It must be Easter!

Last weeks ASIFA Workshop Group animation workshop at the National Media Museum was fantastic . Eight children were chosen from Belle Vue Boys, Belle Vue Girls School, and St Josephs Catholic College in Bradford to represent the UK in the production of a short animated film to celebrate the Olympics. This was a fantastic opportunity to take part in the creation of an animated film which will be used as part of a film made by young people from all over the world.
The short film titled “Jimmy saves the Olympics”, created by the group at the National Media Museum, tells the story of Jimmy, who is chosen to take the famous Olympic flame from Athens to the Olympic stadium. On route, the athletically challenged Jimmy, tries his hand at a variety of Olympic spots. His rugby skills are come against the ultimate test when an alien tries to steal the flame. Through it all, the inclusively of the Olympics is celebrated. everybody, no matter what there colour or size can feel part of the Olympics.

I'll put up some photographs and stills from the film next week, when I have a little more time. There is an interesting local press story about the project here.

This week I completed a series of workshops at Harrogate Army Foundation College, partly funded by CYC, which has resulted in an incredible short stop motion film, "Howard and the Bear", written by 15 year old Madeline Moyle. Maddy is an very talented young budding animator and I expect the film, and Madeline to do very well in the future.

Next week I'm in Swindon teaching for the University of Bath's creative arts week, "Crazy Cartoons" the for pupils in year 10.

ASIFA International film project

I am extremely excited to be delivering a very special animation workshop at the National Media Museum next week, during the Easter holidays.

Thanks to the support of the NMM and funding from First Light Movies, who fund and inspire young people, throughout the UK, to make films reflecting the diversity of their lives, I will delivering an animation workshop for ASIFA (the international association of animated film), founded in 1960 in Annecy (France) by the most famous animation artists of that time (Norman McLaren & many others).

The ASIFA Workshop Group is a global movement represented in 23 countries and on 3 continents. Every year a worldwide animation project, composed of several regional children animation workshops, is realised. The films created are presented at some of the world’s principle animation festivals.

This years theme is the Olympics. The young people in Bradford will be using animation to explore their "fantasies, ideas and messages on the Olympic Games or anything related to the games, freely within about 2 minutes." Their film will become part of an international compilation of animation, compiled in China and promises to provide a world stage for the young people to express themselves creatively. Through the process, young people will develop their drawing and animation skills, build confidence and have their aspirations raised in a fun and creative atmosphere.

There is a fascinating article of the history of the ASIFA workshop group on the ASIFA website.


I will be be publishing updates on this exciting project during the week.

"Dreams" screeing at Leeds Young People's Film Festival

The animated film "Dreams", created by year year 6 pupils at schools in Rochdale, Salford and Liverpool for Verd de Gris visionary arts project Dreams has been selected to compete in the National Young Filmmakers' Award taking place on Saturday 29th March as part of Leeds Young People's Film Festival! Congratulations to all the children who helped make such a beautiful film.





"Dreams" is screening on Saturday 29th March 2008 Venue at Vue at Kirkstall, Cardigan Fields, Leeds in the under 14's programme.


Leeds Young Peoples Film Festival features original and unseen films from around the world made both by and for young people, as well as some wonderful classics from the archive vault. There's also a fantastic line-up of workshops and masterclasses in the Film Academy and this year features some very special guests from the world of cinema.

Migraine on a roll!

After working on shots that have taken literally months to animate with the time I've had available, I felt a strong need to pick up a simple shot.



Dr Sue Lipsombe, who uses drawings as part of her treatment process gave me this drawing from Oliver, who was aged 9 at the time. The drawings cried out to be animated and I finished the shot in one day... hurray! Animating with Olivers style of drawing using a slightly naive style of animation which felt appropriate, was fantastically liberating and gave great potential for expression. This shot, perhaps more than any other, captures the power of putting these drawings into the forth dimension of movement. This is the line test for the shot, the final composition in 16:9 will have the head bigger in frame.

t

Animating with Year 1

I was back at Stepney last week working with Year 1 teacher Neil Cameron as part of the Creative Partenrships Hull learning programme, "Animated Learners". The theme was houses through the ages. The children transformed a dolls house into the most amazing Victorian, modern, and future house. Here Neil puts in pace the children's amazing designs of flying cars above the house for one of the shots.

New Migraine shot

Second month of the year and a second Migraine shot. Hurrah! Although truth is, I started this shot over a year ago as well. There were a lot of passes for this shot, and I've found a couple to post. One of the first was the CGI car pass, which was rendered out of XSI in wire frame images. The aura, which sqews out of the exhust, was generated as particles in XSI. However each triangle is hand drawn animation, attached to the particles as an animated texture.

