Ref / Inspiration

This is a somewhat unusual post for me, but I thought I'd spare the time to share one of my recent favourite pieces of animation.

It's the advertising campaign for Nike when they sponsored the Brazil World Cup for 2014

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iy1rumvo9

Honestly, football really isn't my thing. I just about manage to watch a couple of England games every 4 years. But I absolutely, categorically LOVE this animation.

I guess it just goes to show that although FIFA is an abominable organisation (so I'm told), and Nike are a soulless, aggressive corporate machine, you can not deny their ability to throw seemingly limitless amounts of revenue at ad campaigns such as this, and create something brilliant.

There's many things I love about it, and all the elements come together perfectly. Everything from the sublime animation, the lovingly crafted characters, the sense of fun, the use of light, music, original and interesting angles, rewatchability, and the fluidity of the storytelling.

I guess that's what stands out the most for me, in that they have managed to weave a captivating narrative over just 5 minutes when many Hollywood studios would have overcooked it for 90. It's storytelling in a way that no other medium can match.

I've decided that I'm going to start a playlist on my youtube channel titled 'References / Inspiration' for whenever I get a drawing block. I'll try and add useful content as and when I find any. Check it oot here - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnhvXo8o5RktsOP4GqJHERoIxUEHt2Qph

Plenty more new coming! Stay tuned in

Ripple of news

Something big is coming, hold tight devoted followers. 

I haven't given any updates in too long, and I don't really have enough time to now, but a huge project that I've been involved with for months Is finally on its last lap. I'll give a more detailed bio of the project when it drops.

Here's a typical snapshot of what my life has been like for the past few days / weeks / months. 

Not much longer now ! x

Animation detention

I felt like mixing it up today and doing some animation practise from the Animator Island '51 animation exercises to master' -

Http://www.animatorisland.com/51-animation-exercises-to-master/

This was a break from my usual paid work, but it definitely felt good to go over old ground and refine my understanding of some animation fundamentals. It feels good to instinctively know the 'right' way to go about approaching a animation sequence from a technical standpoint. 

Check it out here -

http://www.swfcabin.com/open/1401212012

If I can budget my time properly I'd love to have a crack at some level 2-4 exercises :) 

Apart form that, progress on all my other projects has been good :) watch dis space !

Monster

I've been a little quiet lately, so here's a something to I've been working on this week to wet your appetite.

It's a monster that will appear dominantly in a music video I'm working on for a Scandinavian band. Realistically the whole thing should be done in a month and a bit, depending on how many mental breakdowns I have.

take care ! Live long and prolapse

http://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/f68ecaf3fd21f46259636169ca72f5b7

New website

http://samw.co.uk/

Go forth and Czech it out you filthy pagans!

Erm. Shtuff

I've been busy being continually and incessantly breathing. Here's a foul excuse for an update for what I've been doing in an easily accessible visual medium.

And here's some old shading experiment doodles that gives the illusion that I am working now

 

Inspiration

I stumbled across this gem, although the content is a little old now it's a hugely motivating documentary showcasing the sheer effort, skill and sleepless nights that go into making an animated movie. It also shows just how highly competitive the industry is. 

This is for myself first and foremost. I hope that I find the time to rewatch this periodically in the future.

New work coming soon ;)

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=a-5Bs9IfCp4

March update

I've been a little late updating this blog I know, but here's my latest animation project that you definitely need to watch right now, it's called - Birdsong Gunshots

Check it out here - http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/635027

For once I'm actually very pleased with how this turned out, and although I hope that I will always say this about my most recent project, but I think it's the best one I've done.

I have a list of things, techniques, and principles that I have picked up from animation books, youtube videos and lectures from senior animators that I am trying to self-teach myself, and I got to tick off a heap of them during this animation.

One of these was experimenting with a Stephen Silver concept (lead animator on Kim Possible) of using a combination of smooth curves with straight lines in character design. It seems to give the drawing a little more appeal. Especially with the first bird (pictured) I tried to keep my idea sketches loose and play around with pulling out the shape.

I also managed to use a 'gradient background' for the first time, which is a simple way to make the backgrounds more interesting. And in the footsteps of some of the best old-school animators ie. the nine old men and the reams of classic 50s animations, I animated with a classical soundtrack.

I specifically tried to get all this done on time before Tuesday the 4th of this month, because it was my plan to go down to London and showcase this movie at the London Animation Club, but sadly I made the trip down there and they didn't have the time at the end to show it. But I still managed to take a lot away from the speakers, and I really enjoyed chatting to and networking with other people who are serious about animation.

And I've got a new pc now.

