Hello again!

A common trend with my posts to the blog are that I tend to update it for a period, followed by a few months of silence. During that period though, it usually doesn’t mean that I haven’t been working. In fact, usually the opposite is true and I have found myself far too busy to put my thoughts down on the page.

This recent period of absence has unfortunately been down to some seriously bleak circumstances for my family. My grandmother sadly passed away after a battle with cancer. She fought amazingly and I am proud of how she defied the doctors every time. This has quite naturally been a particularly devastating time for me - my gran was always a massive part of my life growing up and I lived with her for ten years.

However, she was a strong lady and would not have wanted me to wallow in darkness after her passing. In the time since my last post I have created a few different pieces of work, including both artwork and animation.

Through my Facebook page, Campbell Animation, I connected with a new client from Buffalo in New York. He reached out to me to digitally re-create a sketch that he had made for one of his music business ventures. I created the piece and he was pleased with the final product, so much so that he contacted me recently to work on another design. This recent piece is for a clothing line he will be launching and the design is quite a unique one. Unfortunately, I won't be able to show any of these designs for the time being as the client has asked that these remain confidential. I will remain in communication with him and if he later allows me to present these I will do so.

In addition to this freelance work, I created a few one shot comic strip based on a joke I'd read online (below.) Once I'd completed the first strip, I got an idea for a second one and was able to create that fairly quickly after the first. These ideas were just for a bit of fun to post on Campbell Animation, so I may or may not create more based on these characters in future.

These projects re-developed my taste for creating comic strips. Drawing and reading comics had been my first passion and was what led me into the creative fields in the first place. I have always had it in the back of my mind that I would like to create an action-adventure comic book. The character pictured below is one that I have recently started to develop. I have sketched him many times now and really enjoy working on him.

I recently completed a test for a company called Education City, based in Oakham, England. I was in Leicester for a meeting with the team down there, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of touring their offices, though I felt that the type of work they done didn't quite fit my own style. I was a front runner for a position within Education City and was tasked with completing a learning module in the final stage.

After much consideration I decided to complete the task since I'd travelled all the way to meet them. Unfortunately, in the end, I was not the candidate chosen for the role but I am happy with their decsion, I would have felt awful declining the role and I was very much on the fence about it. In the end, I am glad I completed the module as through it I learnt more about Adobe Animate, which is not my native program.

I also created a unique character, that I named Arty, in their style to show that I was more than capable of creating assets in that style.

In addition to all this, I did more work for The Hashtag Show, bringing to life the Geordie Captain America, a character they had invented in their fortnightly podcast, and a frequent topic. Lately my work for The Hashtag Show has moved from animation towards more design work, which has allowed me to look towards other projects. The Hashtag boys are looking to arrange a date for another Hashtag Live event, which would be my 3rd show doing the intro animation. I will update the blog if there are any developments on that.

Going forward, I will be travelling to Florida on Monday for two weeks and getting a much needed break from everything that has been going on in my life. I will return with fully charged batteries and ready to look to the next project. As before the BBC project is going through a lot of development changes so my involvement has been delayed again. I have been speaking with The Hashtag Show about doing a possible comic strip so will probably get that completed once I'm back and move forward with once of the many animation ideas I have swirling around in my brain.

 

Updates

After a whirlwind January where I posted three different times, I have been a little off the radar. I had taken a break from creative work for a while, mainly because of some personal circumstances within my family. I am now getting back into the habit of creating content again and my two most recent pieces are graphic design work. The first piece is a gamer character based on myself which was created for the Campbell Gaming Youtube page . This channel was created by my good friend Jon Campbell for game streams and that I will be appearing on every now and again.

The second piece is a Raccoon warrior piece that I created for a client who had actually seen this as a sketch and commissioned me to colour it digitally for his own use.

Going forward, I have a few things planned out. I seem to be pushing myself more in the design direction at the moment which doesn’t overly faze me, despite being a specialist in animation. It is not due to a lack of ideas, as I am brimming with those, but more so time.

I organise my projects in a list of importance and I work through it that way. Sometimes projects get totally moved to the bottom of the list and some get pulled forward. This technique isn’t for everyone, however it is a technique I have found very useful and works well for me.

Going forward from here I have plans to do a one shot comic and see what the reaction to that is. However I have also designed a character recently that I would very much like to use as a comic and take a chance with that. My first interest in the creative business was actually in comic books and I really want to attempt it.

Animation wise I have a few ideas in the works, I have almost finished planning stages in the BBC project that I have been working on and it will be moving into full production very soon. 

