Animation Developments

Yesterday I got back from a week long visit to Wrexham where I made use of the animation equipment to create some test pieces for my showreel. These included things such as run and walk cycles as well as some squash and stretch. I found the week very beneficial as it gave me a chance to experiment which I didn't have the time to do on the course and haven't had the equipment to do since being home.

A week previous to this I managed to organise a day down to Mackinnon and Saunders on the 2nd of September where I will be able to show off my animations and models. It has been arranged for me to be seen at 2:30pm. I am now in the preocess of finding whether it would be better to travel by bus or by train.

carlogiovani.com

Today I visited a website mentioned to me by a fellow student. The site was carlogiovani.com.
The website showcases lots of paper models and graphic designs. The interesting part for me is that some of the paper models are used in stop-motion animation. Some examples can be seen under the "Motion" section, one of which appears to be an advert for Walkers crisps: http://carlogiovani.com/elma_chips/
I find this interesting as I would never have considered using paper models to animate with.

Mackinnon and Saunders Work

On Friday 9th May I recieved a phone call from David Jones, the workshop technician at NWSAD. He phoned to let me know that Nick Roberson wanted me to give him a call to talk about the rumoured work experience at Mackinnon and Saunders.
Apparently it is not work experience but actual job openings and Nick had put my name forward along with 3 students from De Montfort University.
I was given the e-mail and telephone contacts for Becky Hunt at Mackinnon and Saunders and told to e-mail her with some examples of my work. If she didn't reply then I should phone her. I never did here back as it turns out that Nick had given me an incorrect e-mail address so on the 14th I phoned her, had a chat and then re-e-mailed her with the correct address.
This is what I sent:

Hi Becky, I think I can see why my original e-mail never got through. The address I was given started with "b.hunt".
So, what shall I tell you? Nick said that I should give you a brief introduction of myself and attach pictures of some of my models. That sound ok?
During my time at university I have focussed on stop-motion animation from designing and building the puppets and sets to the actual filming and editing. I'm just coming to the end of filming my final project. Stop-motion is an area that I have always been very interested in and knew that I wanted to focus on before arriving at university. I have always been a very creative and curious person since I was very young when I would spend hours building plasticine models, drawing comics and constructing Kinder Egg toys. To this day I still collect the Beano comic. I think its great.
The photos I've attached show Artemis the mime, Lula the dog and AJ the boy from my last year's animation 'Mime Time', Jack and Jill from my current animation and some miscellaneous models I have made either for fun or for gifts. Tamika was made as a commission for a friend. If you want to have a look at my last years project, which was my first 'proper' attempt at stop-motion, you can have a look at it (and other animations) on my YouTube account: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=l6Tp_mqld0w
I look forward to hearing from you again,
Alistair Stuart

I phoned her again today because I didn't hear back. Thankfully she had recieved the e-mail and apparently liked what she saw. She told me that getting the job opening was no sure thing and with what she was saying it seemed that I was at a disadvantage with living in Derbyshire when I finish the course, although she never actually said that.
By the end of the call we had agreed that I have to contact her again by e-mail to arrange a day in June when I can travel down to visit them and show off my models.

Animate! TV

Last night, at midnight, I watched Animate! TV on channel 4. The programme lasted for an hour and showed 6 films/animations.

Magnetic Movie by Semiconductor
In this film, footage of science labs had been worked on to visualise the magnetic fields and static of objects in the scenes.

The Life Size Zoetrope byMark Simon Hewis
A film made on a fairground ride with people holding open sketch books which animate when the ride runs.

End Of The Street by Andy Martin
A poem about the wind passing through the houses of a street as it steadily raises through the Beaufort Wind Scale until it ultimately destroys a house at the end.

Flat Earth by Thomson and Craighead
This whole piece was created with visuals and scripts made from blogs found on the internet. A location is shown as a blog is read out.

'Francis' by Let Me Feel Your Finger First
A short animation describing the behaviour of a cartoon character as its own being.

Tongue Of The Hidden by David Alexander Anderson
All of the characters and environments are created from the letters and words of the Iranian poem which is being animated.

More details about these films can be found here> Animate!TV

edWard - Young Filmmaker's Award and Cosgrove Hall.

