcast?

• Welcome back and first podcast recap
• Colin Harding shows Steve around the National Media Museum’s “In The Blink Of An Eye” Exhibit (Gallery 1)
• Steve interviews stop-motion animator Barry Purves about his career and latest films “Plume” and “Tchaikovsky”. Ben and Steve gush like the fanboys they are and the first Skwigly competition is introduced.
• Recently-leaked documentary “The Sweatbox” is discussed, along with Richard Williams’s doomed endeavour “The Thief & The Cobbler” and comparisons with similarly Disney-centric docs.
• Steve interviews Fraser MacLean, author of “Setting The Scene”. Part two of two.
• Steve and Ben muse on Skwigly contributor Tania Vincent’s “Reasons it’s hard to live with an animator”, leading Ben to recall how the Road-Runner nearly destroyed a relationship.
• Colin Harding shows Steve around the National Media Museum’s “In The Blink Of An Eye” Exhibit (Gallery 2)
• The Simpsons” vs. “Family Guy” – it’s a landslide. Ben rants on today’s Simpsons compared to yesteryear’s. Steve and Ben contemplate the longevity of other US animated sitcoms, including the recently-revived “Futurama” and “Beavis & Butt-Head”.
• The next “Vs.” poll is introduced.
• Goodbyes/credits/plugs. Now get back to work.

We also launched the second of our podcast versus battles, which is best? Road Runner & Wile E Coyote or The Tom & Jerry? Vote in the Poll and add your all important comments below, We will be reading some out in the next podcast.

Podcast Competition:

For a chance to win BOTH books authored by Barry Purves “Basics Animation 04: Stop Motion” by Ava Press and “Stop Motion, Process and Performance” by Focal Press listen to the podcast carefully and select the right answer below.

The podcast is written and presented by Ben Mitchell and Steve Henderson with Music by Wesley Allard

 (All images featured in this article are © Nancy Beiman 2010 from her book “Animated Performance”)

Nancy’s skill at both these areas of expertise do not come from nowhere. In 1979 Nancy was part of the original character animation class at the California Institute for the Arts (Cal Arts) sharing her schooldays with the likes of John Lasseter and Brad Bird as well as a whole rosta of talented others, despite being the only girl in the class in what at the time was a very male lead industry her career flourished and she has worked animating some of the most memorable characters in the past 30 years. Here she shares with us some of the knowledge gained working on feature films with Disney, Amblin, Warner Bros and working with classic characters from the Peanuts franchise, Merry Melodies and Silly Symphonies and the lessons that she passes on to her students today direct direct from her directors that include stars such as Chuck Jones and Eric Goldberg as well as CalArts classmate John Musker and Co-Director Ron Clements to name a few.

Now a professor of animation at the well respected Sheridan College in Canada, Nancy passes on her valued lessons to her classes and to her readers through her two publications “Animated Performance” and her extensive look at the storyboarding process for shorts and features in “Prepare to Board! Creating Story and Characters for Animated features and Shorts”. Here she shares some of that knowledge with Skwigly when we caught up for a chat.

Before being awarded the Disney Family scholarship what events of your youth lead you to the world of animation? Was it always a career choice?

I am a fairly late bloomer as far as animators go. I only became interested in the medium when I was about 16, there was a remarkable set of coincidences that got me into it, the first was an English teacher that assigned me a media project that I decided to draw. I made a cut paper film that got me interested. My father mentioned this to one of his friends who worked for an optical printers and he said I should go in and take a look around, when I got there I saw an Oxberry for the first time and was told of Ray Setti at Sunflower films down the street who then taught me animation, at 16 years old I was his youngest student. Now, this is the bit where the long arm of coincidence gets ripped out of its socket! My high school film teacher had connections with Zagreb studios in Yugoslavia, and when they did a show in New York they decided to stop off at our school and Disney had their entire east coast office for educational media in my home town. So they also came to the show. They asked Mr Roberts if he had any seniors interested in animation and they made the connection. So Roy and Edna Disney offered me the scholarship to go to Cal Arts and I declined New York University.

So at Cal Arts I was in the first class of this character animation programme Jules Engels programme had been around first but the Disney studio was re-staffing and wanted to train new people under a more structured system and so they set up a character animation under Jack Hannah in 1975. I was one of the last people added to it I and Mike Cedeno were the last two added, everyone else where on mailing lists and so fourth for years before so far as I know, I was the only one that hadn’t heard of the place and I apply for the school after being accepted, so did everything backwards!

You were part of the first graduating class of the Cal Arts Character animation programme alongside John Musker, Brad Bird and John Lasseter amongst others, were there any other stand out artists in your class and could you tell that some people were destined for the careers they went on to lead?

Everyone in the class was very strong because you had to be. I could not possibly talk about that first class without mentioning Jerry Rees, who was one of the top draftsmen there, a fantastic animator even in his freshman year, also Darrell van Citters who now runs Renegade productions.

© Nancy Beiman, 2010.

We had a 33% dropout rate in the first year because the programme was tough and unforgiving, because the teachers were professional people. At the time they did things you can’t do now, if they didn’t like what you were doing they told you, and by the end of the first year I believe I was the only girl left in the class. That was rough too but you had to take it and get treated like everyone else. I remember Elmer Plummer my life drawing tutor coming up to me and saying “You don’t draw as well as the boys. Today that would get him fired, it made me furious, but not at him, I knew he was right so I went and drew 10 sketchbook pages a day, studied anatomy everyday and I was determined to improve and eventually I did.

You have had the privilege of working on Both Donald Duck and Daffy Duck. On the page these two characters would seem quite similar, are there any subtle nuances that you had to capture for each of them that the audience would not even notice that help distinguish the characters besides the excellent vocal work?

 Well the design is clearly quite different, I have always enjoyed animating both Ducks, but there is a noticeable difference between the animation styles of the two studios. I have directors tell me “I want a Bob Clampett Bugs Bunny circa 1943” or “John Sibley’s Goofy” and so I can switch gears and change animation styles for that. The Disney style for Donald is quite fluid animation. The Warner’s style is more snappy style, but it’s not pop into a pose and hold, as people tend to believe, it is just as full as Disney. It may have different emphasis on poses certain things you would do with Daffy you cannot do with Donald even though they both have bad tempers; the interesting thing about him is no matter what you do to daffy it always looks like him. In “Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers” we had a contest to see who could do the worst animation (I won!) as I had most of the Daffy stings and the clean-ups had bits missing and were done in magic marker, no matter what we did with him it still registered as Daffy, but Elmer Fudd could start to turn into a bad imitation of Charlie brown.

Donald is very precise design but he evolved more over time. My personal favourite is around 1938 in films like “Donalds Lucky Day”, when he had the eyes on the side of his head, “Mr Duck Steps Out” is another fabulous cartoon from that time, with the eyes on the side of the head. Eyes moved forward as time went on, this also happened to bugs bunny. Come the 1950’s the animation actually becomes more based on poses and more stylised, a lot of this style came from Chuck Jones unit. I actually asked Chuck the question “When you have a character zoom out of frame and leave a cloud of dust did you do that for artistic reasons or to save money?” he said, “At first it was artistic.” I had the pleasure of knowing Chuck for years and working for him once.

Do you have a favourite “actor” (animator) or method of acting within animation? Does it depend on the style?

 I like anything that is creative and imaginative. I am not particular to any particular style. I am a fan of the early UPA cartoons and I am delighted that they are finally on DVD as they are beautiful. I cant say I have a particular favourite I am a big fan of Joanna Quinn but I am also a fan of Simon Tolfield but they both work in diametrically different styles.

© Nancy Beiman, 2010.

How about your own work, do you have a favourite project that you were involved in?

 I enjoy most of my projects, its one of the reasons I travelled so much. My first job was in a commercial studio, in a time when a great many where made. You had a different style in every commercial you had very precise deadlines. On TV specials I did my all time favourite was animating Snoopys brother Spike from Peanuts “It’s The Girl in the Red Truck Charlie Brown”. Spike did not talk he is a pantomime actor which is rare in animation. He is a Beagle who lives in the desert, he wears a little had like Buster Keaton so I put some of Keatons moves on him and I loved that character. Also loved working with Donald, Daffy and Mickey in a lot of work I did for Epcot which sadly I cannot see anymore, the fact is many things I have done besides the feature work cant be viewed. For Warner Bros I loved everything I did for them.

For Disney my favourite projects were a “Goofy Movie”, he’s a great character that’s fun to work with, I really enjoyed “Hercules” and “Treasure Planet” was a bit challenge because it was a different style to what I usually do. Then I also worked for Steven Speilberg in London on “An American Tale: Feivel Goes West”, which is technically the best animation I did at that time; it’s a nice performance on Miss Kitty. I also worked in Germany that was a real eye opener because the Germans do stuff that you cannot do in the US and it was very liberating. And even though the style was different to what I was used to it turned out to be a delightful experience with a lot of strong performances and very strong story.

You worked as lead animator with John Musker and his Co-Director Ron Clements working on the grotesque Billy Bones and B.E.N on Treasure Planet, one of the unfortunately overlooked Disney features but nonetheless an excellent re-imagining of a classic tale. What is it like working on such projects?

 It was the second picture I worked on with John and Ron and its always being a pleasure working with them. The director is always in charge but they often have production designers who come up with the rough sketches that the supervising animators take on. It is a group project and not something you do by yourself. On Hercules we had at first Susan Nicholls as the production designer, she is a fabulous illustrator. They brought in Gerald Scarfe just before I started and he went over our designs and made them “Scrafey”. Gerald was a pleasure to work with. In the case of Treasure Planet we did not have one overwhelming sense of design. I was given a few characters to work with and drawings were given to me by Harald Siepermann who had been doing development work on the picture. So I worked with him and one or two Peter DeSeve drawings. But there was one drawing that the directors liked and so we made him (Billy Bones) more like a Turtle. Then I started researching Dinosaurs from China, they had an exhibit in LA with all these specimens they had not found before so I worked in some elements of that and added the jaw of a sock eyed salmon, giving Billy a double jaw. I had some fun with him, I also researched the costume, I had difficulty drawing the hat, it’s a difficult shape the 18^th century copped had, so I asked John Pomeroy, a historical painter who specialises in revolutionary war scenes where I could buy a hat like Billys so I bought the hat, put it on a mannequin in my office and drew the hat. Then Glen Keane saw it and decided to buy a hat for Long John Silver, which lead to me doing a cartoon of Bones being a haberdasher! Its tough, its possible to draw these things if you understand the shapes so its can be necessary to draw a model. We sculpted a model of Billy Bones with a smaller version of the hat we could use but the real version was there for the turning.

