AnimNation - 2D/3D Computer Animation in Brighton

I have just heard the amazing news that AnimNation have won a gold award at the New York International Film and Video Festival!

I produced a 10 minute 2D animation with Hove-based production company Supernova Learning on the issue of age discrimination in the workplace, “As Old As You Feel”.

Here’s the press release -

Age Diversity Video strikes gold in New York

Hove-based video producer Supernova has won a Gold Award at this
year’s New York International Film and Video Festival. The Awards
Ceremony took place last Thursday 30th January at Manhattan’s Tribeca
Rooftop. The Annual Festival attracted entries from 31 countries.
Supernova won the award in the human relations category with As Old
as You Feel. The 10 min cartoon, with a commentary by Woman’s Hour’s
Jenni Murray, promotes a positive approach to age in the workplace.
Supernova teamed up with Brighton-based AnimNation to make the video.
It was written and produced by Supernova’s Vincent Thompson, with
animation by AnimNation’s Sarah Bird.
Supernova director Vincent Thompson commented “I’m delighted that our
DVD has received this recognition. Age discrimination at work is a problem
for both young and old. We’ve set out to raise awareness and promote
good practice in a witty way without being patronising”.
More information and video clip at:
http://www.supernovalearning.com/catalogue_08_age.htm

Happy New Year!

Since the last post was about the BANG/Flash Brighton Carnival O Fun back in December - I thought it was about time I updated this blog!

Things have been going great at AnimNation over the last couple of months. Business is booming - I’ve got some very exciting projects happening at the moment & some more on the cards for this year. I was very happy to create the VisitBrighton Christmas animated e-card back in December. I have also been working on a number of 3D projects for Brighton based Flash game gurus Plug-in Media. I am currently working on some informative animations for an international company.

I received some great news this morning that I may have won an award for my animation work - but more news about that later.

Development on my kids TV series idea with the very talented script writer Jayne Kirkham is going incredibly well. We’ve had some amazing feedback from a selection of very reputable children’s broadcasters! The plan at the start of this year is to get some development funds together to make the project possible.

On 10th January I was asked by Wired Sussex to be a panel member at one of the Creative Catapult evenings. I had to give a talk about my career and running AnimNation to a selection of students and graduates. I’ve had some lovely feedback since - so I’m delighted that the evening was useful.

The 11th of December sees the Carnival O Fun move festively into a brand spanking new venue and a merge of two of Brighton’s best groups – Flash Brighton & BANG!

We are leaving the red hot shores of Carnival Island (The Cricketers) and heading via sled dogs to the snowy peaked mountain range of Christmas Province…or in other words Lighthouse’s Digital Lounge complete with bar – so you can fill up on Mulled Wine…or beer!

Come and feast your eyes on a selection of funny festive themed films, YouTube clips and animations specially selected by Flash Brighton’s Carnival King, Richard Mitchelson!

We even have an extra treat in store for you – with a special guest appearance from Cyriak! He is coming along to show us a fine array of his favorite animations and talk about his quirky work.

So make sure you bring your Santa hats and a belly full of cheer for this big bad kick ass end to the Flash Brighton/BANG year. And, if you are lucky I’m sure Santa Seb from Flash Brighton will make an appearance with Adobe based gifts and prizes and a YO-HO-HO for all.

Tuesday 11th December, 6:30pm (screening starting just after 7pm) at the Lighthouse Digital Lounge, 1, Zone B, 28 Kensington Street, BN1 4AJ

Map

Be there or be Jack Frost (…left out in the cold)!

We have very kindly been sponsored by Unwrong and Littleloud – if it wasn’t for these guys, the evening wouldn’t be possible.

SPACES ARE LIMITED so please register at our page on upcoming to ensure your place.

This year’s Brighton Digital Festival went off with a bang this year - quite literally!

Starting off with an amazing interactive Flash generated fireworks display by Seb Lee-Delisle from Plug-in Media on the front of the Unitarian church in Brighton.