Earlier this month I made the decision to enter the edWard young filmmaker's award competition. The brief is to produce a piece that lasts no longer than 30 seconds on the theme of love.
I've started filming now and I'm making it using cut-out. The deadline that entries must be received by is 21st August. I don't think I have a winning entry but I thought it would be good to enter anyway just to see how these things go.

I have written an offline report on my day at Cosgrove Hall. I unfortunately didn't ask all of the questions I should have while I was there. I have emailed Chris with some questions but I haven't received a reply and that was over a week ago now. I think I shall have to email him again to give him a nudge.

Hot Animation

I've phoned Hot Animation again today and managed to speak to Lianne this time round. Unfortunately it seems that although I will be able to visit, it wont be until later on in the year. Probably around September or October. I have to phone them back at the end of July to discuss it further.

Cosgrove and Hot Animation

Ok, so on Thursday (31st of May) I finally plucked up enough courage to phone both Cosgrove Hall and Hot Animation.
I successfully managed to speak to Chris Bowden from Cosgrove Hall who I emailed yesterday. I should be able to visit the studio sometime in July. He has asked me to provide him with some dates that I would like to go down on. I still need to find out which dates would be suitable for me to suggest.
I haven't been so lucky with Hot Animation though. The first time I called I got put on hold, sent to an answer machine asking me if I wanted to re-record my message and then cut off! I phoned back and explained what had happened. The gentleman at the other end explained that Lianne (who I was trying to contact) wasn't in which was why I was sent to an answer machine. He connected me to the machine again and so I left a message. I'm thinking it would be a lot wiser of me to call them and try again as I see the likelyhood of them calling back a complete stranger who sounded very nervous, very slim. I shall try again on Monday.

Contact From Nick

Well Nick emailed me back with two numbers to try for Cosgrove:

Hi,
Try 0161 882 2500 and 0161 882 2502
N.

This is the information I found for Hot Animation by going to their website:
0161 941 26 26
info@hotanimation.com

Now all I need to do is pluck up the courage to give them both a call.

I've also printed off the previous email I received from Nick and have written these contact details onto it so that I have a paper copy as well as a virtual copy on my computer.

Final Cut

Today, as I have completed my animation ready for assessments, I have been helping Dawn Turner and Nat Lamb with editing their work in Final Cut Express. I was helping them to add credits and sync up the soundtracks.

Animation Contacts

Well, Nick finally contacted me with some contact details for Hot Animation and Cosgrove Hall Animation. Here's his email:

Hi Alistair,
Well I turned my computer on to e-mail you and there was your message! Here are the contacts for both Hot Animation studios in Altrincham, South Manchester & Cosgrove Hall films in Chorlton cum hardy, Manchester.
They are both studios filming stop motion pre school animation and the company I work for (Mackinnon & Saunders) makes the puppets for both.

Hot Animation
Bob the Builder, Pingu, Etc.
Speak to Donna or Lianne in personnel and get clearence to contact Liz Whittaker ( animation director ) I have spoken to her already and she will probably deal with you or pass you on to Judd the animator. Either way, you will hopefully be able to look round, show your work and get to speak to Liz and Judd.

Cosgrove Hall Films
Rupert, postman pat, Fifi & the flowertots, Engie benjy,
Speak to Chris Bowden ( Senior producer ) who will put you in touch with Haydn Secker ( animation director ) who can show you round and introduce you to the aminators.
If you need to mention that Nick Roberson from M&S put you in contact with them then thats O.K. It might be possible that if you visit them on the same day I will be around to show you around M&S but I am only there some of the time.
Good luck,
Nick.

The only problem now is that I don't know how to contact Cosgrove Hall. Their site is under construction and so they have no details about contacting them. I've sent an email back to Nick asking if he can provide me with one. I want to have a number for both before I start calling up.

Nick's Reply

Well I've recieved a reply from Nick Roberson already! Here's what he had to say:
"Hi Alistair,
I am on the case, please give me a couple of weeks and if you hav'nt heard anything, hassle me. I am Very busy at present but was really glad to hear from you.
Regards Nick."
I wasn't expecting such a fast reply but I'm glad it was.

Emailing Nick Roberson

This is just a quick post to note that earlier today I got Nick's email address from Marise and have now sent him an email. All I have to do now is wait for a reply from him.