Do the public fall into the trap of putting Tintin and Avatar under the same banner and are we as animators forgetting any vital aspects to animated performance that we can work into our work?

 What is funny is that I do not believe it is the public confusing them at all. The public goes to see a story, I don’t think they say, “Wow Avatar was a great animated picture” I don’t think anyone in the audience was saying that. I think animators were saying it more and that’s the reason I wrote my second book because I was disappointed to see Avatar discussed as an animated picture by animators. Its perfectly obvious it’s a live action movie with special effects, yes so some animators worked on it, you know what? I worked on a documentary once, does not make me a documentary filmmaker I simply provided artwork for it. So yes it takes animators to work with the motion capture but in the end it is a live action movie with special effects. Tintin was another live action movie with animated special effects. Its like putting a man in a gorilla suit and saying it’s a nature movie. Its not! It’s a man in a gorilla suit.

Can you tell us about Sheridan college where you teach?

 Sheridan is the oldest character animation school in the world its 4 years older than Cal Arts and it only recently went to a four-year programme. We have some very exceptional students it’s a very tough course. The requirements to get their degree are just as tough; they have to do a great deal to get their degree. We have had films at Cannes and Annecy you may remember c block from Canne two years ago.  The best films from Sheridan will compare to the best from anywhere else. The work is just as good as the Gobelins and the Gobelins students are not undergraduates and have more experience. We have some exceptional work coming out of Sheridan.

© Nancy Beiman, 2010.

© Nancy Beiman, 2010.

The full interview with Nancy Beiman will be available to listen to for free in a future Skwigly Podcast

Although most people may have seen all of Ray Harryhausen’s work on television, the experience of seeing it on the big screen did not disappoint.

Without 3D trickery or Imax proportions everything on the screen still felt alive. The Hydra wasn’t quite as scary as when it was viewed for the first time by most five year olds cowering behind the sofa but it was still as impressive.

Although this didn’t stop the occasional giggle from the audience at the sometimes dated dialogue or dodgy acting, but this just added to the fun of the film.

As well as experiencing Harryhausen’s work on a large scale the audience were treated to a viewing of three competition winners storyboards and introduced to the creative minds behind them.

The winner of the Competition, Mike Tharme as well as the runner’s up Sarah Crombie and Adrianna Dowling were all delightful and their work that can be viewed here:

The three winners were awarded the very prestigious prize of having a one to one consultation of their work with Mr Harryhausen himself in his London home as well as a variety of other prizes. The competition was hosted by Aurum press, the Barbican and DontPanicOnline.com

All three storyboards displayed a natural talent , not just for drawing but for creativity and story telling.

Adrianna’s short film based on her winning storyboard was played during the evening and it was light hearted , funny and very well designed. The other two are currently being turned into animations, they will be highly anticipated.

The three winners work oozed Ray’s influence which isn’t surprising when you realise how important Ray’s work has become in the world of stop motion.

The ball and socket armature technique that he favored when he was younger are still the same principles used by countless stop motion studios to this day.

The highlight of the evening had to be the fascinating and in depth panel discussion given by Merlin Crossingham, Tony Dalton, Mark Waring and chaired by Gareth Evans (curator, writer and editor, at the Barbican )

Merlin Crossingham

Mark Waring

Tony Dalton and the man himself! Mr Ray Harryhausen

Nick Park (Aardman director and creator of Wallace and Gromit) was scheduled to talk on the panel but unfortunately was unable to attend but Merlin Crossingham who has worked at Aardman since 1996 and worked on a huge range of Aardman master pieces including Chicken Run, Creature comforts USA and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were Rabbit was a enjoyable and informative addition to the evening.

All of the panel agreed that Harryhausen’s work was an inspiration but also a catalyst for their love of stop motion.

As Merlin put it :

“You can’t have a animation studio and it not be influenced by Ray”

Tony Dalton, who has worked along side Ray for over thirty years spoke of his fascination with the craft of special effects.

“ I’m not an animator but what Ray does fascinates me. It fascinates me so much I’ve written 5 books on the subject”

His and Ray’s newest book ‘Ray Harryhausen’s Fantasy Scrapbook’ promises to be filled with insights into not only the technical processes that lead to the films but also the creative input that was needed to build these projects. The anecdotes alone make this book an interesting addition to the bookshelf.

Tony’s stories of Ray kept the room laughing all night, from his revealing Ray’s nickname to be ‘One Take Harryhausen’ due to his work method of never re shooting a scene, to the shocking revelation that somewhere a script was written called ‘Sinbad goes to Mars’ that never saw the light of day.

“They didn’t know what to do with (Sinbad) once he got there”

The main theme that came across from the panel was one of awe struck admiration for a man who committed himself to do more work than a modern studio could possibly imagine.

When asked about the difference between feature film crew sizes in modern films Mike explained that there can be anything up to 500 people working on a new film at any one time. Its easy to forget that Ray did all of this on his own and some times, especially in the early years, out of his own pocket. A film would demand so much from him he would be paying his own money into a project just to get it done.

“If Ray failed it was all down to him, he was the only one working on it, his father helped occasionally with models. in fact he build models until he was in his 70′s for Ray. ….Ray would animate for the best part of a year on a film… he wouldn’t watch his work as he animated but he may film reference occasionally on a movieola…Once he started a scene he kept working until it was done. He had to, it wasn’t something you could walk away from and start working on again the next day…..he occasional slept in a camp bed in his workshop…then he’d get right back to it.”

Tony Dalton

The inevitable debate of CG taking over from stop motion special effect brought about some interesting insights from the panel:

“You have to remember that Ray was creating special effects….Special effects are always as good as they can be for the time…..If a modern or new technique comes along then people are going to use it… It is a shame to not see the craft of his work, not that cg doesn’t involve a certain amount of craftsmanship but Ray’s work had a hands on feel to it….in fantastic Mr Fox we wanted to achieve the hand crafted feel to the film so we banned playback. All animators weren’t allowed redo’s…..this teaches animators to have an internal memory for the animation…animators from the age of ‘no playback’ seem to have that something special in their animation”

Mike Waring

Tony did speak on his opinions of CG effects:

“ In my personal opinion… I prefer the effect Ray created….Cg sometimes feels its taken the fantasy out of fantasy….I find it too real to be fantastic. “

Tony as well as the rest of the panel made sure to point out many times that they enjoyed and appreciated cg as an artform and as a great tool in films.

When you watch the old fantasy films Ray produced you almost feel you could touch the characters on screen and this mainly was because you could.

They were hand crafted, movable models and Ray used his imaginative nature to create.

Medusa for example is only one model. The close ups and long shots are all taken from the same model so she had to be incredibly detailed to create a believable creature. In contrast to this Tony brought along a Skeleton featured in Jason and The Argonauts and its size was shockingly small. No more than 6 inches high.

But the most important lesson of the night definitely came from Tony Dalton,

“Ray doesn’t like to call any of his creations monsters, He called them creatures as they aren’t bad just misguided”

The night was a fantastic chance to learn more about the accomplished talent that is Ray Harryhausen as well as a great excuse to watch a classic film.

It was also exceptional to listen to 3 people who have a love for their craft discuss such a piece of great theater.

Gareth Evans leading of the event was superb and the Barbican was a ideal location for the event.

We would definitely recommend the new book “Ray Harryhausen’s Fantasy Scrapbook” Its a perfect Sunday read and will hopefully help us all to understand why those creatures are so misguided after all.

The animators previous features were created, like his short films with little input from Hollywood money or huge teams of animators filling in the frames giving them both the unmistakable “Plymptoon” style and the kind of independence worthy of the title “Indies” previous titles include The Tune, I Married a Strange Person, Mutant Aliens, Hair High and most recently Idiots and Angels which drew critical acclaim.

Bill Plympton will release making of videos throughout production you can see the first one here and follow the adventures on his blog that he shares with New York animator Patrick Smith

The film, scheduled for a Stateside release on June 22nd, will tell the story of Merida, a willful Scottish archer who endeavours to control her own destiny in defiance of tradition, only to find herself cursed and her kingdom thrown into chaos.

“Brave” features Kelly MacDonald (of “Trainspotting” and “Boardwalk Empire” fame) as the voice of Merida, supported by an extraordinarily high-profile ensemble cast including Billy Connolly, Emma Thomson, Robbie Coltrane and Craig Ferguson (and of course, it being a Pixar film, Cliff Clavin will weigh in at some point)

You can check out the new trailer below:

BEHAVE yourselves! (©2012 Grant Orchard/Studio AKA)

Following on from a successful showcase of design studio ustwo™‘s  Granimator™ app – a free tool for iPad users to design their own contemporary interface wallpapers – back in November of last year, leading mograph innovators onedotzero has reached out a number of their associated directors to put together a series of downloadable ‘artist packs’ in celebration of their 15th anniversary. One such director is Studio AKA‘s Grant Orchard, whose own contribution YeahJustThere was initially turned down by Apple. In a manner not dissimilar to Luciano Foglia’s ‘Geometric Porn’ – though less directly explicit – it comprises a series of vector-based assets that interact suggestively…if you have that kind of dirty mind. Having been resubmitted, the unaltered YeahJustThere proposal has now been given the greenlight and in celebration Orchard has put together a one-minute film showcasing his assets’…assets. So curl up by the fire next to that special mograph-enthusiast in your life and bung this on:

The finished advert can be viewed here

Today would have marked the 100th birthday of one of British and perhaps world animations most innovative figureheads, John Halas. Born in Hungary on the 16th April 1912, Halas trained under George Pal of Puppetoons fame before heading to the UK to set up his own studio. He met his future wife Joy Batchelor (1914-1991) who he set up a 50 year partnership creating some of the most vibrant and stylish works outside of Hollywood. Perhaps the most famous contribution to world animation from the Halas and Batchelor studio is the 1954 feature film “Animal Farm” the first worldwide release of a british animated feature, based on Geroge Orwells novel of the same name was supposedly financed by the CIA who owned the right to the book as propagada during the cold war however it is extremely unlikely that the studio would have had both the knowledge that it was a participant in propaganda or had any desire to be involved.

