Eurovision Song Contest

Well, unlike last year, I decided to watch the Eurovision Song Contest this year. While I was watching, the Ukraine entry really struck me squarely in the eyes as being very odd. So odd that I had to draw a picture of the lead singer.Unfortunately I don't know the group's name and I found it flippin' difficult to even get a picture of them for comparisson on here but here it is anyway.



As you can see I missed quite a few clothing details but its only a sketch.

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.

Collaborative Project Presentation

Today Neil, Heather, Dawn, Nat, Ryan and I gave our presentation on the collaborative projects that we took part in. We went down into the conference room at Regent Street for half past one and met up with the other groups also giving presentations.
Our group was fourth. We hadn't got a slideshow or PowerPoint prepared but we knew who was going to be talking about what. First Dawn, Ryan and I spoke about the First Thursday event that we put on in the animation studio where we tried to encourage the visiting students and public to have a go at animating. We played the animations from the line testing machines but unfortunately couldn't show the smudge and click animations from the DAR system as they had been wiped off before we managed to get a copy.
Next Neil, Ryan and Heather spoke about our time at the local infant and primary school where we went to animate characters that the children had designed for the NEWI science festival. We all chipped in when Neil showed the children's animations so that we could explain what was happening in each. Everybody had a good chuckle at the story ideas and the characters that the children had come up with. This was where our presentation ended.
After the remaining groups had given their presentations Dave Gill told us all that the afternoon's presentations had been some of the best and most entertaining that he had seen.

Stoppit and Tidyup

Well I found Stoppit and Tidyup on YouTube the other day and decided to take a trip down memory lane and watch a few episodes. Whilst I was watching them I started to wonder what type of animation had been used. Although the animation appears to have been drawn on cells, the movement of the characters gives it the feel of cut-out animation.
After a little bit of searching on the internet it would appear to be that Stoppit and Tidyup was animated on cells.
I found the information initially on Wikipedia but decided it was best to check for another source and found Toonhound. The page is viewable here.

For anybody reading this who fancies a look at Stoppit and Tidyup, you can find the first episode here.

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

School Animating

This morning myself, Nat, Ryan, Neil, Dawn and Heather got up early to be at a local infant and primary school for 9 o'clock. The reason was because Des McCannon, from the university, had asked us if we could help her with a project she had started. She wanted us to go along to help animate some super hero characters that the children had designed. When we got there we split ourselves up so that Heather, Nat, Dawn and myself were helping to get the characters, props and scenery ready while Ryan and Neil took care of the actual filming part. We were using the cut-out technique to produce the animations and Neil told me that they were filming at four frames a second. They did this so that the children wouldn't get bored and could see the results quickly.
We only stayed until midday and unfortunately there were two groups, one of which I was helping, that didn't get around to animating but Des has sorted it so that we can go back next Thursday to get them done.
I really enjoyed myself today which was great because I thought I may have problems dealing with the children but I didn't.

Collaborative Project

Today Nat Lamb. Ryan Orrige, Neil Rowlands, Dawn Turner and myself held a small animation workshop in the animation room for the First Thursday event at NWSAD. We set up two line testing machines for cut out animation and a DAR system for smudge 'n' click style animation.
As the theme was St David's Day Neil and I prepered some cut out dragons that could be used and Dawn created some daffodils and a castle backdrop, both for the line testing machines. Nat and Ryan set up the DAR system with paints in Welsh colours and other materials such as real daffodils and chalks.
For the first hour nobody turned up even after we had gone looking for people who might like to try. Thankfully after we got our first person lots more soon followed. Our plan now that we have the short pieces of animation created by people who attended the First Thursday event is to edit them all together into a single short piece with music and then present it in front of our class as part of our collaborative project.
I found this evening extremely enjoyable and a lot of fun. Everybody else that took part really seemed to enjoy it too.