Basic shaded passes of the car and aura were rendered as a base layer, which I added detail to by hand in Photoshop, one frame at a time, to simulate the look from the original arwork. I took some libeties with the artwork, by keeping eveything black and white exept the aura, to give it tha a bigger punch.

Inglish Design

My good friend, Graham Ingle of inglish design, has just launched his webiste for contemporary and traditional furniture. Graham asked me to do the photography for the website, capturing his bespoke handmade furniture for the home, including bedrooms, studies, dining, occasional and childrens furniture. Inglsish Desing are based in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire. Check it the gallery!

New Year resolution

One of my New Years resolution is to devote more time to my short film. I was so busy last year that I realised that a shot I completed in January 2008 I started animating in Jan 2007! I just kept picking it up when I got a spare minute, which wasn't too often. In fact the original design concept for the shot was created in Oct 2006. And it should be noted that Leeds based artist Brian Edmunds, who helped create the original design, got a Migraine in the process. Yikes! And yet the wait and pain, I hope, is worth it. The animation was all done in time honored drawn animation although most letters are on separate levels so I could build up a variety of cycles - there's still a heck of a lot of pencil millage in this scene. That also allowed me to have more control on the colour and compositing of the letters as well as the timing. Some elements, for example are on 1's. You'll see that the letters are spaced and balanced better in the final colour shot. You'll have probably deduced that the film is about Migraine. The colour shot is longer and starts with flashes of the scene herald the onset of migraine before the letters fire up. If you look carefully, you'll also see the cycle of the M is longer, and more refined in the colour shot. It kicked about in the line test too much for my liking. Sadly you loose a lot of the detail with the small size of these video images, but you'll get an impression of it. The shot featured in my exhibit at the Aardman talent showcase.

BioMation Aspergers film now online!

The Directors cut for BioMation aspergers syndrome is now online, and well worth a look!

BioMation is an exciting animation, sound and creative writing project for young people based in York, UK. Exploring health issues through digital art. BioMation is a collaboration between Arts Action York and York Hospitals NHS Trust, funded by the Welcome Trust.

Aardamn Talent Showcase

Exciting news this week! My work is currently being exhibited at The Aardamn Talent Showcase. The exhibition at their studios holds work from colleges, internal recommendations, people Aardman have worked witheld in the past, talent from festivals, staff and local top creatives.

As well as my animation clips, my work features storyboards, character designs and effects art, including the above artwork.

Stepney School

It was great to be back at Stepney Primary School this month doing a staff training day. After the huge success of my residency last year with Creative Partnerships Hull, we are embarking on a new programme called Animated Learners, exploring the impact of embedding animation across the curriculum – in teaching and learning – for staff and pupils. This creative learning programme has been developed in collaboration with Creative Partnerships Hull, an Arts Council England initiative. I will be saying goodbye to the school after Easter, so we are looking for ways to successfully build an animated legacy by giving the teachers the tools they need to be enable them to use animation as a creative learning tool. So to mark the new year, we spent a fun day watching cartoons and analysing animation in the classroom. In the afternoon they brainstormed and animated their own film - Pink Puking Pigs! I'm back in the school in a weeks time. More news soon!

3 awards scooped for 1000 frames 1000 years!

2007 has been the 1000th birthday of Oxfordshire and in conjunction with Oxford Inspires , the Animation Station co-ordinated "1000 frames, 1000 years", an animation project to celebrate the event. I facilitated workshops for 2 films over the summer at the Animation Station and one at Queensway Primary School. On Saturday 15 Dec the young people saw the results of their work on the big screen at the Odeon Banbury.

I collected three awards on behalf of the young people and the Animation Station for Best film, Best special effects and Special achievement award!
You can see the "best film" and "best effects" films animated by 9-12 years olds below. Congratulations to all the young people who worked together to make such great films!

Oxfordshire 2007 celebrates the county's 1000th birthday through a year of special events, festivals and anniversaries, turning the spotlight on the wealth of talent which exists in the county today.

Bio Mation - Aspergers

I thought I'd share some picutes from the BioMation Aspergers workshops, which have been taking place at Lime Trees hospital in York over the last few weekends. The project has been a partnership between Arts Action York and York Hospitals Trust and supported by the Pulse Awards.

This resulting collection of films, which we edit next week, is the personal artistic vision of young people with Aspergers syndrome. From the spoken word to animated artwork, the result is a collection of short but powerful personal experiences; social, emotional and scientific, that paint a picture of a life with Aspergers. The breadth of materials used, from paper cut-outs, paint and sand to digital techniques match the spectrum of human experience, from the humorous to the serious. This has been a true collaboration, with artistic and medical practitioners imparting their artistic knowledge, empowering young people to explore their experiences though the boundless power of animation. Special preview screenings take place at Lime Trees next week.