Still alive

I finally got round to learning rigging while working a quick project for gogy.com

http://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/5a14add0962c132cbf9dfca312d44dbe

More things and stuff and  things coming soon stay tooned plebeians

Slackman

Here's something that's been sitting grumpily on my hard drive for a while - SLACKMAN. Go czech it out on newgrounds you slob. 

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/633775

One of my New Years resolutions was to get out a personal animation each month ontop of all my paid commissions, I realise this is a bit late but in my defence I've been on holiday this weekend, and this was a 5 minute juggernaut of a project. It was something that I would rather take the extra time and effort to finish properly rather than rush it and move onto a smaller project. 

I learnt a huge amount while doing this, and I guess that is the payoff I get for a project I'm not 100% happy with. I learnt how to use scenes, how to mask, and the importance of storyboaring and not just launching yourself head first into a animation without having a clear idea of where it's going. This cost me about 30 seconds worth of hard animation because I realised at the end that it was dead weight.

I've got plenty of other work in the pipeline, and once I've got the nod from my clients I'll probably throw them up on here. As usual always assume that no news is good news, and if this blog goes quiet for a few weeks it means that I'm working on something special.

I'm on episode 3 /12 of a webseries that will likely launch sometime next month, plus a handful of smaller short projects. Keep tuned in.

Peace 

* update 11/02/14

The response for this way awesome, and I managed to get daily 5th place on newgrounds which means a lot to me considering the amount if my youth I invested in that site, and it's amazing history of spring boarding homemade animating legends like david firth, weebl&bob, oney, egoraptor etc.

I'm so glad to have this response to a an animation that i know isn't my best work, and that I was close to not even putting up online. 

Bitter update news

I'm was very wary of this already, but I guess it was always going to happen to me at some point being a freelancer. But I got stung.

Over the past few days I've been investing a lot of time and effort working on some designs for a cul-de-sac of a animation project. There were early warning signs that I probably over looked, like when the agent consulting with me wouldn't give me the name of the agency he represented, the way his accounts were new and without any traceable content, and the unprofessional way in which he was discussing the work program.

Basically he kept asking for re-designs, and was very shifty about the process of payment. I think in the end he said that he wanted me to flat out copy / trace the design from another artist's artwork. So I decided to call it a day at that point and not waste any more time on it.

I had a lot of fun doing the drawings regardless, I had the chance to mess around with a complete mix of different styles, and  I thought it was a shame to waste them so I decided to throw them up on here.

2 thousand no hundred and 14

As always assume that no news is good news. I've been happily busy since my last post, and I've set myself a few goals for the new year, one of those being to churn out at least one project a month on-top of all my other paid commissioned animations.

I've landed a job working alongside a great sound editing guy from the UK, and together we're going to be working on a 12 episode web-series which will hopefully get started this month, I'm already about 80% done with the first episode. This is going to be a big project for me, and a nice ongoing job that should last at a few months. Keep an eye open for that :)

I've also been working on putting together a 2013 showreel, I'll be posting that up here once it's done.

Other vague ambiguous promises of work in the pipeline include getting my website pretty and functioning this month, at the moment, let's face it, it's minimal bordering on Ikea - samw.co.uk

Aaaaand a project that I worked on last month has finally come online, this was a university project that I worked on with a bunch of people from Santiago, Chile. It was a lot of fun to work on, and I feel like the final production turned out great. I'd say this was my favorite job of 2013.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9rgA1dUhZLZOVBMOFpxb0g5YW8/edit?usp=sharing

Happy Moanday

Just a dumb drawing I did in rough yesterday, I might redraw this in neat if I have the time. 

You're right, it's vitali kiltschko and Larry merchant.

November round up

It's been over a month since I last posted anything, from now on I think you will have to assume that if I don't post for a while it means that I'm just too busy doing fabulousness.

I think I put the nail in the coffin with the Deontay Wilder drawing, it's finally up on Form&Glory so go and buy it for your Nan for Christmas ;) I also tweeted it to Deontay on Twitter so we'll see if he gives it any extra clout.

- http://www.formandglory.com/collections/boxing/products/bronze-bomber

Also I was hired to work alongside a UK / US collaborative platform game. I drew some of the characters' action sequences and the credits. I'll get a working link for this when I can.

I've also made some moves with a personal project I'm working on called 'Slackman' the superhero wiho has amazing powers of flight, speed, telekinesis, and super strength, except he can't be bothered to use any of these powers. I've roped in a team of brilliant voice actors / actresses for this, so hopefully it will turn out well. I couldn't say how long it will take me to finish but optimistically I hope to get it done within a few weeks.

Here's a sneaky peek.