John Halas went on to co-found A.S.I.F.A with a goal to unite the world through animation and the group has since spread out across the globe to continue that quest and continues on to this day. You may also recognise Halas as the co-author of “Timing for Animation” a book that any animator worth their salt should seek out.

The Barbican is hosting an evening in celebration of Johns legacy with a screen-talk hosted by Prof. Paul Wells in conversation with Johns daughter Vivian Halas, Jez Stuart of the BFI and Andy Wyatt details of which can be found HERE.

Skwigly would like to extend our anniversary wishes to the man who made such an enormous contribution to the world of animation that we all cherish today.

(Thanks for sharing @KezD)

“Because Pac-Man made no sense” explains Steelehouse Productions, the company behind a brand new fan film tribute to our favourite dot-gobbling yellow disc.  “On the surface, it was absolute, utterly random nonsense.  Then James Farr wrote a script. And suddenly … it WASN’T.”  Enter “PAC-MANThe [Fan] Movie”, a slick new short film combining live action and CGI in an arcade-game-meets-Transformers-meets-Tron-Legacy mash up for a 21^st century audience.

You can watch the full film here:

It comes as no surprise that the film’s writer and director, JamesFarr, is a self-confessed Transformers fan.  As well as being the Creative Development Director for Steelehouse, you may also recognise him as being the creator of XOMBIE and Trains-Formers, two hugely popular YouTube series, plus other development work for companies such as Hasbro, Dreamworks and  and New Line Cinema.

Skwigly recently caught up with Farr to talk about his vision for Pac-Man and what has been called “The Greatest 80s movie never made”…

An artist, writer, and professional Transformer devotee, James got his start in the industry at 21 when he sold his first cartoon to “Simpsons” producer, Film Roman. Since then he’s written and developed comics, television, and features for Hasbro, TokyoPop, Dreamworks, Studio B, and New Line Cinema – his web series XOMBIE and TRAINS-FORMERS racking up over 106 million views combined.

1) When you stop to think about it, the concept behind the Pac-Man games is pretty bizarre!  How did you go about making it into a credible storyline for a modern audience?

It’s funny. Once I knew what Pac-Man was – the why and how of his existence – the rest of it fell pretty easily into place.  I knew he had to serve a purpose, and that his purpose – whatever it was – needed to feel innovative yet comfortably obvious. Framing him as a sort of tactical hazard eliminator seemed like a cool way to give him narrative value, but also a means to make him relevant for the world we live in now.

2) Were you ever tempted to stay true to Pac-Man’s original style and use 8-bit animation rather than CGI?

Not so much. Though we were sure to include his classic 8-bit shape in over half the shots in the film. We wedged it into everything from the compound doors, to the on-screen loading bars, to the dials on our goggles.  Still, I think the real excitement and challenge came from trying to make this work as a live action concept. And to make him feel surprisingly at home in that space. As for Pac-Man’s actual character design, though, we borrowed quite a bit from the original artwork that accompanied the 8-bit game. Most notably, the big red eyes from the classic arcade cabinet art, and the short-ish arms and legs from the old Atari 2600 cartridge. The latter was the first iteration of Pac-Man I ever owned.

3) You created a teaser campaign under the name “Project Yellow Sphere” which seemed to get a great response from your audience.  Is this a technique you’ve trialled in the past?

Definitely. It was much less about going viral, though, than it was about complementing the eventual film. In this particular short, there was very little time to convey an awful lot of story, and to justify a very long list of stuff. The Project Yellow Sphere website and teaser trailer felt like a great way to built some additional narrative foundation. To help prime people for the sort of tone and level of reality we were shooting for.

4) This is your first live action project, how did you find directing real people as opposed to characters, and also taking an acting role in the film yourself?

Ha. I’m not positive I’d call it an “acting” role. But it was a blast to be on screen. Directing real actors, of course, tends to be a heck of a lot faster than directing a CG character. But at the end of the day, its all about getting the best performance you can.

5) Have you had any reaction from NAMCO about your film?

Perhaps…

6) We noticed that you partnered with Machinima to release the film, does that mean we can expect more computer game-themed productions in future?

Oh yes. I’m sure Steelehouse and I will be “digging deeper” at some point in the future.  And yes. I love bad puns.

7) What are you working on next?  We see that a Xombie sequel is on Kickstarter…

Yeah! The Xombie crew and I are really excited about that. After having the rights sit on a studio shelf for a few years, it’s great to have the chance to jump back in, and continue the story as it was originally intended. You can check out all the info and goodies at:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/epiclevel/xombie-death-warmed-over

As for other projects, there is always something awesome going on at Steelehouse. Expect comics, a few web series, and of course, more amazingly random video game adaptations.

In keeping with what’s shaping up to be a new tradition in recent years of the uncancellable cultural institution that is The Simpsons, indie animation legend Bill Plympton has been confirmed as the guest animator for the show’s latest episode. The third such contributor (following on from Banksy in 2010 and John Kricfalusi last year) Plympton’s couch gag will open the forthcoming episode “Beware My Cheating Bart”, set to air this Sunday in the US at 8pm. According to longtime executive producer Al Jean, the sequence intimates a ‘romantic past’ between Homer and his couch, a scenario which screams Plympton in and of itself. Whether or not it will feature any mishap-prone dogs, melting faces or gratuitous violence is yet to be known. The episode’s plotline, according to the official description, will deal with Homer developing an obsession with an old television show, prompting Marge to intervene.

The couch gag segment is animated and directed by Bill Plympton and edited/produced by Desiree Stavracos, with art direction by Lindsay Woods.

MTVs favorite miscreants “Beavis and Butthead” return to the small screen in the UK this month with 12 brand new episodes. After a 15 year break the dimwitted duo of despicable delinquents created by Mike Judge make a return to MTV UK on monday the 16th April from 10pm.

Making their debut in the early 1990′s as part of the legendary “Spike and Mikes Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation”, the duo have spawned well over 200 episodes and a feature film “Beavis and Butt-head do America” since then Judge has directed cult films such as Office Space and Idiocracy as well as the hugely popular “King of the Hill” before returning to where it all started deliver the new episodes.

The episodes have already aired in the states to rave reviews and it would seem that the classic formula has remained unchanged with Beavis and Butt-head taking the mickey out of music videos, films as well as the more recent phenomenon of reality TV stars that MTV are responsible for such as “Jersey Shore”.

Photographs by Joe Clarke and Justin Noe

Although the film is not strictly autobiographical in the traditional sense, it seems to take place in a fictional room in which the composer is forced to re-live his life through encounters with his past demons, as well as quotes from his life taken from his letters, accompanied by sections of his music. Even if you are not overly familiar with classical music and would prefer to call Prokofiev’s Dance of the Knights “the theme from The Apprentice” you won’t feel out of touch watching this film. I admit to not knowing or caring a great deal about the composer before watching this film, but after 13 minutes I felt really sorry for him and wanted to learn more. When a film makes someone want more, it must be doing something right.

The film displays both a love of the craft and a love for the work of the individual it is portraying. A great deal can be learnt from the relationship between the animator and the subject matter. When Barry Purves took on Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky he didn’t just take on his music and moved a puppet that looked like him, he also took a journey of discovery to Moscow and brought him closer to a musical composer that he has held a fondness for since he was 4 years old.

Do you still have the Tchaikovsky puppet? When I have seen you with Tchaikovsky you carry him around like a child, you seem to have a bond with him.

Yes, I have him with me, though he has been on display for a while at the National Media Museum. Since the film I have been asked to do a few live workshops with Tchaikovsky, I did one in Poland in front of a big audience but I only had 45 minutes to create something and I didn’t want to do that with Tchaikovsky. I can’t do something silly or trivial with him. On Plume we were nearing the end of the shoot and we had finished filming with “the shadows” when I came in one morning to find that they had been animated, but not by me. What was animated was quite out of character which rather upset me. That, I admit, is me being overly sensitive (in a way only animators would understand), but you do have to be true to the characters. I wanted to give the puppet of Tchaikovsky dignity, quite a hard quality to achieve, when we are so used to puppets behaving comically. There was one shot towards the end of the shoot where, we all thought, that he had lost his dignity.  It was only 4 seconds of ‘Swan Lake’ inspired wing movement, but he looked rather more like a turkey. It didn’t work so we got rid of it, which is all that was cut from the film. It is better now though as Tchaikovsky keeps his dignity.

Photographs by Joe Clarke and Justin Noe

What I am pleased with both Tchaikovsky and Plume is that you can see the thought process of the puppets, even with quite limited facial expressions. Our primary role as animators is to externalize the internal thought process of our characters, whether they be small objects or complicated puppets. I like the idea that I give puppets life and then rather cruelly abuse that life and make them suffer. They all suffer. Tchaikovsky cries and the Plume character bleeds. It’s a satisfying irony with puppets; that you give them life and then play with it, be cruel about it and take it away. I think all the characters in my films are tormented and I quite like tormenting them– perhaps it is cathartic for me. It’s not a particularly common emotion in animation.

How did Tchaikovsky come about as a project, is it always something that you had wished to do?

