Feature story training update from Aardman

Compare and Contrast! A photograph of our merry band of story trainees (Crustoids, as named by Frank Gladstone, who is in the centre of the 1st photo) on our first day at Aardman Animations - and 8 short weeks later at our found farewell night out.

The last 8 weeks have evaporated in a blur of frenzied activity and, learning - with little time for blogging of anything else. It has all been an incredible adventure, and a truly amazing experience. I feel like I've grown incredibly as an artist, and I'm eager and exited to put what I've learnt into practice. What made it all the more enjoyable, was learning along side such a wonderful group of people, many of which I am sure will be firm and good friends for years to come.

As well as being taught by the inspirational Frank Gladstone, we were treated to several special presentations, including visits by Christian Lignan (digital storyboarding procedures), Bruce Block (visual language), Steve Kaplan (comedy workshop).

For our final assignment, we worked with Aardman's editorial team, who cut our storyboards into story reels for review, along with the scratch tracks we recorded, which was incredibly fun. Seeing our storyboards timed into story reels, was an amazing and revealing experience. Seeing the pathos and rhythm they bought to it and the choices they made in removing and adding story panels.

Here's some more pics from our last training day. Happy days!