A small update to introduce 2026

Hello everyone!

I hope you've all had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Today is going to be a short and sweet update to announce some developments behind the scenes. I won't go into too much detail at present but this year has started with an unexpected twist - I am buzzing to say that I will be creating another ANIMATION!

As previously mentioned, I have become consumed by illustration work lately and because of the nature of animation projects, they are often few and far between. This project will be nowhere near as time consuming as my last animation contract, which took a considerable amount of time last year. At some point I do plan to discuss last years work, of which I am incredibly proud, but I will leave this for another day.

Presently, I don't want to say too much about the new animation but I think this is going to be a really fun project. Pre-production is going to start after the weekend and the excitement of a fresh project has kicked in before the inevitable chaos as production is underway.

As mentioned in the previous post, I was working on a customised Ibrox piece for a family member. This was for my dad - it depicts him and his wife Lorraine, who sadly passed away in early 2025, at the stadium wearing Rangers shirts. When working on this I also made adjustments to the colour in several areas and tidied up a few sections I wasn't happy with.

While this project is ongoing I will (for now) continue illustration work. This may change as the animation ramps up and I become fully consumed by it but for now I will still be doing my own bits and bobs.

I will soon begin work creating another football stadium print that has been ordered by a customer (an English stadium this time) and also another design in the Highland Coo range is planned. I will post another update once I’ve made development on one of these projects.

Still Game Wedding!!

As promised in the previous post, here is the Scottish based artwork I created for a wedding a few weeks ago. Due to Covid the wedding kept getting pushed back & felt the work would never get shown.

This piece is based on characters from the hugely popular Scottish comedy Still Game. The characters used are Jack, Victor, Isa and Winston, alongside the happy couple, Nicola and Gary Keyes.

This piece was printed on A2 350 gsm high quality card then framed in a simple white frame. 

This was a very enjoyable piece to work on & may be the last drawing of this type for a while as I look to get back to animating.

My next update will most likely just be some graphic stuff for nothing in particular, so stay tuned. 

 

 

Miners Project

As mentioned on the previous blog post, a while back I did some graphic design for my local pub. 

This was finished a few weeks ago but I waited until it was hung up to post the pictures below. I have a number of other projects in the pipeline which I will post about soon.

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.

 

And so we come to the end of another year

Well Hashtag Live has been and gone again and what a great night! My animation was screened and, a slight glitch aside, it all went great! I also got the chance to see several of my designs on the screen showing the boys in different films, which was great.

Going forward I don’t have another Hashtag animation to do this side of Christmas but I do have the project mentioned in the last post. I had a meeting on Thursday with the company behind the project. It seems that after discussions the project has shifted from a series to a short film, which I personally think works better. This means some changes to the script which has delayed production a bit. At the moment it is hoped that this will be finished for February.

This may be my last post of 2018. Going forward I hope to continue with a few designs, there’s one in particular I want to get finished, which I will show as soon as it’s finished.

I would say overall it has been a pretty great year for me, having completed 6 animations, which considering I have another full-time job is pretty astounding and a step up from 2017’s one animation.

Below I have uploaded the animation from Live 7 and the funny images.

Hashtag Live!!

So, after the last Hashtag animation, the only natural follow-up task was to decide what the next Hashtag cartoon would be about. Mall and the guys sent me through another hilarious clip from the show and I got started on the 2nd episode of the Hashtag Show animation.

However, I had a massive eureka moment whilst producing the episode and spoke with the guys about creating an animated opening to the Hashtag Live show that would be taking place in Glasgow on May 20^th. 

The guys loved the idea and so I put episode 2 on hold and set to work on creating an opening for Hashtag 6 which ending up being over a minute long. The animation itself was finished several weeks ago but I held back on posting it until after Hashtag Live, which I attended yesterday.

It was a great day out with my friend and fellow animator Jon, and I even spent a few minutes on the stage, something I had not expected. The animation work I did was well received and it was a very proud moment to see my work projected on a big screen.

I have attached the final animation for Hashtag 6 below and an image from my time on stage. At the very bottom is a single still showing a preview of what is to come in the next episode of the Hashtag Show.

Going forward, I will be placing the 2nd Hashtag episode on hold as I complete some freelance animation work for a Youtube channel. This piece should be relatively simple to do as it is just a five second walk cycle of a cow character. After completing this, I will turn my attentions back to the Hashtag Show cartoon. Beyond completing episode 2, I have no idea what will come next – I may continue to work on Hashtag, or there may be something else in store for me, who knows? I am still currently looking around for full time employment in the animation industry.

New year, new animation!

So a new year has come and now that the festivities are over I can start to focus on animation again. "Meatballs" is still incomplete at the moment but I have ramped things up and the aim is to have it finished for Jan 21st.

I have also been in contact with a Scottish DJ recently who is part of a comedy podcast with two Scottish comedians. What they are looking to do is to add animated characters over the voices to complement what they are discussing.

So far I have designed the three hosts and will be moving on to doing an animatic shortly for the first clip, which is about a minute long.

Following on from that, I will focus on getting "Meatballs" completed and out there. I have also put together my 2018 showreel and will have that updated on the site once "Meatballs" is finished.

I am also writing my own short story, which is at around 10,000 words, so as can be expected, doing this while working a 40 hour p/w job, is pretty exhausting. I am looking forward to getting the dog animation done and focusing on the new piece. It's hard to believe it started as a 24 hour animation idea that was supposed to be completed within a day.

I will update again in a week or so once the latest project is complete.