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From one great client to another! June 15, 2010

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Since March, it has been a pretty exciting time here at AnimNation!

Over the past couple of months, I’ve been working with the amazing Google…yes, GOOGLE!…on a series of three 2D/3D hybrid adverts for Google AdSense. Each of the three adverts were a couple of minutes each & went through how to use Google AdSense in a very un-corporate style! I love working on projects were you can inject a little creativity into the end product & this was definitely one of those projects. The adverts are waiting to go online internationally (it was translated into about 9 different languages) & I will post up the final three online adverts on to the AnimNation website. So watch this space!

Last month I was accepted to be part of the Flash on the Beach conference in Brighton. I’m part of the Elevator Pitch session – where I have been given the task of standing up in front of a massive audience & doing something for 3-minutes…now, I can talk for 3-minutes on a stage with no problems at all…but I have gone and given myself the task of creating something in 3D…LIVE on stage!!! I’m not sure if that was a moment of utter madness when I applied to do that or not!? So yes, I will be modelling something in a 3D package, on stage, in only 3-minutes…wish me luck!

And lastly, my latest piece of news – I am working with the incredible AT&T on a new 2D 5-minute animation. It’s going to look amazing…so again, watch this space for the final animation.

Happy New Year! January 12, 2010

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BAFTA Win!

The end of 2009 was a very exciting one for AnimNation. The online interactive CBeebies game Big & Small won a 2009 Children’s BAFTA! I worked alongside Plug-in Media, Kindle & CBeebies to create the 3D Papervision assets for the game – creating all of the 3D environments to go into the game – including Big & Small’s living room, bedroom, bathroom & the newly released garden & mysterious woods.

Inside the house - the lounge

A New Website

A new year & a new website! AnimNation now have a new 2010 website & a new animation show reel. Check it out here – http://www.animnation.co.uk

Work in Progress

I am currently developing a selection of children’s tv series ideas. In 2010 I am hoping to develop these further & create pilot episodes for two of the ideas. More information on that come.

Christmas Big Screen Bonanza

On 15th December, BANG! & FlashBrighton groups got together for our Christmas Big Screen Bonanza. Decked out in very bad Christmas jumpers & reindeer antlers, Seb Lee-Delisle, RichMitch, Jo Summers and myself hosted the evening – which saw animated short films selected by RichMitch, a guest speaker slot by the wonderful Garth+Ginny, a special screening of Cyriak’s latest animated short film (and a secret film that hasn’t been released yet!) as well as a load of mince pies & festive cheer.

Here are some photographs from the night –

September/October Update November 1, 2009

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Another mass update of AnimNation news since the summer…and it has been an exciting few months!

Firstly, the CBeebies Big & Small online interactive game that I created the 3D environments for has been nominated for a Children’s Interactive BAFTA!

AnimNation have also moved into a shiney new studio in the heart of Brighton’s North Laines – more space, better facilities – the company is now more equipped to take on bigger projects.

Last weekend, the White Night festival took over Brighton for one night. I was one of the main organisers for the Brighton Animators animated projections event. I helped to put together a night of futuristic projected animations onto the very distinct Brighton Unitarian Church. 42 purpose made animations were chosen to be projected onto the church. The whole event received wonderful feedback from the audience & press. I created two animations for the event – a B-movie inspired opening animation to introduce the evening & a 3D animation of a Robot hiding out in the church from the police. More information about the event can be found here.

Over the past few months AnimNation have created work for Nokia and Punch & Judy prof. Glyn Edwards, as well as developing three new children’s television series – more information on that to come!

And the run up to Christmas looks equally as exciting – with a whole host of exciting animation projects, working with big name clients.

Here’s to a new era at AnimNation!

Back from Paris & Gobelins! July 20, 2009

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I’m now back in UK after studying at the amazing Gobelins Character Animation Summer School…what an amazing course! I would recommend this course to anyone wishing to develop their character animation skills!
I was very privileged to learn from the likes of –

Shelley Page (Head of International Outreach for DreamWorks Animation)
Fred Nargorny (professor of animation at Gobelins)
Alexandre Heboyan (ex-Gobelins student, co-director on Migration Bigoudenn, Dreamworks animator & now co-director on the French feature film, Mune, le gardien de la lune, for the studio Method Films.)
Robert Bennett (the amazing Corporeal Acting teacher)
Kyle Balda (who has worked for the likes of ILM & Pixar – as directing animator on Toy Story 2)
Daniel Cacouault (an incredible artist & production designer for films)

So the quality of the teaching was second to none!

I will be putting together a series of blog posts that cover some of the animation principles that I learnt whilst studying at Gobelins. So keep an eye on this blog to find out more.

Off to Gobelins June 11, 2009

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A couple of weeks ago I received the amazing news that I have been accepted onto the Gobelins Character Animation Summer School in Paris!

summer_bandeau

For those of you who are unaware of Gobelins l’ecole de l’image – it is an incredible arts college in the middle of Paris that has been churning out award-winning animation students for the past 30 years. Their 2007 students short film “Oktapodi” was nominated for a 2009 Academy Award!
For the past four years Gobelins have been running a Summer School for animation graduates and professionals. The course is an intensive insight into the world of professional character animation & professional studio pipelines through a host of highly skilled industry instructors from the likes of Pixar, Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), Disney, Weta Digital, and Dreamworks.
So you can understand why I’m so excited to be attending the Summer School!