I have loved “Swan Lake” since I was about four years old. I may have seen Swan Lake live around 40 times, and never tire of it, especially with the idea of an alternative, more liberated way of life, as represented by the swans. We all need that escape. I love it as a story and I love the emotion. For me, the last 5 minutes is probably the most moving, well dramatic piece of music ever written. I can’t sit down when it’s playing! I cry so much! I got to know Tchaikovsky quite well and I went to his house. To actually be in his bedroom and be able to touch the furniture and his piano was as close as I could get to meeting him. I had a something of an emotional meltdown whilst I was there. He is such a rich, tragic character. He certainly was not without humour and joy but oh he was troubled and so full of self doubt. To work with music like his is a gift. How the project came about was through Irina Margolina, a Russian producer, who liked my films and some time ago she invited me to Moscow to direct a play about Jascha Heifetz, the Jewish violinist. The idea was to do it with Moscow’s leading actor, but I knew little about the Jewish faith; I could not speak Russian; and certainly could not play the violin, or speak Russian, so I thought I’ll just do it – how far out of my comfort zone can I go! I had agreed to do it but sadly circumstances changed and we lost the momentum. Irina and I stayed in touch. She started a series called “Tales of the Old Piano” about classical composers. The others in the series are mainly CG and are filled with colourful backgrounds and multiple characters which are easier to accomplish in CG. For a stop motion film, though, the budget was small and only allowed me a single puppet, and one set – but as is so often the way, these restrictions also force inspiration. I only had 13 minutes to do justice to Tchaikovsky. I had to think about bringing in the other necessary characters in his story, but without physically building them. Luckily, photography was reasonably sophisticated at the time, and his life was well documented.  Projections seemed an appropriate and practical way to feature these characters, and led me down the path of a narrative about memory.

Irina Margolina Barry JC Purves and Joanna Quinn

Like most of my films, such as Next, this shows the protagonist justifying their life and existence (is that me? Who knows? Yes it is!) In all my films apart from the Wind in the Willows, there is always someone watching and judging. Screen Play had the narrator, sat outside the action, In Rigoletto there are the two assassins guiding the action. In Achilles there is the chorus watching and guiding the action. With Gilbert and Sullivan, it is D’Oyly Carte. So, that’s a common theme of my films; being judged. Also the whole obsession about the creative process, with the creation being an extension and honest reflection of the creator would give a therapist much cause for thought. This and the constant self doubt lead the Tchaikovsky film to become a not very subtle cipher for much of my life. He is certainly someone I can understand, I have never tried to commit suicide as he did, nor have been to such extreme depths, but we certainly share many character traits, foibles, and weaknesses. When Irina asked me about three years ago in Annecy to pick a composer for the series, we each wrote a name down on a piece of paper. We both had Tchaikovsky! I did have a standby just in case which was Handel, but I think the complexity of Tchaikovsky really attracted me as well as the music. I like the torment and the anguish of Tchaikovsky. It is basically Next, but with added anguish!

Like “Next” you seem to have a great passion for the character in question, are there any other figures you would wish to animate?

Yes! But I have been beaten to it. I have been obsessed with Georges Méliès for so long and unfortunately Scorsese has got there before me with “Hugo”. I don’t know whether or not that will stop me, I wanted to make a film about his mad joyous genius and his unfortunate abandonment. He was reduced to selling toys in a station and only just before he died did his work get rediscovered. It would be hubristic to draw even the smallest parallel but it’s a story I can understand. I think it is sad that such an exuberant artist was abandoned and overshadowed; most of us animators owe everything to him. His films are utterly beguiling and charming. They may not deep or profound but their sheer joy of life, their giving of life to inanimate objects as well as the development of all the tricks of substitution and replacement we use in animation are just cause for celebration. Sometimes he uses basic animation and he certainly does stop a frame and then tinker in the space between the frames which is what we do. I like the idea of teaming him with a contemporary who was also obsessed with illusion.  I am obsessed with illusion. There are others I would like to make films about. There’s Verdi, Stephen Sondheim, Hitchcock, Puccini, Chaucer, Keaton, Stephen Foster – well so many.  I like understanding how the creative process works. If I am honest, my films may be little more than personal tributes to people and art forms that have inspired and excited me. Maybe, I am just saying thank you a lot! I have people asking whom my great heroes and I think they expect me to say Ray Harryhausen and I do say Ray but I must confess I do not have the dinosaur gene. But Ray is of course a hero, and an outstanding creative individual, and I am most happy to have spent time with him.

Although you have managed to skillfully fit an entire 53 year long lifespan into just 13 minutes is there anything you would liked to have included in the film that you did not have the opportunity to?

What is a little unnerving is that I was 53 when I was asked to do the film. I would have loved a longer film, which would have enabled me to include more of his music. I only hint at his operas. I would have liked to have shown more of his complex relationships and sexuality. And he had some very strange idiosyncratic habits, but these really would have taken a longer film. 13 minutes is a small amount of time, but I think I gave a hint of his character. I did do my research so next time you see it have a look at the way he conducts and holds his baton in a slightly unusual way. Some people have questioned this but that’s how he did it. You have to be quick to see the part were he tears a piece of the manuscript and eats in, which is what he used to do when he got agitated. Also he apparently supported his head with one hand as he conducted – this gets the briefest of references. His truly bizarre and misguided marriage deserves a whole film, although Mr. Ken Russell got there first. So much potential, but what I wanted from the film, more than anything, was for Tchaikovsky to see that, yes, his life had been troubled, but there was Swan Lake. That is some achievement.

Photographs by Joe Clarke and Justin Noe

Your two new films were both produced outside of the UK. Is it difficult to find funding for such films in the UK?

I fear substantially budgeted short films are basically gone from the UK, but it’s good to see projects such as Canimation. There are several frustrating schemes where you make the film and then if you are lucky, you will get picked up for distribution. There does not seem to be much funding for development. Having said that, with the doom and gloom of Bob the Builder going abroad and Cosgrove Hall getting pulled down and loosing Mark Hall, there does seem to be an exciting Phoenix rising in South Manchester, thanks to Mackinnon and Saunders, among others.

That you can’t elaborate on?

That I can’t elaborate on, no sorry. But Manchester will be the centre of animation again, and I’m happy to be part of it.  As a little postscript, though, I went to see the old Cosgrove hall site and I gathered that the builders had no idea of the history of the building. The site is going to be a nursing home, so I am going to write to the company and ask for them to name the rooms “Toad Hall”, “Greendale” and “Cockleshell Bay”.

Well I’m not entirely sure “Toad Hall” would go down well with residents of nursing home!

I’d be happy to end up in Toad Hall! I owe everything to Cosgrove Hall and Mark Hall, I was in Poland a few months, receiving a lifetime achievement award for my work with students and I dedicated it to Mark. When I started I didn’t have any training and the best type of training for anybody is for someone like Mark to say “Right. Welcome, you are going to production now!” To work on quality series “Wind in the Willows” or “Chorlton and the Wheelies” is such good discipline. A tough, relentless schedule, but what an experience.  I worry about students nowadays who have had a great time at college and university, on a very relaxed schedule. The reality is very different. “Wind in the Willows” was one of the most enjoyable periods in my life. To be Toad for several years was a gift, not a job! My ambitions, when I started, was to be an actor and I think, no I know,  I would have had very limited success with that, but to be able to play Toad, The Pied Piper of Hamlet, to play Shakespeare, to play Tchaikovsky and to play his piano music, to work with Gilbert and Sullivan, Verdi and the Greek Tragedies, with the odd, very odd, dancing vegetable along the way, is a wider range than most actors would do in their lifetime I believe. I don’t have much cause to grumble, but when I do grumble it is usually about my potential being thwarted or usurped. If I am honest, I had hoped there would have been a feature under my belt by now. I feel, or am frequently made to feel, that short films are a lesser achievement than feature films. Being seen as, or exposed as second rate, and we are back with Tchaikovsky here, is a constant fear. It is tough, I’ll admit, to watch these stop motion features, knowing just how much I could have contributed. Yes, all about potential being realised.

There is a nice story of how you started at Cosgrove Hall by writing to them. Can you tell us that?

I was working in theatre at the time and took the train to Pitlochry, to do a season there.  On the way up I was reading the TV Times about an animation company that had been set up in Chorlton, which was where I had been living. I had no idea it was there. So when I got to Scotland I watched Chorlton and the Wheelies and enjoyed it very much but I thought the characters were not really performing. In absolute arrogance I wrote an 8 page letter to Mark Hall telling him I believed I could get some performance from the characters. What I didn’t say was that I had never touched a puppet in my life at that point! Though to be fair, I was in the middle of doing a hugely complex, ridiculously complex cut-out animation of the Twelve Days of Christmas, though I only got to the eleventh day. I understood performance, body language, timing and gestures and in a touch of kismet Mark told me he was in Pitlochry the week after on holiday and offered to meet me.  I think the ingenuity and problem solving of Twelve Days made some impression. Mark invited me to an audition (a tough one I might add). Something must have been right as I began working on Chorlton immediately. There was no training. You just had to get it right! Thank you, Mark Hall, thank you.

34 years ago that was, and you know what? I have never been bored in those 34 years. I have been frustrated, angry, disappointed, exhilarated but I have never been bored. Not once.

Timelapse footage of Barry Purves working on the film. By Joe Clarke 

In Luminaris, the main character lives in a world controlled and timed by light. Every day as the sun rises, he is awoken from his bed and drawn to his place of work at an electric bulb factory. As the sun sets, he falls away again back to his house. Growing tired of living in a world ruled by the sunlight, he concocts a plan to change his destiny.

Using pixilation and combining animation with sunlight, shadows and timelapse, this is Zaramella’s most ambitious production to date. A real labour of love, the project took over two years to produce, with unpredictable weather conditions being the main culprit!

