playing in the snow for 'Do It In Ten'...

Whilst we had a little free time at work, to keep myself occupied I decided to try 'show me the animation's' 'Do it in ten' competition, where they give a new word for each month with the aim to create a 10 second animation around. February's was 'Snow', so I came up with the idea of using a cute little yeti character playing in the snow with his penguin friend. Unfortunately due to other things with the main project coming up, it never got passed animatic stage, but hopefully some day it'll make its way to being made. But this was a little bit of concept art done for it, a way of me getting back into drawing on Photoshop more than anything...

Things a looking a little sheepish for BAA...

During the main production at Fettle, we've been lucky enough to have the odd bits of time here and there in between the chaos to dip our toes into other projects of our own. One such project was to create a sting for the British Animation Awards 2014. The brief was to create a piece of between 4 and 25 seconds that had to contain sheep in some way, and if possible, references to Britain. The idea that I decided to go with from the several that were developed was inspired by the short Bird Box film, 'Wildebeest' and focused on two sheep, attempting to come to a decision on what a little tuft in the ground could be?...

http://vimeo.com/85575588

Fettle continues...

Well hello again. It's been a while. So lets get things going again with a little catch up. Since September I've been working in Marsden at Fettle Animation, working on a series production. Unfortunately I can't say much else than that at the moment, but it's all being produced in Adobe Flash, and so far we're past the half way mark and its all going rather well :) I've been lucky enough to take on a major chunk of the animation on the episodes so far, and it really has brought my skills on Flash right up. It's been fantastic, allowing me to do what I enjoy and a lot of it, and I couldn't have asked for a better team around me to be doing it with, they've all been great people to work with and become friends with.  I'm just not sure where exactly the time has gone. I can't wait for the time to come when I'm able to show what we've been doing, so keep an eye out in the coming months.

Off to Fettle we go...

For the past week, I've been giving a helping hand down at Fettle Animation finishing off a project before the next job that I am working with them on begins. It's been a fantastic few days and great way of getting settled and comfortable in the studio and with the software again before the main job kicks off.

The UKGK has it's revenge...

The project for Creature Features, creating an animation to advertise their model kit exposition is complete, and considering how the short time I had to complete it meant that the animation had to be kept quite simplistic and limited, I'm actually pleased with the final result. Concentrating on getting the design up to a high standard I think means the piece stands out and works with only limited movement. I loved trying to cram in as many references to classic TV shows and films as I could, as well as reinventing some of my favorite characters, so I had fun bringing them to life any way possible...

The final advert can be seen on the website at http://mojoanimations.wix.com/rjjones#!video/c136r 

Live Wire Reading Activists animation programme...

Whilst beginning work on the Creature Features project, this week I was asked to help out with Live Wire Warrington at a couple of libraries, working with the Reading Activists and helping them with a stop motion animation programme. The children involved had to choose a piece of their favorite book to build the characters, sets and props from, and then animate them. So while there, across the two afternoons, I helped then get the ideas together, showed them my work to hopefully give them some hints and tips on what to do, and then helped one of the groups out to animate and get their film together. All in all, the days went great, I enjoyed doing what I could to help and seeing the kids ideas come alive, seeing their imaginations flare and hopefully helping them to bring them to life. So thank you to Brenda Turnbull who asked me to help them, and everyone involved.

Creature Features surprise job...

Before potentially beginning the work at Fettle Animation, I had a lovely surprise job pop up while on a humble shopping trip to Blakemere. A shop in the village, Creature Features, which sells movie and TV memorabilia and model kits, are running an event called Revenge of the UKGK- a garage and model kit expo on the 28th of September, and for it they wanted a short, snappy animation to advertise it. So keeping things sketchy and in an almost Tim Burton style I feel would suit the event, and the idea at the minute uses characters that make up the letters of UKGK. As the artwork comes together a little more I shall post the characters of the film for a cheeky sneak peak, so keep an eye out over the next few weeks...