Pictures from the night are here

It then continued the next week to include the Portfolio Clinic - where I was priviledged to share a table with local animator RichMitch and look over work produced by local students and freelancers and offer advice on how to improve their portfolios and where to take their career next.

Photos from the night are here

The following night I was asked to be part of the Animation Night. Together with the Hastings Animation Networking Group’s founder, Angus Giorgi - we compiled a 30 minute showreel of animation work produced by BANG and HANG members - which included a very varied selection of films - from commerical work produced by AnimNation and John Davison, to personal projects created by the incedibly talented Cyriak, Tim Frost, to name but a few.

On the night this was shown to the audience along with a selection of animations from some of Ireland’s most talented film makers and animators. A panel discussion was then put together - consisting of the Dark Light Festival organiser Nicky Gogan; Matthew Talbot-Kelly who created the haunting Blind Man’s Eye; Eoghan Kidney who created Stars; English animator/film maker and director at Slinky Pictures, Chris Shepherd; Angus Giorgi founder of HANG and myself.We all discussed how we all have sought funding for short films and how the process varies from country to country - with an English, Irish and Canadian perspective on things. We also chatted about how politics can influence animation.

Photos from the event are here

I have been helping Flash guru Seb Lee-Delisle run the Flash Brighton group for a while now - but this is the first time I have actually held a workshop for the group!

There seems to be a bit of a growing interest in 3D within the group - so I thought I’d give them all an insight into the world of Maya and what the software is capable of doing. Plus a lot of the research and technology used for many years in the 3D industry is now making it’s way across to the Flash platform. News has it that the next version on Flash will have IK integrated into it (for those who aren’t “in-the-know” about IK - it basically is an amazing tool to assist character animators. It links a series of skeleton joints together in a chain - enabling you to simply pick up a handle in 3D space and move, for example, a limb around without having to manipulate a series of individual joints). So I thought it would be nice to show where that technology came from.

Seeing as Maya is such an immense piece of software & has quite a steep learning curve - I’m limiting my talk to demonstrating character modeling and animation, lighting, particles and dynamics, and also how to integrate 3D animation into Flash (a technique I have done a few times to bring in 3D character animation into online Flash games).

It’s beginning to remind me of the days when I was assisting Techex - demonstrating earlier versions of Maya to potential buyers!

When & where is it?

The Greene Room (upstairs in The Cricketers)
Tuesday 20th November, 6:30pm

Register to attend here - http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/319259

Well I’ve just got back from the Flash On The Beach conference & feeling incredibly inspired! The conference guest speakers were amazing - & really opened my eyes up to the advances in the Flash world. I was very lucky to be given a ticket to this year’s festival through coming 1st in a competition to design a Flash banner to advertise the conference - so a big thanks to the Flash Brighton group and John Davey for making it all possible.

I’m off now to download a copy of the Papervison3D Collada Maya converter software to see what amazing 3D models I can drag into Flash!

And the best news of all - the next version of Flash is incorporating Inverse Kinematics! Now why they couldn’t include that technology into Flash years ago, I’ll never know! IK has been around in the world of 3D for donkeys years & revolutionised the way us 3D animators work. But it’s great news anyway for any Flash animator!

Out of all of the guest speakers, three stand out as being very inspirational to me:-

Chris Orwig - freelance interactive designer, photographer & lecturer at Brookes Institute of Photography. Chris gave an hour long talk on story, branding and visual design. A few things I took away from his talk are to keep things simple, how to explain my niche work in one sentence and how my work could tell a story (colour conveys emotion, typography a voice etc) & also complete admiration for his photography work.

GMUNK - an amazing Motion Graphics designer who combines Maya dynamics & modelling and design to create brilliant visuals. And very often his work has been produced to an extremely tight deadline - so I’m sure his tips and tricks will come in handy!