Here’s the trailer:

Recently, Skwigly got the chance to interview Zaramella about the project, plus find out what he’s working on next…

Director, Juan Pablo Zaramella

Q.  Luminaris is a pixilation film and many of your previous films are clay stop motion films, was there a reason you decided to create Luminaris in this way?

I love to try new things in each film, not only technically but also creatively. In this case, I wanted to make a film in which the technique was directly linked with the story and the mood of the short.

Q. What inspired you to create a world controlled by light and how easy was it to film the outdoor scenes as the sun was rising/setting?

I was inspired by some tests that I made with sunlight. I made those tests quite easily, so I thought that it would be easy to make the story I wanted to tell. But it was much more complicated than I thought – it took a whole month to get the first shot right!

Behind the scenes of Luminais

Q. How did you find working with actors as opposed to working with puppets? How much control did you have over the casts actions?

In some aspects it’s quite difficult: an actor speaks, so if he’s upset you will hear about it! Jokes aside, my actors were great and really understood what the film needed. A big advantage of having actors is getting their talent added into the animation.  Frequently they suggest better expressions than the ones that I thought originally.

Q. As well as stop motion and pixilation you created Lapsus in 2D. This film takes full advantage of its 2D setting to get the most out of the film. Do the story ideas come to you before the techniques are decided, or do you decide to work in a particular technique before having the story ideas?

In the case of Lapsus the idea came first, and then I decided to work in 2D because I realized that it was the best way to express the concept. But it depends on the film. Luminaris, as I told you before, was exactly the contrary: the technique suggested the story.

Behind the scenes of Luminais

Q. You have clearly mastered the techniques you work with, do you have a favourite that you prefer to work in?

I love stop motion, because it’s the technique I know best. But my first love is the idea, I don’t mind if I have to change the technique afterwards. I may work on CGI one day if I have a good idea for that.

Q. What are you working on at the moment and what is the technique this time?

I’m working on a TV series. The idea is a combination of stop motion and live action. At the moment I’m writing it. It will last 1 minute per episode, and I’m planning to make 26. I hope to start shooting it soon!

Here’s a behind the screens video:

Tell us what you think…

(Video: Watch this video on the post page)

 … once you have finished watching, why not listen to our podcast staring the director of the Pirates! Peter Lord or read our film review.

TRAILER:

Bianca began with a degree in Animation at the Dutch art college, AKV|St.Joost.  Her film, ‘The Somewhat Queer Yet Silly Mr Tophat’, made during her time here, got selected for numerous festivals and toured internationally with TENT Academy Awards – a prestigious award that nominates only one film per Dutch Art College.

Bianca Ansems

Following this, Bianca then moved to England to pursue an MA in Animation Direction from the National Film and Television School; a highly renowned course, with notable alumni including Nick Park, Mark Baker (Astley Baker Davies) and Tony Collingwood (Collingwood O’hare).  For her graduation film, Bianca decided to venture into puppet animation, something she had relatively little experience with.  However, upon watching ‘Playing Ghost’, this seems hard to believe, as she is able to convey remarkable depth and the subtle complexities of human emotion effortlessly.  Since its release, ‘Playing Ghost’ has received numerous awards including: the Grand Jury Prize at the Student Film Festival Hollywood, 2011, Best Graduation Film at Cinanima, 2011, Best Animation Direction  at Animated Exeter, 2012 and Best Animation at the Student Film Festival London, 2012.

Whilst studying, Bianca has also managed to work with several distinguished animation studios.  She completed an internship at Trickstudio Lutterbeck in Cologne, Germany, where she specialised in both traditional and digital 2D animation, as well as a work experience placement at Aardman Animations, where she now continues to work freelance.

We caught up with Bianca to discuss how the British animation industry differs from the Dutch, working at Aardman and of course, the process of creating ‘Playing Ghost’.

Q. Bianca, thank you for talking to Skwigly.  Firstly, what inspired you to become an animator?

I can’t specify a point in time that I decided that this was gonna be it. As I’m sure for most animators the Disney films which were prominent during my childhood in the 80s and 90s were a huge influence. I remember filling in a school form when I was 8 on what we wanted to become when older, and though my previous ambitions ranged from princess to vet, I filled in ‘animator’. “To be in the end credits of Disney.” I didn’t know exactly what it was but I wanted to be part of it.
Unfortunately though I wasn’t one of the cool kids animating their dinosaurs or lego for fun. It wasn’t until I had to decide where to go after secondary school that animation surfaced again (still not knowing what exactly it entailed!). I nearly went into the army, but faith dropkicked me into art school and I just knew I couldn’t be anything else but an animator from then on.You moved from Holland to study for an MA in Directing for Animation at National Film and Television School.

Q. What did you gain from your time studying at NFTS and why did you decide to stay in England after you had completed the course?

The NFTS was an amazing experience. It’s an absolute rollercoaster ride – the Oblivion fades into nothingness compared to have fast you learn things there. After my BA at the Dutch art school AKV|St.Joost – which I very much enjoyed – I felt a bit lost. I wasn’t done yet, and barely after all those years sort of got a grasp on what animation was. I was technically skilled enough, but creatively still felt I needed to break open. This is when NFTS stepped in. Somehow it just pushes you several nudges up both technically and creatively. During my first year, one of the assignments forced me into a different storytelling format from what I was used to and that’s when I discovered that technique wasn’t my signature, but the style of storytelling. It also opened my eyes in how the industry works and how amazing it is to collaborate with other hard-working, extremely talented filmmakers.  I sort of already knew when I left the Netherlands that I was probably going to stay in the UK. Or at least go from there to another country.


Q. Do you feel Britain offers more opportunities for emerging animators than Holland? 

It depends on what kind of animator you want to become. The Netherlands offered and still does a healthy amount of support and opportunities to make your own film and collaborate with interesting artists and designers. They are also currently producing two feature animation films, which is amazing!

However if you want to become a high-standard professional animator (freelance or for a studio), I feel that there are more opportunities in the UK at the moment. In the UK, particularly in London, we are at one of the main centres of world cinema – and you notice this. Even if you are not fully in it, you are continuously surrounded by people who work at the highest standard and it makes you feel like you still have so much to go for. Big goals just seem more achievable in the UK.

Q. I want to talk to you about your latest film Playing Ghost which is receiving quite a bit of recognition at the moment, winning the Animated Short Film Award at the Student Film Festival.  It is a beautiful and heartbreaking story of a daughter coming to terms with the death of her father.  Where did this story originate from?

Someone told me about an actress who lost her father at the age of four and started playing funeral with her dolls. It is understood that young children don’t always grasp death to its full extent, but as my mind wandered I was wondering whether her mother would have caught on to what was happening. And then I thought, probably not, she is already in such pain that you just get into a bubble where everything becomes automatism. And I could sympathise with both, as neither one or the other is bad response – it’s just a consequence of the situation.

Overall, I didn’t want to make just another happy, fast-paced, super child-friendly animation. I wanted to tell a gentle, emotional story – and chose to do it through puppets. People sometimes ask me why I didn’t do it with real actors. Of course, there is nothing in the film that couldn’t be done with real actors, but thanks to the puppets you wave over boundaries that would normally be held up – as well as still connect on the normal level. If I would have chucked a real child actor into a freezer, it raises so many alarm bells, that it becomes a horror film. But somehow with Amy, the puppet, you just kind of accept it. Though subconsciously it is still not a good thing to do of course! It was these dual emotions that I needed to tell the story I wanted. Nothing is just black and white.

Q. The film has a very distinctive artistic style, as seen in the set, the props as well as the modelling of the characters, what influenced this aesthetic and how has it adapted over the course of the production?

When my scriptwriter Catriona MacLean and me developed the story, I didn’t want to think yet on how it was going to look. Or whether it was going to be an animation at all! This left the storytelling more free and we focused on the feeling and atmosphere rather than practical limitations.

I do know however that I’m a great perfectionist, and just love rich details. The story is very tender so we had to be subtle with everything. Which meant that you could not just blatantly go “OH BTW THE DAD IS DEAD”. We had to hint it all through mood, details in the set, subtle animated emotions, sound, music etc. Then when you add all those bits together they form a picture which most people – because we are humans – can pick up on.

I worked with an amazing team that was able to capture my directions and translate them into what became Playing Ghost. For example, it wasn’t until after the grade that I discovered that the mother is mainly surrounded by magenta, Amy the girl by yellow and the dad is always signalled with blue. One time, someone pointed out during a Q&A that there are parallels between the coldness of the freezer and water and death, contrasted by the warmth of the hob and iron and life. All those choices were there subconsciously but all we really tried to do was tell the story in which way FELT right.

A Large part of the production team (From left to right): Eduardo Serrano editor, Leo Ferreira DPP, Mauricio D'Orey sound editor and mixer, Andrew Start producer, me director, Sam Turner animator, Toni Lowe production designer, Lennert Busch composer, Maja Zamojda cinematographer.

Mike Hollenbeck (now working on ParaNorman)

Q. Through sensitive character acting you display the playfulness of the young child together with the fragility of the mother, in a way that appears authentic and well observed.  How did you prepare yourself for animating these roles realistically?  

Of course part of it I based on own experiences. The hollowness left after a loved one is gone. How you just can’t stop crying yourself to sleep at night, while still having to function during the day. And when I was 5 I fell myself into a pond while playing ghost. Though I remember my initial panic I also remember the calmth that creeps over at some point. Based on those experiences of myself and others we edited the initial animatic.
Then when it came to animating I worked with 2 very talented animators. One is Mike Hollenbeck, who now works on ParaNorman at Laika Studios, and one is Sam Turner, who animates on Postman Pat and animated on Rupert the Bear. As animators are just basically actors, I would tell them what we were trying to convey and they would fill in the gaps. In the end I found that Mike was great with energetic Amy, Sam nailed sensitive Amy (and the underwater scene), and I did emo Mum best… what does that say about me? hahah!

