Well hello! Long time no speak... I've been locked away animating feverishly in a darkened room ever since my last post.

No not really - I have been working hard and balancing that with enjoying time exploring the Bay Area and beyond.

Cars 2 wrapped animation in March 2011 and we celebrated in style. It was such a fun show to work on, not just because we had John at the helm but because the whole team were just really, really amazing. And Cars 2 was a great movie to start on, from my perspective. Less controls to worry about whilst I was getting to grips with everything new I had to learn.

Anyway, it's about 18 months late BUT here is my Cars 2 animation reel. As stated in the blurb, I animation everything unless stated, except background characters and those shots greyed out. Mostly I worked with Holley Shiftwell. She was definitely fun to work with, and I got to meet Ms Emily Mortimer once we'd wrapped, to show her how we did it!



Tomorrow - it will be three years since I started at Pixar. Time flies when you're having fun :)

It's been exactly 6 months since I walked under that sign on the first day of my new job.

I've spent a lot of time training, getting to grips with unfamiliar software and a different way of working, and now I am animating my first ever feature film shots on:



I can honestly say I am loving it! The people I work with everyday are amazingly talented, incredibly humble and so very very nice.

It's been a difficult journey to get to this point and almost every aspect of my life has been flipped upside-down in the process. But throughout all the insanity and things I've had to deal with, I get to go to work and do what I've always wanted to do - and for that, I am incredibly thankful.

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!

I thought I would take a break from work to tell you about Kerwhizz! The CGI quiz blue-zoo have been working on for the BBC since the start of the year is finally on air! Vegetable Valley Alley was on BBC1 at 3.05 this Monday and will be shown again at various times on both BBC and CBeebies along with a new episode each week.

They also have a webpage dedicated to it where you can play the quiz and race some pods, and check out the intro animation I did for the show titles!




I have to say, it is looking great and is such a nice show. I hope it entertains and educates some kids! :P

Right, better get back to animating 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!

It's been almost 2 years in the making...
...but Blue-zoo finally have a new website!



If you navigate to the 'Work' section you can see some of the things I have been working on over the last 2 and a half years...

Including Stitch-Up Showdown, Clarks YoToY, Aquafresh, Monkey, Back To School, Those Scurvy Rascals, Binge Britain and The Amanda Show.

Sorry - it's been a long time since I last posted!

The good news is - I am no longer freelancing! I got a 6 month contract at blue-zoo! Woo!

It's great not to be worrying about where you are going to work next and whether you have earned enough money to pay the rent this month...

I have been on some very nice projects so far and got some good 'uns to come so I am pretty pleased.

Oooh and I finally got my credit for Scurvy's on IMDB and a linked in account and a CG Society Portfolio (which needs some work).
But more importantly....

I am now on facebook! What fun! :P

So anyone who knows me can look me up and we can write on each others walls!

How sad am I?



Ok, don't answer that.

Here is a special Scurvy Christmas performace I animated for blue-zoo...

Ha ha!

Check it out... The Scurvy Website has gone live!

The first series of 'Those Scurvy Rascals' is now all animated and should be coming to a TV screen near you soon... if you live in Australia that is. It might be a little longer for the rest of the world but who knows how it will take off! The website will be lanching Oct 3rd here if you want to have a sneak peek...


Hopefully I will be able to get some of the shots I worked on into my shiny new 2006 showreel.

Right now, I am on the hunt for a new job should anyone have any suggestions...

Over four months on and we are 9 episodes down, 1 to go. Come the beginning of August, collectivly 6 animators will have finished all 20 episodes. Thats 10 minutes of animation each!

Tiring... :)

I have never had to animate as fast or as much as I have on this job!

It's been great fun and a heck of a lot of hard work and I am gutted that it's almost at an end (and I have to start job hunting again) but I also could do with a rest!

I think I am going to go home to my folks house and do nothing for a week or two ;)

I thought I'd put up some pics of the advert I worked on at Bird. I am assuming that I am allowed to but if they aren't here again, I obviously wasn't. Well hey, it's been on the TV (not that I have seen it much) so it should be ok. The animations might make an appearence on my next showreel - it depends how long it takes me to do one and how much better stuff I have to fill it with!

As you can see the characters were human and required natural, subtle human movement (apart from the floating in the air thing). Not something I had ever attempted before so it was a learning process. And they didnt come out too bad. ;)

So having spent the last 2 months (!) doing not much at all, I am about to start a new job at blue-zoo! I am pretty excited and pretty nervous all at the same time but I can't wait to get out of the house and do something!!! And what makes it even better is that's it's cartoon animation, all day, everyday! (well, hopefully no weekends this time.) It's going to be a good year I am sure :)

At the beginning of October I started working at Bird Studios in Blackfriars, London.

So far so good! I was thrown in at the deep end a bit, and had to re-familiarise myself with Maya at the same time but it all came flooding back to me. We are working on two adverts for a TV channel (not sure if I can say who?) and it involves me animating a human character with a range of emotions. Not like the cartoony style I am used to! But its been a great experience and I am learning fast and enjoying it.