And I have just heard that Screen South have agreed to support me on this course.

I’m heading out to Paris on June 29th to start the course & hope to keep an up-to-date blog on how the course is going whilst I am out there (hopefully with videos of the animation work I have been doing during the workshops).

I can’t wait!

Big & Small nominated for a FITC award! March 31, 2009

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Recently I have been working on the 3D Papervision assets for the CBeebies Big & Small online interactive game alongside Plug-in Media and Kindle Entertainment.

We’ve just heard the amazing news that the Big & Small game has been nominated for a Flash In The Can (FITC) Award in their 3D Flash category!

You can vote for the game at the FITC People’s Choice Award under the 3D Flash category.

Vote For Big & Small

Big & Small goes live on CBeebies website January 27, 2009

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I have been working on the 3D Papervision assets for the new Big & Small Cbeebies game recently with Plug-in Media – which went live on the CBeebies website recently.

Play the game

Outside the house

Outside the house

Inside the house - the lounge

Inside the house - the lounge

Playing the Band Game

Playing the Band Game

Playing the Hand Painting Game

Playing the Hand Painting Game

Big & Small is a new CBeebies TV show created by Kindle Entertainment. The preschool series is about two friends who couldn’t be more different is voiced by Lenny Henry and Imelda Staunton.

Update – November November 11, 2008

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I have to apologise – I last updated this blog in May! But things have been very busy recently & there have been lots of changes!

Firstly – my little piece of good news…I have been shortlisted for DiMA award. I’m down to one of 3 shortlisted finalists for Freelancer of the Year.

badge_grey_100x100

The DiMA awards are being held on 27th November.

Secondly – AnimNation are now affiliated with Brown & Sticky Productions – a company set up to develop children’s television content. Talented children’s script writer, Jayne Kirkham and I have been working on a new kid’s TV series, Adrian’s Wall. Which we were fortunate enough to present at the recent Cartoon Forum conference, where we had to pitch the show idea and a 45-second animated trailer to potential broadcasters and investors. The project also took us off to Cannes to Mipcom Junior.

adrian

I’ve been busy working on a number of projects since May. One of which was a successful advertising campaign for Westminster Kingsway College – creating a 30-second 3D animated television advertisement that was recently aired on Trouble TV and creating 3D imagery and animations for print, online and mobile campaigns to promote their latest enrolment drive.

“The project commissioned to AnimNation was an integral part of our marketing strategy. They listened and responded to our exact needs and created something that we are extremely proud to have as part of the Westminster Kingsway College brand. The finished product surpassed all of our expectations and we look forward to working with AnimNation again in the future.” – Westminster Kingsway College

westk


I have also been working with web community Netmums on creating assets for a new section of their website – more information about that to come.

And creating 2D and 3D animated graphics for an educational CD for geophysical and geoscience exploration company, IAGC.

I’ve also been creating a number of 3D assets for Plug-in Media:

Using the revolutionary new piece of Flash based software, Papervision (which enables 3D models to be viewed in Flash – the user can interactively move around the model in realtime), we created a 3D baseball player for the Major League Baseball’s Game Day section of their site. The aim was to create an interactive way of viewing baseball game data.

gameday

Plug-in Media also required a 3D storybook for their latest Museum of London game – Tales of London.

talesoflondon1

And most recently I have been creating 3D papervision assets for a new CBeebies show with Plug-in Media. More information about that to come.

So it has been a busy few months! And with more exciting projects on the horizon, I’m hoping that 2009 will be another exciting year for AnimNation!

Thanks for reading

Sarah

April/May Update May 22, 2008

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So much has happened at AnimNation since the last blog post about winning a Gold Award at the New York Film and Video Festival.

One of the big pieces of news is that AnimNation are now affiliated with Brown & Sticky Productions – set up to concentrate on developing children’s animated television series. Our animated series currently in development has just been accepted into the Cartoon Forum conference in Germany in September – where we have to pitch the series idea to a whole host of European broadcasters and investors. Quite a scary prospect – but a very exciting time in moving both AnimNation and Brown & Sticky Productions forward onto bigger projects. More information on the series later.

Over the last few months we’ve been working on a whole host of projects :-

3D assets for a new feature on the Major League Baseball site (which led to a trip to New York to meet the clients!)

3D assets and animation for the Museum of London site

2D and 3D animations for a corporate video on marine environmental issues

Illustrations on the dress code at Ascot that was featured in the Spring 2008 Square Meal magazine

Illustrated assets for the revamped Netmums website *coming soon*

A television advert for a London-based college that will be broadcast on MTV, E4 etc. *coming soon*

Director, Sarah Bird, was also featured in a recent edition of The Argus newspaper.

AnimNation win an award! February 5, 2008

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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