Worlds End

I made this simple puppet for the short play Worlds End, written by Harrogate Theatres junior age writers for the Write On. I made an entire family of cacti and, best of all, actually got to be a puppeteer for a couple of them! The eyes, which bounce around, make all the difference!

Little Monsters

Expanding the "Little Monsters" franchise was a large part of my work at Splash and these sketches show the development process of a couple of the new children's books I worked on with my rough sketches on the left and the final illustrations by illustrator Joanne Byatt on the right. It was great fun developing these characters with the team we had on board.

Pixar: 20 Years of Animation

I've just come back from a London and managed to see the Pizar exhibition at the science museum. Wow! I spent two happy hours goggling at the most extraordinary animation exhibition I've ever seen in my life. The centre piece is a staggering state of the art zoetrope using strobe lighting to create the illusion of movement. It you possibly can get there, then go!

The Science museum are also hosting an animation competition to win a limited edition Toy Story image and have an absolutely superb animation tool to use on online. In fact it is one of the best pieces of software I've seen available for children!

You can have a go for free here!

If all that's not enough, then you can see interviews with Pixar production designer Ralph Eggleston here.
The exhibition is on open till the 10th June.
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/on-line/Pixar/

Animate! Exhibition in Hull

Here's one for all you Yorkshire boys and girls. An animation exhibition in one of my favorite stomping grounds from the fine people at Animate! It's at the Ferens Art Gallery in Hull. I'll have to pop over the next time I get a few minutes.

Eclectic Collective

My friend from Bournemouth, Sam Jacobs of Stilton Studios is hosting a contempory art exhibition at Brighton Marina this coming weekend. I sadly can't make it personally, but it looks fantastic.

Book links available

I've now added links to animation books at the bottom of the page. I know a lot of students and young people access this site and I thought it would add to the richness of information in addition to the links pages already available. Every one of theses books is a classic and part of my personal collection.

Write On 06

Harrogate Theatre's festival celebrating new writing starts today. It cumulates on Saturday with Gone in 60 Seconds with Harrogate Theatre and Brooklyn College, New York hosting the world’s only international play festival. You can see me in 4Play, Worlds End and Lifescape!