"The South Bank Show...

Profiles Nick Park"
This was shown on ITV at 10:45 on Sunday 26th November 2006.
I watched this programme with fellow animation student Heather Malone and we both found it very interesting to see. All the way through we sat pointing out how we were both like Nick Park in different ways.
I found it inspirational to be shown what can come from the beginnings of just one person with the right kind of attitude.
All through the interview Nick Park was either fiddling with chunks of plasticine in his hands or he was playing with a model of Gromit. He seemed to live and breathe his creations.
No doubt I could have written a lot more here had I taken notes but I was just too interetsed in watching the show to write anything down.

Pocoyo and M.A.T.E.S

I am currently in the process of working on a personal animation that is not tied to any brief. I am attempting to make an animated episode of M.A.T.E.S, my personal comic that I draw for fun. I have realised that I will need to redesign the characters slightly as they are quite simplistic at the moment. The main problem is with the eyes. I draw them as little sticks with no whites which means it's not possible to tell which direction someone is looking unless I move the position of the eye on the head. This is where Pocoyo comes in.
I remember watching a few episodes on ITV before and remembered that the main character, Pocoyo, doesn't have any eye whites either. They get around the problem by adding little flicks above the eyes to give an impression of direction.

Looking to his left.

Looking straight ahead.

I believe I will use this method on the eyes of my characters so that I don't have to change their looks too much.

Pocoyo's official blog

This blog has very interesting and insiteful information on the designing and production processes that go into creating a children's television series. They have quite a few examples of how they originally intended the characters to look compared to how they actually look now and the reasons why things had to change.



Pocoyo info:

Created by

David Cantolla/Luis Gallego/Guillermo García
Co-Directors

David Cantolla/Guillermo García
Executive Producers

Katheryn Hart - Zinkia Entertainment -

Anne Brogan - Granada Kids -

Jon Doyle - Cosgorove Hall Films -