- http://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/acbae98ae4ecee929a0f23c85a12638d

Finally, and I'm working on a very slick production with some 3rd year animation students in Santiago, Chile. I honestly feel like this is the most professional animation I've worked on, and the best quality animation I've worked on. It's also given me the opportunity to learn more about working with ToonBoom which I've never got round to playing with before. I'm in no doubt that when it's released it will be incredible, and I'll definitely put it up on here when that happens.

Here's something to wet your appetite

Annnnnyway. I'm still alive!

Next blog update will have more (moving) visuals. Until next time, remember to have a happy Christmas and a merry new year!

Deontay Wilder

I've spent the last few days sketching and designing a submission for the form&glory sport and design project - http://formandglory.com/

Deontay is one of my favourite boxers, and to be honest I was looking for an excuse to draw him anyway.

Orange is the new Black

I got into Orange is the new Black this week, and by that I mean I watched all 13 episodes in about 4 days.

It's helping me get over my Breaking Bad comedown, I enjoyed it so much I drew the main character Piper Chapman played by Taylor Schilling. If I find time I'd like to draw a collection of all the main characters.

September Round Up

I've been meaning to do this for a couple of days, but I've been busy, I'm very sorry.

September has definitely been a crazy month for me. There's been some personal setbacks, but nothing I'm going to bother moaning publicly about, more importantly I've made some major moves and been involved with some brilliant diverse stuff as well. Hopefully I can keep the momentum up.

I probably use blogspot too much to waffle, and I bet nobody except me is genuinely interested in my rambling so I'll get straight down to what I've got up to in September:

1. I painted some shutters.

before..

...AFTER!














This was inspired by an interview I watched of a guy called Steve Powers, the man with the best wig in Brooklyn. He mentioned how it important it is to do something with that your art that is positive and intrinsic to your community, I'm a big fan of The Village Store in Levenshulme, and I got to know Rahman who runs the shop by himself Mon-Sun so it was great to spend some time with him improving his shutters and promote his business a little more, he's a top banana.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKd6HmIzvyY
http://www.village-stores.com/

2. Scanned sketchbooks

Not much to say here, besides I've been meaning to scan all my sketchbooks for a while and I finally got round to it. Also my scanner sucks and doesn't pick up pencil very well / at all.

I'll probably put the decent ones on my website at some point.

3. Animated a rugby run cycle

Based on a quick doodled below. IN PENCIL

This was purely for practice, it's not going to be in a full length animation or anything, I need to do more of these run / walk cycles. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

http://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/e3a97ee53a0194541ab2994a3d13ba0c

4. 48 hour Independent Game Run 2013

A jam for independent game makers, I worked in a trio alongside a programmer from the US and a musician from Germany to create a game to be entered into the Indie Speed Run 2013, everything used in the project had to be created within a 48 hour window. There's a prize for the wining game, but I'd never made a game before this so don't hold your breath. Voting on the submissions began yesterday, so you can check out the progress of all the games on the website.

http://www.indiespeedrun.com/

Even though in my opinion the whole project could have been put together a little better by the programmer, this was still a good experience to be involved with, and I'm pretty impressed with what we managed to create within such a tight time-frame.

You can check out the game here.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/content/indie-speed-run/?game=393

5. London &/@ Not A Drop

Stalkers among you will remember me mentioning on this blog that I had applied to take part in a exhibition called 'Not a Drop' in London. I've never put my work on at a professional art show before so it was a genuine honour to be accepted and be involved in something like this alongside some amazing artists. The whole thing was great, they had some amazing 2d/3d/performance art across 3 stories, they also boiled some live crayfish in a bowl for some reason.





packin up packin up (left)



on display (below)

6. lil poddo

This is what's been keeping me from doing an update on this ere blog, I've been paid to create an animation to go with a podcast show by some guys in Australia. Considering this is the first bit of paid animation I've done, I'm extremely pleased to be involved. Below is an example of what they have been using. Not to brag, but I feel that mine is an improvement ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-kOVu61Zbk

My animation should be up on their youtube channel pretty soon, the title will be 'Computer Girls' by the time you read this it should be online.

http://www.youtube.com/user/LilPoddo

More like this next month!

I'm still alive

Private life's been pretty hectic recently, but I'm focused, inspired, and got a load of stuff in the pipeline for the last leg of September so watch this space :)

Quick snap of my hovel for the next few late night sessions.

Life drawing

Went to my first life drawing session I ages the other week, here's a couple of sketches which don't completely suck. 

Scribbles

More drawings.

I whipped up a little tshirt design idea for mancunian based clothing line Bait. 

Be sure to check out their stock at baitmcr.co.uk 

Also drew a cheeky Wimbledon inspired picture, based around my favourite child faced possible Serbian war criminal, man with the scrabble gamechanger surname, Novak Djocovic :)