Forbidden Planet have posted the final nominations for the British Animation Awards 2010, and it looks like 'Stitch Up Showdown' is in the running for Best Children's Series!

It's great for it to be recognised at such a high level, competing against the likes of Aardman and Shaun the Sheep!

Congrats again to all who worked on it! It was a lot of fun to make :D

You can check out all the other nominees and categories here:
http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/2010/british-animation-awards-nominees-announced/

And see a little montage of Stitch Up clips here:
http://www.blue-zoo.co.uk/animation/video/show/80

Enjoy!

Nick have created a Stitch Up Showdown microsite, where you can watch some of the episodes, draw your own warrior and play the Stitch Up 'beat 'em up' game.



It's pretty cool!

The episode I wrote and animated is in the 'Watch' section (episode 3: Flower Power), if you want to see it!

Stitch-Up Showdown has been shortlisted in the Short Form category for the 2008 EA British Academy Children's Awards! The winner will be announced on 30th November.

It's really great news to hear as it is a fantastic series and really does deserve to do well. It was also a lot of fun to work on and I am pleased I got the chance to direct the animation on it, and animate some of the episodes as well!!

Well after a lot of emails, pleading, posting and facebook group invitations to vote for Gym Jam in the People's Choice Filminute Festival category, I am afraid to say it did not win!!

:(

It's not all bad news though...

We won overall!!

The jury selected Gym Jam as FILMINUTE 2008!

He's what they said:

“It’s remarkable to have an animated film win against the live action and documentary entries,” says Ketchum, head of the jury. ”We’ve always believed in the Filminute format, in letting all the films go head to head against each other and may the best story win. And here we have it with STITCHUP SHOWDOWN – GYM JAM, a film that appeared on the majority of the juror’s selects and also lead in the voting for the People’s Choice Award at various points during the month.”

I'm pretty pleased about that. It's nice when something you have worked on gets recognised and enjoyed.




Congrats to all who worked on it!

One of the Stitch-Up Showdown episodes I animated back in January has been accepted into two short film festivals!



The Filminute Film festival



Gym Jam is one of 25 films selected from a review of 1500 films, animations, and mashups from over 60 countries. Screenings are taking place at Selfridges, Oxford Street until 19th of October where viewers can vote for their favorite - or you can vote online!


RenderYard Short Film Festival



Gym Jam has been selected for the 1 Minute Challenge in the month of August and goes forward into the final selection of 12 films at the end of November this year. The 12 best films will then be available to vote on by their public on our You Tube page to decide the final winner at the end of December.

So if you watch it and you like it - give us a vote ;)

Thanks!

Well... a good 13 months since I last visited these parts! Mind you it is pretty pointless having a blog if a) no one is reading it and b) you really have nothing to say. But hey, I am hoping that will change!

So what's happened in the last 13 months? Well, the 6 month blue-zoo contract turned into a full-time one. So now I don't even have to worry about ANY contract ending. I have a job until they sack me! Although I am trying to avoid that...

We have been working on lots of exciting things... Stitch Up Showdown being the one I was looking forward to the most! I got to be Animation Director on it and really push the stop-framey, snappy style of it. Of course as with all productions, when it finally started we were working to a very tight schedule, but I am really pleased with the way it turned out and everyone who worked on it did a brilliant job. It should be on Nickelodeon soon....

I was also lucky enough to write one of the episodes. It featured this cute little character 'Enzo' and it was a personality driven piece with no dialogue. I also got to animate it too.



Blue-zoo have just begun working on a new BBC HD TV series called 'Kerwhizz' which I have been supervising some of the animation on. It is visually stunning and you won't see anything like it on children's tv when it airs in March! It is 26 x 20" episodes, so blue-zoo has quadrupled in size over the last few months, and we have almost out-grown the new office we moved to back in October. I don't think we will be moving again soon though, last time was pretty painful ;)

I am also writing an episode of Kerwhizz! It was a bit of a leap from a 30 second cartoon gag to a 20 minute BBC TV show, but it's all going ok so far!

Well, that's about it for now. I have more news but I will save that for another day...