Q. What did you find were the biggest challenges you faced making the film?
One of the biggest challenges was making the film within the budget and time we had without compromising on the story. I guess they sometimes say ‘kill your darlings’ and I tried to stand by that during the production. Many shots and options just had to go because we couldn’t manage it otherwise. Sometimes it was quite difficult to make to decisions, but in the end noone is going to care how long it took you or how tough it was.  All the see is the results.  And it either works, or it doesn’t.  Of course we also had the usual challenges like a puppet breaking down halfway through (Amy got so dirty she needed a redress after 2 months of animating), not knowing how the hell to make paper-mache look like icy mountains (it took a full week of light setup), and the usual ‘stopmotion gremlins’… You know, the ones that expend the set significantly over night (because it cooled down when the lights were out, particularly during the winter), or the ones that drop your massive poly in the set halfway through the shot. But thanks to the hard-working team that really pulled together, including my producer team Andy Start and Adam Jackson, nothing couldn’t be overcome. It’s not perfect in the end, but I think we gave it a good shot.

Q. Playing Ghost was your first stop motion short, why did you chose this form of animation instead of others?

Well, as I said before with the story it just felt right. We needed a full atmospheric image and so I just had to adapt.
I think I also realised that for the grad film at the NFTS as a director you have someone of every department working with you. I thought if any time to do stopmo, it was now. It just made sense.

Q. Do you think you will continue to work within this form of animation?

Initially it was a bit getting used to. I had to accept that stopmo just can’t be a 100% perfect like 2D, but then that’s also exactly it’s charm. Throughout the shooting I started to really enjoy the practical challenges you had to figure out to make a shot work. This meant for example that to create the underwater ripples on the puppets, Maja Zamojda, the cinematographer, suggested after long thinking to use a wheel full with filters that we could turn inch by inch. In the end, it was easiest to just mount a whole bicycle up on a stand. Absolute madness, yet in the shot it looks normal.I really love 2D but I kind of feel too comfortable in it. Everytime I have to do stopmotion it is just a whole new world. “Right so you want a walking robot made of matchboxes…. Yes it’s do-able.. but I just have to figure out how…”

Q. Could you tell us about any other films you have made? 

After my graduation I made the trailer for the London International Animation Film Festival. I used a style I had tried before with my Barry Purves exercise ‘Airmail’ which used puppets made of card and fabric. And I tapped into my main inspiration: The Deep Sea (yes with capitals!).  I am really quite pleased with the atmosphere that it has, though I wished I had a bit more time to make more creatures!
My last 2D animation I did for myself was ‘At the Busstop’. It was going to be full-color, but in the end as it was a school assignment I couldn’t finish the colouring, tho I’m quite happy with the look as it is at the moment too. I enjoy drawing more extreme proportioned humans!

And I guess I should also mention my BA grad film ‘The Somewhat Queer yet Silly Mr.Tophat’. ‘Queer’ (strange) was one of my favorite English words in secondary school, though my English books never told me it more commonly means ‘gay’! So now I’m a bit embarrassed by the title… Story wise it is very faulty, but I can still appreciate the technique. It was also the first film I did together with a small team. That’s when I discovered I really enjoyed directing, as it brings the talents of all these great artists together to make a little film. 

Q. You interned at Aardman Animations, what did that involve and what did you gain from the experience?

I gained so much from the internship at Aardman. It was only 2 weeks, but it was absolute bliss (the 2009 heathwave in Bristol helped as well!). I worked in the Timmy Time team, which is smaller than Shaun the Sheep but very very lovely and just right. At first they asked me to crack open some designs for the Timmy Time website. One of the designs I did was the basis for the current Timmy Time website (www.timmytime.tv)! I also worked in the puppet maintenance and prop departments and did digital stills correction.

Working there opened my eyes in terms of working with a large, well-oiled team – all the people together create these wonderful worlds. They treated me all so well! I am dead jealous of anyone working at Aardman as it’s just a wonderful place with a great atmosphere.
Even though I didn’t consider stopmo when I went to intern at Aardman, I do think the good experience had a significant influence in giving me a nudge in the stopmo direction.

Q. Who or what are your major influences?

This is a hard question. I think I’m spoiled for inspiration because everywhere I look there is so much to be in awe of. Of course both the old animation masters and new bold artists have their influence, but I think first and foremost I’m fascinated by human nature, and how unique everyone is. I studied ethical philosophy for a while and was about to do a masters in Humanistics. I’m intrigued that every one of us has different experiences and influences that make us behave or take choices differently. Sometimes this is not the most logical thing to do to an outsider but these factors and their consequences make interesting character stories. In a film – whether it’s a short or a feature – you never have a lot of time to explain all of this background but you can sip through hints. The way a character walks, talks or even picks up a glass suggests a lot. Thinking about this and then translating that into animated frames per second is what I thrive on.

As for atmosphere I love mystical atmospheres. There is a documentary called ‘The Deep’ from the BBC Blue Planet series that I just can’t get enough of. If you ever meet me, just mention the deep sea and I’m off for hours of talking with lots of hand gestures and bright eyes. This documentary in particular does everything right. The pace, the narration, the colours, the sound and music.It seems that somehow in general, water plays a significant role in my films…

Q. Could you tell us what future projects you have got lined up?

I am currently working on short animations for one of the gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). They are little animations explaining kids about root vegetables in one of their permanent exhibitions. I really enjoy doing little animations that explain “scientific” material!
I’m also about to embark on a private commission for a new stopmotion short which I can’t really give too much details about! But it’s a fun story which will keep me entertained for the next few months. I can’t wait to get back to puppet animation!

Other than that I got selected for the Animation Exchange Forum at the Dresden Short Film Festival (17th – 22nd april), which will allow me to meet and potentially collaborate with other fantastic filmmakers, and develop new ideas for my own future animations.

So busy times!

—-

Here’s a production time lapse:

This week saw the launch of Aardman’s shiny new new website – Animated It! www.animate-it.com is aimed at young animators who are looking to take their first steps into the world of animation. Regardless of experience, Aardman make the highly technical world of an Oscar-winning animation studio accessible to everyone, nurturing and inspiring the next generation of animators.The site is fun and easy to navigate around and has everything a budding young animator could ever desire. There are hints and tips from the professionals at Aardman, regular video tutorials, competitions, resources and assets to download and the latest behind the scenes news from the Aardman studios and the wider animation world. It also provides a platform for young talent to showcase and share their work.

Along with all of these goodies there is also a free 14 day trial of the Animate It! software for your PC or Mac which enables the user to create their own stop frame animations using a webcam. The software is very straight forward to use and is a valuable introduction into capturing single frames and compiling them into a video sequence. Backgrounds and effects can also be downloaded to use in conjunction with the software to enhance animations and inspire young minds.

Animate It! is endorsed by Nick Park who says: “The best advice I have for anyone interested in animating is ‘Have a go’ and Animate It! makes it so easy to try for yourself. I wish this had been around when I first started animating.”The launch of the website coincides with the release of Animate It! Morph Edition, a do-it-yourself stop-motion animation pack developed in association with Aardman. It comes complete with animation software, flexible moulds and clay to create your own Morph and Chas models, a green screen to enable you to drop in your own choice of backgrounds, video tutorials – and 26 episodes of Morph! It was showcased by the Guardian Games Blog as one of the five highlights from Toy Fair 2012.

Animate It! Morph Edition will be available from May in selected high street and online stores and will cost around £29.99. If you would like to learn how to make your own Morph and Chas adventures (and let’s be honest, for most of us that would be a childhood dream come true) take a look at this quick video that explains it all…

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We are very pleased to present you with the first ever Skwigly podcast! Hopefully this will be the first of many and we really hope you enjoy it. We want this to be just as interactive as our Twitter account and Facebook so if you wish to get involved or have any topic you wish us to address in the next podcast then please get in touch with us on either Facebook or Twitter or by email at podcast [@] skwigly.co.uk or leave a comment below.

What’s in the Podcast?

• A chat with Peter Lord from Aardman animations about “The Pirates! In and Adventure with Scientists”.
• Miles Bullough, the head of broadcast for Aardman discusses the new Tax incentives for High-End TV, Video games and Animation industries, we also read emails from A Productions, Beakus, Muleram and Slurpy Studios.
• We discuss the news of Glen Keane’s departure from Disney and read your tweets.
• An interview with Fraser MacLean about his book Setting the Scene.
• We take a look at the winners of this year’s British Animation Awards.
• Steve says “Fantastic” too many times and Ben discusses his issues with Peppa Pig merchandise.

We also launched the first our podcast versus battles, which is best? Family Guy or The Simpsons? Vote in the Poll and add your all important comments below, We will be reading some out in the next podcast.

The podcast is written and presented by Ben Mitchell and Steve Henderson with Music by Wesley Allard

The Itch of the Golden Nit

Sarah Cox, the film’s director, recognised children’s ability to work with animation some time ago.  After studying for an animation degree at Liverpool, she began working with the community film collective ‘Open Eye’, running animation workshops with children in deprived areas of Liverpool.  She then moved on to the Royal College of Art and, a year after graduating, completed the film 3 Ways to Go, which was commissioned as part of the ANIMATE! Scheme and won Best Film under 10 Minutes at the British Animation Awards.

Since then Sarah combined her love of animation with teaching, working as a lecturer at Humberside University, then The National Film and Television School and as Head of Animation at Savannah College for Art and Design, in Georgia, USA.

Throughout her time lecturing she also managed to maintain her career as a commercial director in animation; creating MTV idents and music promos with John Parry, before joining Picasso Pictures in 1994.  Here, she began directing huge campaigns for Boots No7 and Avaya Communications, as well as commercials for big name brands such as Sanatogen and Virgin Megastores.

Sarah has also continued to receive a great deal of success and recognition for her short films; Plain Pleasures won Silver Dove at DOK Leipzig in 2001, while Heavy Pockets was nominated the Short Animation BAFTA and won Best Animation at Savannah Film Festival 2005.  Her first stop motion film Don’t Let it All Unravel, was made in conjunction with Aardman Animations as one of the 60 environmental films commissioned for the ‘Live Earth’ concerts and has since won 11 international film awards and has been screened at numerous festivals.