Mackinnon and Saunders Lecture and Exhibition

Yesterday I spent from 10am until 2pm watching over the Mackinnon and Saunders models on display at NEWI for the Science festival. It was fascinating to discover how Pingu was animated. I never realised it was replacement animation as opposed to stop-motion. Other models on display included The Rubadubbers, Bob the Builder, Bill and Ben, models from The Periwig Maker and The Corpse Bride. Being able to see into the head of the Victoria model from The Corpse Bride was brilliant. It was so very intricate. I'll be watching over the models again tomorrow.
Today Nick Roberson, a sculptor and painter from Mackinnon and Saunders, visited Newi to give a talk on some of the processes used in the designing and making of models ready for stop-motion animating. The talk was given twice; first at 1pm and secondly at 7pm. The first was aimed slightly more at us students. Inbetween the two talks Nick came down to the studio and had a look at some of our work. I showed him my Stop-motion animation that I had filmed and he was very impressed by it. He told me to get his email address from Marise and to contact him. He said that if I did that then he could provide me with some contacts at Hot Animation and Cosgrove Hall. So now all I have to do is get his email.

Creating Screen Based Materials for Children

Yesterday I attended another presentation from the Digital Media Consortia. The guest speaker at this event was Curtis Jobbling, best known for his work on Bob the Builder. He is also known for having worked on A Close Shave and Mars Attacks.
During the session we were shown the original pilot episode of Bob the Builder and told that after the BBC saw it they never wanted anything more to do with Bob! It was easy to see why the BBC had said this. The characters were unappealing, the story was boring and didn't really flow plus the pace was way too slow so it was easy to lose interest quickly. That was before Curtis had been brought on board. After he joined the team working on the show at HIT Entertainment it evolved into what it is now. It was later picked up by the BBC after they saw it at an animation festival.
We were also shown a series of very short animations made by Curtis called Curious Cow that were aired on Nickolodean. The first set we saw were made using stop-motion techniques and the second set were made using 3D computer methods. It was explained that this change was made because, with how short the animations were, it made the process less expensive as there was no need to buy materials to make physical models or sets. It also made it possible for Curious Cow to be put into even more outrageous situations that wouldn't have been possible with a physical model.
Finally we were shown some initial work from a new series coming to the BBC later this year called Frankenstein's Cat based on a picture book by Curtis Jobbling. He brought with him a model of the cat, Nine (so called not because he has nine lives but because he's made from bits of nine cats) in question although the finished series will be produced in Flash. He explained how the design of Nine had to be altered from the original design in the book. It was a concern that because Frankenstein's Cat looked so much like Pilchard from Bob the Builder small children may get upset if they saw it thinking it was a dead Pilchard. The shape and pattern of the tail got altereded for this reason.
Before the talk ended Curtis tried to show us a clip from where the project was up to currently as he had explained that since the previous clip he showed us had been produced, the design of the girl, Lottie, had been changed to make her a little bit older in order to appeal to a wider audience. Unfortunately the DVD he brought with him wouldn't play on our system so we didn't get to see that but I shall be looking forward to when the show airs on the TV.
I always find it beneficial to see how entheusiatic these people get about their animation projects as it gives me a positive boost.

Curtis' own blog can be found here: badablingthing

Frozen Moon Productions

This afternoon we attended a talk given by Mark Kendrick from Frozen Moon Productions ltd. Frozen Moon is an animation company that has been set up by two ex students of NEWI and they work from the Innovation Centre next to the art and design school studios. Mark came in to talk to us about setting up our own business and about the current "Science" film competition. We were shown examples of their work and some examples of what can be entered into the Science contest.
All of their work that we were shown had been produced in Flash but to say that they are a proper company that have produced work for the likes of Firefox, it didn't look that great.
They also said that they would be happy to try and take on people for work experience and that they will be looking to hire 6 new animators within the next 4 months.

Contact details:
Mark Kendrick
Mobile: 07832121002
Landline: 01978 293516
E-mail: mark@frozenmoon.co.uk
Address:
Innovation Centre
Plas Coch Campus
Mold Road
Wrexham
LL11 2AW

R.I.P Joseph Barbera

Today I found this article on DeviantART.com paying tribute to the great Joseph Barbera of Hanna Barbera, well known for the likes of 'Tom and Jerry', 'The Jetsons' and the 'Flintstones' to name only a few, who sadly passed away this month on the 18th.
The article gives a brief outline of his life in animation and names some of the many shows he worked on. It is an interesting read, if a little short but gives me the names of plently of shows to go and find out about.