Quirkyjoe

I thought I should include some links to work I was doing before I started this blog. At the end of last year I was involved in two animation projects. One was a graduate film for NFTS animation director Daniela Negrin Ochoa and the other was my entry for The Great Animation Challenge 2010.

I worked for over four months with Dani on her NFTS film, El Macho, as a Photoshop and After Effects colourist. It was a great experience and I learned so much about the process of making films at the film school. It was a relief too (after so much hard work) to see that the finished film was amazing. I had the pleasure of attending one of the graduate screenings and found that El Macho is seven minutes of fantastic observational humour, engaging characters and beautifully drawn animation.

Obviously though, when you’re watching the trailer below, pay special attention to the colour and the shadows, because they are the coolest bits.

El Macho Trailer – Dir: Daniela Negrin Ochoa – NFTS 2011

My own film, Graffiti, was completed just before I started work on El Macho. It won first prize in The Great Animation Challenge 2010 and was screened at Shorts On Walls with the other short-listed entrants. The challenge was to create an animation sequence using one of the stand-up comedy sound clips provided. I chose a clip from Eddy Brimson – it took me in a strange direction. This is what one of the judges said…

“Dissonant outsider art imagery gives an edgy appeal to the most weird entry. I liked the unexpected logic defying juxtaposition of some imagery. Pervy in many ways. Full of surprises- the bushes looked quite ethereal. Unlike other entries it seemed to be trying to break away from the story and do its own thing, which was far more interesting – A CLEAR WINNER” – Saint John Walker, Head of Animation & Games at Skillset

I’ve been creating some title sequences for my 2011 animation showreel and uploading them to vimeo. I wanted to see if I could combine my hand-drawn animation style with some digital post in After Effects. These sequences are just the start of some experimentation with that. Below is my previous showreel from 2010. I’ve also included in this post – an elephant illustration I produced at the weekend for PeoplePerHour.

  Showreel 2010

Yesterday the tide went right out, exposing more sand than I ever expected to see on Brighton’s stony beaches. It left lots of the shoreline open to investigation, by people and by the seagulls who found the stranded starfish an easy dinner. I took some photos, below. Also, I’ve finished colouring the fantasy image I’d been working on. There’ll be a lot more examples of this kind of illustration to come. Stay tuned.

The composer for my animated film The Winter Tree, Ross Hillard, is currently building his website. He asked me to prepare some screen shots from the film so I’ve put them up here too. I’m also working on a fantasy illustration at the moment – just to boost my portfolio. There are some pen drawings from that here too…

Pen drawings

The Winter Tree

I thought I’d put up some concept images from a while back up here on the blog. These are images I did for Split-Second Films and their feature film ‘Welcome To The Bluebird Experience’. A film about two old men who go on a small bombing spree to rebel against the society that has left them disillusioned. I was asked to produce a series of full-colour images to convey the settings and ‘mood’ of the scenes in the script.

Since I completed my After Effects training course I’ve been playing around with some of the tools and effects I haven’t used very much before. One area I’ve been experimenting with is the text animations. I have created some of these for a new version of my showreel. You can see the end result here  http://www.vimeo.com/22282004

Also, I’ve included a cartoon design based on some doodles I did. I wanted to create some characters who are at odds with their desire to cross-dress.

Here are some more concept images for the music video for The Orchard. The sequence consists of two characters who can only see each other via TV screens and a battle-scarred cityscape that is eventually overcome by rats.

I’ve also included a couple more photographs from my wanders along the Brighton beaches. This time I’ve tried to capture the ruin of the west pier and the ragged underbelly of the palace pier.

I attended a writers group last Wednesday. It was the first time I’d been to one of those. I took ‘The House On Mt Olympus Road’ as an ice-breaking story. It went down quite well. Next week will be more challenging though, there are lots of fragmented story ideas I want to work with and I’d like to use these writers groups to help focus my writing a bit more. There is a live reading of ‘The House On Mt Olympus Road’ and some kind of interview on a podcast you can download for free if you follow the link here (it’s called Room 8 and I’m about 20 mins into the podcast) – http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-reading-room/id399470470

I’ve also been working on some hand-drawn animation. Below are some combined images of a character walk cycle.

I’ve recently moved to Brighton, a town with two piers jutting out from its seafront. One is thriving and tourist-ridden at the weekends and the other is broken and skeletal; a ruin. I find them both fascinating in different ways. Here are some photos of the view from the bottom of my new street…

Also, I’m working on some more imagery for the band The Orchard. This time it’s some concept images for a possible music video for the song No Place To Hide.

I’ve been working on some images for Ross Hillard’s band The Orchard. He wants to make a photo booklet to match the anxiety and angst present in his music. We looked at all the Radiohead artwork and how we could create ideas based on the themes in his songs. Below are some test images. To listen to music from The Orchard take a visit-http://www.myspace.com/theorchard1