In 2002, Sarah left Picasso Pictures and set up her own production  and animation company Arthur Cox, with Sally Arthur and has since directed several commercials in France and has been increasingly involved as a producer on many film projects.  These include Emma Lazenby‘s BAFTA award winning film, Mother of Many, and the forthcoming live action film, iFeature’s Eight Minutes Idle.

Arthur Cox continues to develop and expand, often working closely with Aardman Animations, as seen with the road safety series The Peculiar Adventures of Hector, which won a British Animation Award in 2007, and the more recent The Itch of the Golden Nit, 2011.

We caught up with Sarah to learn a bit more her and her role in Arthur Cox, as well as discover more about the process of working with children to create the fantastic film, The Itch of the Golden Nit.

You studied for an MA in Animation at the Royal College of Art which is renowned for turning out successful animators. What do you think it is about this institution that keeps producing such great talent? 

I went a long time ago when Dick Taylor was still there so it was quite a different RCA. We were basically a room full of eager animators from all different backgrounds. Over the 2 years I was there with Ruth Lingford, Run Wrake, Stuart Hilton, Phil Hunt, Jason Stalman, An Vrombraut, Luis Cook  amongst many talented others,  - so we learnt from each other. We also had some great visiting tutors; Yuri Norstein, Rolf Harris, Simon Pummel and Oliver Postgate. Just writing this makes me realise how lucky I was… We were next door to the life drawing room and I spent a lot of time in there. So I  think the reason is just simply being in a conducive environment with like minded people and inspirational figures steering occasionally will produce good work… not necessarliy immediately. My college film was just an experiment really – my real film came a year later when I got an Animate commission – 3 Ways To Go – its the film that should have been my graduation film – but I was too busy learning and experimenting at RCA.

In a lot of your work, such as Heavy Pocket and Plain Pleasures you incorporate live action with different forms of animation to create a unique and almost experimental style.  What do you think inspired this, and what do you like about this combination?

The reason for doing this was to obtain subtlety in the characters and their relationships – in their facial expressions and movements – I just don’t think I could do that with drawings. Some people can but not me.

I also love working with actors and seeing what they can bring to a film – I particularly liked working with the children in Heavy Pockets – they were fantastic. We didn’t script anything but did workshop sessions around the theme of bullying and how that can affect them. I would have liked to have made a longer film and developed some of the characters a little more.
I never thought I would move into Live Action though but now, producing Ifeatures film (8 minutes idle) I have: again its a desire to tackle a complexity and length of narrative that would be too expensive to do as animation.

8 Minutes Idle

Throughout your career in animation you have balanced working as a commercial director with directing your own short films.  Do you feel you are able to have creative freedom in your commercial work or do you find that it always comes with a compromise? 

Ha – well surprisingly sometimes I think I get more creative freedom in commercial projects than with the films. You are never entirely free if someone is funding you, but certainly with Tate all the direction came from the kids not from the top- whereas when we made 8 minutes idle we had 4 or 5 executive producers to convince at every stage. With TV commercials I learnt a long time ago that its really not about ‘creative freedom’ – you are helping your client sell a product and you can offer your best advice to help them create a fantastic and memorable commercial – if you expect to have total creative freedom you will always be disappointed. Anyway I like to have something to rail against.

Moving on to the fantastic film The Itch of the Golden Nit.  What led you to take on such an ambitious project which allowed children to take the reigns? 

I was directing commercials with Aardman and Heather Wright showed me a script that was intended for children to animate – the idea initially came from Rich Flintham and Matt Keon at Fallon and I was delighted to be asked to think about an approach. It gradually became more about the children writing the story and music and designing everything – the scale of this then necessarily led to the development of the website and all the workshops and everything – so it became much more ambitious as it went along. The whole process took about 6 years from initial conception to finished film so my involvement and the ambition of the project was a gradually increasing thing.

The Itch of the Golden Nit allowed children to contribute to all aspects of the film, as they drew the main characters and backgrounds as well as contributing to the dialogue and the music. 
How do you think animation can benefit from allowing children to be content collaborators? 

I think the days of children passively consuming content is over – children with access to computers have grown up with interactivity as a norm – they expect to have an input into their entertainment and in many respects they are way ahead of most content creators on this. The content was not surprising in itself; superheroes, pirates, aliens etc but the complexity of ideas was much more sophisticated than a lot of the animation targeted at their age groups. The obvious thing too is children are much better at deciding what they want to watch than a bunch of well meaning adults – they do need us grown ups a little bit, to refine and produce their ideas and to craft the humour and structure the narrative – but I would say on creative imagination they win hands down.

The Itch of the Golden Nit

The film followed a unique production process. For those who don’t know could you explain a little bit how about the project came together?

Our mission was to create a half hour film that every child in the UK could be involved in if they wanted to. so to fulfil that mission we had to build a structure to fit. It was only as we started having the initial meetings did the scale of what we were trying to do really hit home – but everyone at Aardman was brilliantly supportive. Together with Dan Efergan from Aardman Digital we built an amazing website which acted as a flexible storage, tagging, and community hub for the children. Every week I would post story questions, and together with Lucy Murphy (script editor)  we would select a pile of amazing ideas to give to the writer Dave Ingham – he would draft a script weaving together these ideas but leaving ‘managed holes’ for us to fill – this would prompt the next set of questions on the website. We developed a ‘story tree’ so that we could ask more structural questions first  - question 1 for instance was ‘Who are the Good Guys?’, we then asked for a villain, a location, a motive – all following quite classical narrative structure.

The drawings submitted went through a similar process and every week myself and Emma Lazenby (Art Director) would feature a selection of drawings and sounds in a Voting Gallery and the kids would vote on their favorites – every vote winner HAD to go in the film. The same with the sounds submitted and much of the dialogue that came in went straight into the film completely unchanged.

The music too – many of the songs ( which are my favorite scenes) came directly from the website – children would just sing into the mic. John Browne ( composer) would then take these and orchestrate them  so we had the full joy of Vic Reeves singing the ‘Hairy Pirate Song’ with the folk band The Young Un’s and local young folk musicians from the Gateshead are but the song was pretty much exactly as it was submitted on the website.

The ideas, drawings and sounds were uploaded by individuals and also the huge tour of workshops that toured the country so we were literally swamped by brilliance. The whole complex project was held together by the amazingly organised Helen Argo ( producer)  and Heather Wright ( exec producer).

The Tate Galleries were heavily involved in the film, what influence did they have on the project?

The Tate was the perfect partner for the project ( along with CBBC of course) because they gave the whole thing a really strong environment. The workshops were framed in the context of looking at art works and they had a massive influence and what the children drew and wrote. Much of the initial story came from a workshop in Tate Liverpool where we showed the children Picasso’s Weeping Woman ( which was there as part of the Picasso Peace and Freedom exhibition), we asked why they thought she was crying and within the context of a script workshop – where they shouted out ideas, developing on each other thoughts; we got an amazing story chain about a girl called Diana whose hair grew 5 meters every 5 seconds, it grew so fast she had to wash it in the Mersey, one day a dead kitten fell out, her only friends were the nits that lived in her hair etc etc…quite dark but quite brilliant material. The main thing I learnt from the project was that children really soak up the visual world around them so it is very very important to expose them to good design early on… even if they don’t speak about it – it definitely has a massive effect we could see it clearly in the drawings.

Jane Burton at the Tate gave us and the children so much freedom that the creativity was allowed full reign. She also supplied us with a fully equipped Tate Truck that was kitted out with a sound studio, computers and art materials that t toured the country from the Orkneys to Land’s end. It was run by a  marvellous team of Tate Movie Project Crew we were very lucky to have Stefan Georgiou leading the workshops – he and his huge team infused the project with such enthusiasm and the children were entranced by him. It made the whole experience for the children really special.

The Itch of the Golden Nit has been a huge success.  Are you considering making another film collaborating with children in this way?

I would love to but the opportunity I had was a kind of perfect storm that doesn’t come along very often.The cultural Olympiad funding, the Tate’s support and Aardman asking me to be involved. It would be difficult ( but not impossible ) to do something on the same scale. I do have loads of ideas about how we could develop the idea though – doing a live action approach, or a series or a feature and we are looking at ways to develop the concept.

You have moved into more of a producer role since setting up your own production company, Arthur Cox,  producing successful films such as Matthew Walker’s John and Karen.  How involved are you in the production stages of the animation with this role and what do you enjoy about this position?

At ArthurCox I began producing purely out of necessity because I couldn’t afford to pay a full time producer. What I really love about the role is developing talent and pushing that talent out there so it can get noticed. we used to spend an awful lot of time sending films out to animation festivals and by doing that we built a much bigger reputation than we otherwise would have had. It was an immense step to then producing 8 minutes Idle ( an iFeatures micro budget live action feature) I learnt so much doing that and I am eager to put all that learning back into practice. It was a great experience working with Mark Simon Hewis ( the director) and we are keen to work together again. Strangely he works in production too so we had a very good understanding of each others roles; I’m hoping he will be the producer next time.

Lastly, what can we look forward to seeing from Sarah Cox/Arthur Cox in the future?  Can you give tell us anything about Arthur Cox’s involvement with the upcoming adaptation of Graham Chapman’s A Liar’s Biography? 

Oh gosh – I have lots of things I would like to do … something that takes what we did on Itch of the Golden Nit but develops it would be great – I also have an idea for a comedy/archive/retro documentary – I also wouldn’t mind a few months off. For the time being though I have just directed a short for the Humane Society of the United States to raise awareness to kids about intensive pig farming. Its my first plasticene film.