Dreams launch in Salford

Verd de Gris cross-generational arts project Dreams starts a 12 month exhibition across venues in Salford, Rochdale, and Liverpool today. I worked with year 6 pupils in three schools to make their own film illustrating their hopes and dreams. The aim of DREAMS is to try and broaden our knowledge and understanding of our culture and how we live today, for example: how much young people are influenced by the technological and material world in which they live; and how much our society and culture have changed over the last 60+ years.

In January 2007 Verd de Gris began meeting older members of Salford's Yemeni community. Established over 70+ years ago the community has strong links to the history of Salford Quays and the shipping trade between the UK, Aden and the Middle East. They met Yusuf Bagail and Mohamed Alnomire at the Yemeni Community Association who made it possible to meet some wonderful people and hear some amazing stories and memories.

DREAMS IN SALFORD
Venue: Salford Museum & Art Gallery, Community Gallery, Peel Park, Salford
Dates: 5th November 2007 - 3rd February 2008
Launch: Wednesday 7th November 5 - 7 pm

Cat man do

Tandem have done it again! Simply one of the funniest and best short animated films I've seen is "Cat man do" from Simon Tofield at Tandem Films. It is a masterclass in observation, timing and characterisation. I remember Disney animator Glen Keene telling us at animation school that an animator has to know and fall in love with what they are animting. Well Simon Tofield knows cats in and out. Cat man do, shows the artform of the drawn animator like few other films. Tandem Films are the masters of short film. I worked as an drawn effects animator on their award winning short "How to Cope with Death" and of course on "The Tigger Movie."

BioMation

I'm really excited about this....! BioMation is a pioneering science and youth arts project in York. It involves artists and clinicians working with young people at York Hospital to explore health issues. These projects show how powerful animation can be as a communications medium. I missed the first phase due to a heavy workload and am delighted to join the team for the Aspergers project. These tests, produced by young people with Aspergers aren't about the condition. That's all to come! They are fun explorations of animation for animations sake. Each test was produced during a two hour workshop. Enjoy!

Cooperative Young peoples film festival

The National Media Museum is certainly where the action was at! The air was electric for the Co-operative Young peoples film festival. I’ve never seen so many young filmmakers under one roof! As well talking about animation, I did a couple of fun workshops. Lots of people had a go making flipbooks. Here they are!

Proud to call him my head teacher

My headteacher, Mr Dennis Richards at St Aidan's CE High School, Harrogate, won The Ted Wragg Award for Lifetime Achievement at the Teaching Awards 2007 yesterday!

I always knew Mr Richards was the best headmaster you could possibly ever have. Now everybody knows! Read the full report!

Goole Silent Movie Premiere at National Media Museum

I'm a bit biased, but this is a great film!
Nicola Dixon, Project Manager

Your Dreams are worth living for! Peruse them!!!
Paul Arrowsmith, writer

You all made writing the music very easy - the film was brilliantly acted and put together. Well done and all the best for the future!
Dave Bainbridge, composer

Great fun great film! Thanks you.
Dave Robertson, actor (Ships captain)

As Chaplin said: “ ! “
Paul Vates, Genre advisor

It has been an absolute pleasure working with this group of people and I hope they will all feel proud of themselves as we do of them. xxx
Madeleine Frost, Performance director

This is only the beginning! Never stop discovering! Never stop dreaming! Never stop Believing! Gook luck!
David Bunting, Producer/Animator

Only you have the power to make your dream a reality. The future is yours to own. To a great team one and all. All the best and until the next time. Good luck & good furtune.
Peter M Kershaw, Producer/Director

Peace Mala International Awards for Youth 2007

From left: me, Pam Evans (Peace Mala founder) and Delia MacNamara (Managing director, Imagine dpm) at Peace Mala HQ.

I traveled to Cardiff for the awards ceremony at The Welsh Centre for International Affairs, Temple of Peace in Cardiff for the most colourful and lively celebration of peace and faith I've ever seen!

The animation was premiered during the occasion, and it was really overwhelming to hear appreciation come from so many influential people. I've been told it even made some people cry. I've included photographic highlights from the event and stills from the animation.





Animation Stills

Goole Silent Movie VIP screenings

Pictures from the amazing opening screenings in Goole. Click on any of them to display full size and download. Demand was so high, we packed out 3 screenings back to back in the Gate Theatre! The red carpet was out. The cast, dressed up as stars they are, even arrived by limousine . An truly amazing and unforgettable time was had by all.

The premiere takes place at the National Media Museum in Bradford this Wed. I can’t wait!