I will be sure to post updates as soon as I am able to. I have also storyboarded an idea for a sequel to my Saul & Pepper cartoon and this may be the next animated piece I work on.

What's next?

I can't believe it, I'm actually posting again, this must be a record for a single month. So, as mentioned in the previous post, I have been working on my up-to-date show reel for 2019, encompassing the best of my work over the last 4 years. I have included this below and also created an alternative one for my Facebook page that used the “Campbell Animation” intro from the last post.

In terms of The Hashtag Show, I don’t have any further developments on the next animation and when we will be looking at that being released as I haven’t really been in communication with Mallorca recently.

We are, however, moving ever closer to the animation stage of the project I mentioned several times before in other posts and talks with the BBC are still under way. I have a Skype call with the rest of the team soon and we will be having a chat about the project as a whole.

The next post will probably be an update on what is happening with the project and possibly an update on the planning I was doing on a potential Hashtag animation.

Two posts in one month!?

January has been, thus far, fairly laid back. I’ve been careful to start this year off at a steady pace, as last year I raced through a lot of work at the start of the year and was feeling pretty spent by May. Looking over my Facebook page “Campbell Animation” I realised that the profile image of myself (actually taken from the animation I created during my proposal) wasn’t the most professional looking, and that I would love something similar to the “Wheezy Cow” animation that I’d made last year.

I set to work coming up with some different designs, from a film projector to just plain text. In the end, I opted for an animated production logo that could be added before each of my future animation projects. I decided to use a boar character in my logo, tying in with my Scottish roots, as Clan Campbell uses the boar on the badge (pictured below.) I included a Saltire within the piece just to really underline my Scottish origin. I have included the final animation below.

Going forward I have no definitive plan for the rest of the month. I am still working on the BBC project, but this has been hit with a few delays recently so I will be shifting my focus onto other projects. One task I have set some time aside for  is to create an updated Showreel to include work from 2018. My intention for this showreel is to include all my best work to give the reel some real strength, whereas in past years I have only used work from that year. This will be fairly relaxed as I have no real deadline on this but will probably be completed within a few days.

In terms of other work earmarked for the future I have been working out a story for a second Saul & Pepper cartoon and have a rough treatment for the piece, alongside some rough storyboards. I have been in talks with Jon regarding another project that he has planned out and I have another personal project that I would love to get off the ground. I am still working with The Hashtag Show though but don’t have a definitive next project. I am roughly planning out a massive animation that may or may not see the light of day, and have been batting around the idea of small 4 panel comics.

My next post will most likely be the updated showreel and an update on the Hashtag Show.

Happy New Year!

As I start off every new year, I do like to reflect on the work that I've done in animation over that period. 2018 has been a particularly successful and busy year for me, having completed a total of six animations (though Meatballs was started in 2017.) This year was very taxing, however I am determined more than ever to keep working hard so that one day I will be able to do it full-time. I am very proud of how I did in 2018.

The first animation that was completed in late Jan 18 was done in collaboration with Jon Campbell and was a particularly fun project for us to work on, using less limited animation than we have on any other project. The final project looked great and showed some of our finest work.

From Meatballs, I moved onto my first collaboration with The Hashtag Show where I created "Animal Testing" showing the boys take on the subject of animal testing itself with a funny Scottish twist. Although I moved onto this off the back of another animation, I was very hyped to create this one as I knew it would get me a lot of exposure.

After that I worked on the Hashtag Live 6 animation, which was shown in front of a sold out crowd at Classic Grand in Glasgow alongside Animal Testing.

After this, I worked on some freelance work for a gaming Youtube channel called "Wheezing Cow." This consisted of a large cow character in a walk cycle merging into a production logo. This project broke things up for me as I had worked on two Hashtag productions in a row and was feeling fatigued. 

After a break, I bounced back with Hashtag 2: Shite. This animation was shorter but I felt was a lot better than the first one, with a lot better gags.  This project was quite difficult to get of the ground for me, as I was unable to visualise anything from the voiceover given. This may have been a touch of creative block since I had been working myself pretty hard.

 I then focused on creating character designs for a few months after this before finally finishing off the year with the animated intro to Live 7 which was again in Classic Grand.

As mentioned in other posts, I have started pre-production on an animation that may be getting sold to the BBC. I am still unable to give any information on the project just yet but rest assured as soon as I can I will. My point of contact on the production is estimating the project to be completed by April 2019.

Below I have included my most recent character design and also a tribute I created to legendary comic creator Stan Lee.

I am currently working on a character design for the BBC project and creating a production intro for Campbell Animation, which should be completed within a week or so.