Graham Chapman in A Liars Autobiography

The Chapman film all happened whilst I was finishing off 8 minutes idle – so that was produced by Kaia Rose for ArthurCox – we had 4 sections to animate – and I think we got some great scenes; the ‘Coming out’ scene which is very funny and directed by Matthew Walker, he also got to do the ‘getting pissed’ scene where Graham is so pissed he has sex with a lady from the hotel lobby. Then George Sanders Jackson did the ‘drying out’ scene which was done with painting on glass. We think its the first ever 3D painting on glass animation. This scene strikes a powerful emotional chord within the comedy of the film.

From Sony Pictures Animation comes the first teaser trailer for their new feature film Hotel Transylvania. It is directed by the creator of cartoon hits Dexter’s Laboratory and Samurai Jack, Genndy Tartakovsky, and produced by Michelle Murdocca. Starring voice actors include comedy heavyweight, Adam Sandler (Dracula), teen sensation Selena Gomez, and legendary actor Steve Buscemi.

Hotel Transylvania is a family comedy that delivers a fresh spin on the well-trodden mountain pass leading to the Haunted House genre. The film is set in an exclusive resort for the world’s most famous monsters and hosted by the prince of darkness, Count Dracula. When a boy discovers the hotel and falls for the count’s daughter, Dracula has to deal with the challenges that come with being a father.

The trailer looks like a great romp and if the recent success of Sony Animations’ The Pirates! Band of Misfits and Arthur Christmas are anything to go by, Hotel Transylvania is sure to be a Halloween hit.

Hotel Transylvania will be taking bookings from 12 October 2012.

Did the trailer satisfy your thirst? Let us know what you think by dropping a comment below…

For regular peeks at the making of the film and exclusive behind the scenes artwork, please check out Sony Pictures Animation’s brand new Tumblr blog at http://SonyAnimation.tumblr.com/ which just kicked off with a welcome greeting by Genndy Tartakovsky.

In 2006, he helped to found the children’s television company TT Animation, which is owned by Warner Brothers, he has developed and worked on original shows, working with Nick Jr, Disney Junior, CBC and many more. TT Animation’s first award winning show, ‘What’s Your News?’, is aimed at four to seven year olds and is a combination of animation, motion capture and live action. It won the NHK Japan Prize for Children’s Television and Grand Prix award in 2009, was a finalist in the Prix Jeunesse and last year won the Youth Media Alliance Award Canada, and has been re-versioned for CBC in Canada and PBS KIDS Sprout in the United States.

Q. Thank you so much for talking to Skwigly today. Let’s start at the beginning, could you tell us a little about yourself and what made you want to be an animator?

Like most artists, I just never stopped drawing as a kid. Out of my six brothers and sisters, I was the only one who was always drawing away. Then, when everyone around me started to grow up and do grown up things, I just kept on drawing. I never really paid much attention in school; I spent most of my day scribbling away on the back of my copybooks. I had no plan other than to see how far my drawing could take me.

Q. What were your influences at a young age?

Everything Jim Henson was making I loved, along with Saturday morning TV, which I later found out was mostly Chuck Jones and Hanna-Barbera shows, and of course all the Disney movies.

Q. You studied Classical Animation at Ballyfermot; did you ever consider studying anything else? 

Not really as soon as I got the animation bug I was hooked. I love lots of different mediums, mostly I love to life draw and paint, but animation had the best of all these worlds and more. It combines drawing, painting, composition, story, music and so on. It really is such a powerful medium.

You can look at a beautiful painting but it won’t evoke the same emotional response as watching a beautiful painting come to life. Watching a scene such as the death of Mufasa in the Lion King, or Andy saying goodbye to the toys in Toy Story. Those moments stay with you forever, animation has the power to make people believe in something inanimate but it can also touch peoples raw emotions.

Q. Do you think growing up in Ireland helped your animation career?

I think growing up in Ireland did help, Irish people have a history of great story telling. Animation is just the medium that I chose to do it in. When I went to Ballyfermot, it was just at the end of the Don Bluth Studio days. Bluth’s Studio had packed up and moved on, but the structure of the college was set up to teach students feature animation skills. It really is amazing how many talented people have passed through the doors of Ballyfermot. We had some great teachers who prepared us as artists to go into the world.

Q. During your time at college, you participated in two Disney internships at their Paris studio. How did you get involved with that experience?

Disney used to visit our college and GOBELINS, l’école de l’image once a year and take two or three students between the two colleges to do an internship in their Paris Studio. I was picked two years in a row, which was fantastic. It’s a great thing for the studio to do as it gives students great training, we spent a lot of time working on scenes, going to acting and life drawing classes. It really was such a great experience. Plus we got to sit in on all the daily’s which was very cool.

Q. From whom did you learn the most in your time at Disney?

I had some great mentors who were the lead animators at the studio, amazing animators like Bolhem Bouchiba, Kristoff Vergne and Borja Montoro Cavero, and a great guy called Bruno Gaumetou who ran development training for interns. We also spent some time with Glen Keane who was living in Paris at the time. The whole experience in general was great and Paris is a very cool place to be an artist. I spent many hours sketching away outside Notre Dame and in the back streets.

Q. Early in your career, you spent some time in LA. Could you talk to us a little about this experience of animating abroad?

LA was a fantastic experience. A big group of friends from college decided to travel out there off our own backs. We knew no one. About 10 of us squeezed into an apartment and made some good contacts and new friends. One of the people I met was Richard Baneham who happens to be where I am from in Dublin (winner of the 82^nd Academy Award for Best Visual Effects in Avatar) he was working on Iron Giant at the time. I went to visit him one day at his office and by accident we stumbled into a room where Brad Bird was watching the rough cuts of the film, he invited us to sit down and watch with him, I think I am still in shock. As you probably have guessed? I’m a big Brad Bird fan. A few weeks later, I arrived home in Dublin to get ready to go to Paris and start my internship for Disney, only to discover that Richie had organised to get me a place at Warner Brothers as an intern on Iron Giant.  As I was in Paris it was to late to except it.

Q. What has been the biggest learning curve during your career?

Learning the work-life balance, as it’s so important to bring your life into your work and having interests. I heard someone say, “Interesting people have lots of interests, that’s what makes them interesting. They’re not born interesting”. If I was to just sit around drawing all day it wouldn’t be long before I started to repeat myself. The only thing fresh we can bring into our work is our experiences in life, so go out there and explore the world.

Q. After travelling and working for several TV companies, you made the move to computer games and worked on such high-profile titles as Crash Bandicoot, Lego Star Wars and Narnia.  How did working on computer games animation differ from what you’d experienced in the past?

The games world is very different. I suppose the biggest difference was having to break down movements and turn them into cycles. It was a great environment to learn about CG animation, and the deadlines come thick and fast, so it really helps with productivity. After a while, though, I felt myself getting really frustrated with the limitations. The reason I got into animation was because I loved the idea of breathing life into characters and creating performances that audiences would care about.

Q. ‘What’s Your News?’ is collaborative project with BAFTA-award winning children’s TV producer and writer, Jocelyn Stevenson, whose credits include shows such as Bob the Builder, Fraggle Rock, Pingu and Sesame Street. How did you two meet?

Jocelyn and I met when she was Chief Creative Officer for HIT Entertainment. I had taken a show to HIT and they optioned it. Then, when Jocelyn left, I approached her to come and work on another idea I had for another TV show. Jocelyn also had a similar idea, so we merged them both and ended up with ‘What’s Your News?’.

Q. ‘What’s Your News?’ is an interesting show both for its content and for its unique approach to technology.

The show is rendered using a (near) real time rendering system. Its technology is based on a GPU game engine that allows the main character, Antony the Ant Eater (who has over one million hairs), to be rendered at just over four frames per second. This meant that the small team could render the entire series of 26 episodes on just three PCs.

‘What’s Your News?’ was recently showcased by BAFTA as part of its Crossover Event, and it has played an important role in helping the industry recognise the importance and  potential  of computer games technology.

Q. The show is currently in production on a second season that is being created in conjunction with CBS in Canada. Why do you think it has such international appeal? 

I think it works well for us in other territories because they can make it their own; it has that local feel to it. In most countries, they buy in animated shows that don’t feel local to the audience. It’s great because the show promotes positive news, unlike what we see in world news as adults. Our goal was to give children a voice and to help their transition from their home and family environment into the wider world. Losing a tooth, getting your haircut or kicking a ball is important news to our audience. This is news children can relate to – because it’s about the kinds of things that happen to them. All these are universal stories to a four year old.

Q. Pitching your own show is on many people’s career wish lists. What made you decide to pitch your own show and how did you go about it? 

After writing notes and designing the characters for months, it just seemed like the natural thing to do. I then gave them to Jocelyn and Jon Burton, our other co-creators, and we developed it further. After that, we did a little test then pitched it to the broadcasters. After pitching it, we took some more notes, re-jigged it a little, and then showed them again.

Q. What tips would you give to anyone wanting to pitch their own ideas to companies? 

Do it. Follow your dream. However, you must be willing to collaborate and be ready for a roller coaster of highs and lows. Know your world inside out, you have to believe in it. Research; don’t try to give them what they already have. Make sure the idea has a strong foundation so when you go into development you don’t lose the core of the idea. Stay true to what you think is interesting about the concept.

Q. Another big part of your time is taken up with your own personal projects and artwork. Your website, http://chrisdicker.net, is always full of beautiful artwork and fantastic sketches. Are there any tips you could give to young artists still in the early stages of learning to draw?

Just keep on drawing, go out and draw what you see. The main problem people have is they try to create a masterpiece every time they do a drawing. Draw as much as you can, as fast as you can, and keep on moving on to the next drawing. Don’t be precious about your work.

Q. What do you look for when hiring animators? 

It depends on the role, really, but the one thing that they all have in common is passion. Passionate people who love their job really inspire me. You must really love animation. If you don’t love it, it will break you. It really is a labour of love.

Q. Are there any other ideas in the pipeline you can tell us about? 

Not just yet, sorry. Directing and creating a film from scratch is definitely on the list. Writing is a passion of mine, but it’s a really slow process. You need to always be building on ideas and writing your own stuff but I’m in no rush. I just work because I love it.