More Recent Work

Hi all, I’ve been quiet recently on the blog but I do have a few pieces to share so I will be keeping it short and sweet.

Recently, I created these two items of Pokemon artwork, with a third currently planned (Charmander.) These pieces were enjoyable to work on and are just for fun though I am selling the prints at the moment. I plan to finish the aforementioned Pokemon and will probably do a giveaway on the Campbell Animation page.

 

 Bulbasaur & Squirtle, two of the original and best Pokemon.

I’ve have also created more superhero designs for clients. First we have one done for a little boy, turning him into Spiderman. Feedback from him was great and he was elated at his new secret identity.

 

Next was two brothers, both transformed into Iron Man. As you can see below, the image came out great. 

 

As previously mentioned, I have something in the works locally and will also be working on something for a close friend so will reveal that in due course. 

I have created another part of the Scottish design I previously mentioned and am now closing in on wrapping work up on it.

Lastly, I am in the process of creating two new logos for our client in New York, currently going through some design samples before we begin honing down to the finished products.

I will be back with another update soon to showcase the other work mentioned in this post. As of right now, the animation for my son is on hold until I have worked through a number of my graphic design products.

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.

 

Pixar's Mark Andrews Comes To Town!

So, as I have mentioned before, all of us at the Glasgow School of Art were eagerly anticipating the arrival of Mark Andrews, the Academy Award winning director of Disney-Pixar's "Brave."

Mark started off his visit by giving us a lecture with a bit of background information on how he ended up in the industry himself. He then showed us some storyboards that he has worked on, taken from movies like "The Iron Giant" and "Spider-man" as well as giving us an exclusive look at what Pixar are working on at the moment, which I won't say anything about, just in case.

We also got the fantastic opportunity to present storyboards for a two minute animated short to him, thirty seconds of which we will need to animate for our next animation project. As previously mentioned, I chose a story that revolves around Ted, a boy genius who creates a time machine to bring a Viking to the modern day. Mark had some really good suggestions for where I can take the story, and great ideas that I wouldn't have otherwise thought of. I will keep his advice in mind for future projects and I have already began to look at story-boarding in a different way. This experience, which was also my first workshop with a professional, has encouraged me to make an effort to attend the Animex masterclasses which I have always missed because it meant an extra days stay, which would mean more money. But after this experience, I would imagine that these classes will be worth the extra price, and will hopefully attend them in 2014.

Drawings by Mark as he explained his suggestions for improving my storyboards.

Overall, I learnt a lot from the past two weeks with Mark, and from his colourful personality, which made him all the more likeable as a person. His advice always lead peoples stories down avenues that they may not even have considered before. I also learned a bit more about pitching my storyboards - that for two minute boards, I should be presenting them in roughly one and a half to two minutes tops. This helped me a great deal, as before I would simple drone on, which I guess must have really bored the listener.

My next posts will likely be about my next few assessments: the Masters Proposal and the Animation 3 project which, as mentioned, will be animating thirty seconds of the storyboards that I made. I will also try to have my storyboards scanned and uploaded soon.