Special Princess and the Frog Screening @ Disney HQ London!!!

On Tuesday the 8th of December I and five of my fellow animators had the pleasure of being asked to attend a very special screening at Disney HQ in London for "The Princess and the Frog".

I have to say that I think Disney have their Mojo back and ok it had a number of clichés and a tip of the hat to the old Disney films (which I have no problem with). But in all I think they have made a truly fantastic film here. I think they captured the mood and the era really well. I love 1920's /1930's Art Deco style and the jazz music from them times. Oddly I have always found jazz music seems to go well with animation! Must be because they use to animate on 8's and 4's a lot back then haha who knows!

Vocal talent in the movie? oh boy they really went to town on getting the most out of their actors for this movie. The animators used every chance they could to make these characters feel alive. So nice to see squash and stretch in the their performances and faces. To think no technical problems and deformers to tweak, no cloth simulations to worry about and no rendering times!!! Just pure hardcore pencil and paper and the loss of million trees - I wonder what the carbon foot print would be for this film?

I will have to buy a copy of the Art of Book for this film as the Art Direction was very pleasing to watch and the use of colour really helped set the tone and mood of the picture. Colour really was another character in its self, but that could be me getting very arty farty.

From an animation point of view, for me it ticks all the box's of a good and well animated film with solid characters and well thought out story. From a family/average film goer point of view I think Disney managed to make this film not become too much of a girly film. The story hits all the morals in a classic old Disney fashion. I feel this film will do well with audiences, and I wish it every success.For me I can see a lot of hard work and planning has going into this film.

Thank goodness 2D is back, John Lasseter really knows his beans when it comes to animated movies, storytelling and making bold choices - like bring back 2D animation. I just wish I could be amazing with a pencil!!! Perhaps then I may have been given the opportunity to have worked on this incredible film. :)

Quote from the film "It's not slime, it's mucus!!!" - I wonder if that could be a new tag line?

My friend Fiona (who you see in the picture below) also did a review on the film which you can read on her blog here.

Working at Double Negative

As of the 30th of November I have landed employment at 'Double Negative' in Soho London :)

They have worked on 100's of films. Notable productions would be Harry Potter series, the new Batman movies and Hell Boy 2. I feel very at home here and really hope I will be able to grow as an animator - only time will tell.

NEW Showreel Online

I will post a video here but for the moment youtube will be the link HERE

Moviescope Magazine - One to watch

Way back in July of this year I was asked by MovieScope magazine to do a small interview. Well this week the magazine is out in the shops and you can view (if you wish) my interview with the magazine online below :)


Article link 1 - Main Website

Article link 2 - Talent Watch

Thank you MovieScope for allowing me to be part of your magazine :)

Animation Mentor meetup go and see Pixar's UP at the BFI

A little late on posting this, but on the 11th of October I and host of fellow Animation Mentor Students (AMers) went to the BFI to see Pixar's UP which had finally came to the UK borders after our American cousins had it way way way back in the early part of this year and couldn't stop talking about in the AM forums. Well now its our turn to finally see it and what can I say its truly a fantastic film, its way UP there in my top 10 (sorry bad pun and yes they have only made 10 films thus far). But I couldn't tell you what my other favourite Pixar film is/are as I think they all so different in their own way.

Below is a picture of some of the people that met up at Waterloo station (no Bourne moments on that day) As you can see we're a happy bunch.

The AM gathering was great. We try to meet every time there is a new CG film on in town. And its nice to see old and new faces. Way back when, the meetup was only around six people. In the last count it was 20+ this time around. Sooo year on year more and more people are coming to the UK AM gatherings which means more friends, networking and finding out whats going on in town (animation jobs) and chatting about random stuff that some how always ends up coming back to animation...

MovieScope Magazine

Just last week I was asked to do a small interview for MovieScope magazine.

MovieScope provides a fresh perspective on the collaborative nature of film making from the insider's point of view. - That was copied from their twitter. As I couldn't come up with something that could sum it up any better.

The magazine talks to a host of people. People who have been in the business for along time and people who are just starting out - like me.

I'll be one of the future "One to Watch" columns in the magazine and talking about oddly enough animation :) I think i'll be their first animator in the magazine so if it all goes down well, hopefully not the last hahahaha. And no sadly im not going to write here an tell what they asked me but i'll post up here at a later date when the magazine is out :)

Photoshop CS4 Colour Picker/Colour wheel

Is it me or is Photoshop ever closer getting more like Corel Painter?

I have recently played around in the new Photoshop CS4 and found that now when drawing and painting its very similar to how Corel Painter works. The brushes feel and react more natural?

Also i like how when you zoom right in the picture brakes up into little squares.

Any how im still annoyed that photoshop still hasn't got its act together with a nice colour wheel/colour picker - like Corel Painter. But i did find something that is perfectly well made online and works really well. Head over to www.anastasiy.com you have to put this tool into the adobe directory. Boot up photoshop and then go to window --> Extensions --> Colour Picker. And BAM Photoshop is now 100% quicker -well for choosing colours :)

New Showreel for 2009

Forgot to post but i have a new showreel up on my site :)