The Ronin - again, an amazing Motion Graphics designer & UK based! I recognised one of The Ronin’s animations “Black Day to Freedom” from the McLaren Award at Edinburgh Festival a few years ago - second time round watching it, I still found it incredibly moving. The Ronin combines photography and illustrations by his brother to make some very inspirational pieces. I would definitely like to try out some of his techniques to combine my photography work and get some motion into it!

As soon as the tickets become available for the 2008 Flash on the Beach - I’ll be getting my credit card out to book a bunch of tickets!

This month has been incredibly productive and quite a manic time!

Work is already on it’s way producing the Production Bibles for the two children’s TV series ideas developed by myself and talented script writer, Jayne Kirkham. A pitch meeting with Cartoon Network has been arranged for the start of November - which we are very excited about.

Time was spent this month on developing characters and a script for an animated short film called “Rose”. An application has been sent in to the Screen South Digital Shorts scheme in the hope of some funding money to put the animated short film into production.

I was also invited along to the Brighthelm Centre in Brighton by Sussex Downs College to give a talk on the importance of setting industry briefs to students. Last year I set an industry brief to the BA Multimedia students at Sussex Downs College to re-brand one of three fictitious satellite TV channels - which went down incredibly well & I have been invited back this year to set the same brief to the next batch of final year students.

I was given the opportunity to put on my teacher’s hat this month & do a bit of Maya tutoring to a local company, Hudoq. Which was something I had not done since I was a software demonstrator for Maya (back then owned by Alias/Wavefront!) - but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

AnimNation are just about to start work on some more concept artwork for Sony and 3D models and animated assets for an online Flash gambling website.

The Brighton Digital Festival is coming up fast!

Flash on the Beach - 4th - 7th November

We’re only a week and half away until the start of the Flash On The Beach conference - which will be hosting talks and workshops by some of the world’s best Flash experts. I was very lucky enough to win my ticket to the conference this year by creating a Flash banner to advertise the conference. The entries to the competition were judged by the Flash Coders New York group and I was privileged to win 1st place!

Y-Design Awards - Peoples’ Choice Award - 5th November Brighton Pier

Brighton Pier has been opened up to digital artists to celebrate the Peoples’ Choice Award as part of the Y-Design Awards. The organisers of this event have very kindly opened up their invitations to the Brighton Animators Networking Group.

Portfolio Clinic - 13th November

I will be putting in an appearance at the DScape Portfolio Clinic as an industry representative. The evening is designed for students and freelancers to have a one-to-one meeting with the best local digital companies to show their portfolio in the hope of getting some expert advice and possibly some work!

Animation Night - 14th November

This is evening is being held to showcase English and Irish animation work with a political theme. Wired Sussex have very kindly offered a 20 minute slot that evening to show off the work produced by the Brighton Animators Networking Group (BANG) and the newly formed Hastings Animators Networking Group (HANG).

September has proved to be a very exciting month for AnimNation! What with a large amount of concept illustration work and 3D animation work for Sony’s up coming projects for the PS3 and the PS3 relaunch - I have been kept busy with some very fun projects.

It has also opened a few more doors to getting me closer to my biggest ambitions -  winning awards for animation (I’ve always dreamed of winning a BAFTA!) and creating children’s television series! This month, I have been working together with the fabulous children’s comedy script writer, Jayne Kirkham, to develop two ideas for children’s series. With a speculative meeting with Nickelodeon and a pitch meeting with Cartoon Network lined up - things are definately looking very exciting!

I also aim to produce my own animated projects in between working for clients. At the moment, myself and a very talented illustrator, Andy Marshall, are working on an idea for a short animated film with a dark theme.

Next Tuesday’s Flash Brighton meeting will see a new project for the group! The previous group task to create a moving comic book was so successful that we have decided to expand our new brief to the creative and technical amoungst the group.

As Brighton is so full of fantastic DJ nights - we thought it would be a fabulous idea to set a brief to create short animations for a DJ set.  I’m sure we’ll see all amounts of amazing prgrammed fractal animations and traditional Flash animations at the end of the project - so watch this space!