New Film!

Long post incoming! I actually started writing this one a couple of weeks ago, but it took a lot longer than thought/ hoped for several reasons, one being breaking my shoulder! Gutted, because it means I can’t skate for a bit, but I guess it’s just one of those things.

Anyway, enough of than, here’s the post:

A few months on from finishing ‘Bear’, I'm now ready to embark on a new short film. It's a micro short, aiming for 90 seconds in length, with the fantastic DepicT competition in mind. I wanted to make a new film, because full pieces of work are somewhat more meaningful, rewarding and ‘whole’ than creating just test pieces, along with providing a focussed challenge. I chose 90 seconds as it's a manageable format, meaning I can complete it alongside working full time. It’s also something you can submit to festivals, plus another thing you can add to your CV as a filmmaker. It shows you can make work on your own initiative and demonstrates that you can complete a project from start to finish, which is actually more of a big deal than it sounds. You’ll probably know this is you’ve made complete films before (or stopped midway). Yes, test prices have their place (I sure do enough of them), but a complete short film is a great format to aim for, too. I’m a filmmaker, so making actual films makes sense!

This film isn't actually rotoscoped (gasp) nope, it's one of my experimental pieces. I tend to do these alongside rotoscope work, which you’ll know if you’ve been following my work for a while. If you’re new to my stuff then hello, welcome and I hope that you stick around! Here’s my most recent experimental film, which I completed in 2019, or was it 2020?:

The concept of this new film is pretty much just moths. It’s a flicker style animation (not sure if that’s exactly the right term), but it’s when separate images of similar things are put after one another, and when played through at say 12 or 24 fps, it gives an effect of the image changing or warping. If that make sense. So in this instance, I’ll need to draw just over 1000 separate images of moths (no big deal) and have them playing at speed to create the desired effect.

I get the inspiration for a lot of my films from my surroundings and this one is no different. A groundhopper friend of mine is into collecting moths or ‘mothing’ (I think is the correct term)! Once when he was enthusiastically talking about the aforementioned hobby, I thought that moths could make a really nice animation idea, and now, several months later, I am putting it into reality.

Before going into this project, I wanted to do a lot of R+D, because I don’t want to get halfway through and decide that this style isn’t actually working and have to scrap the whole thing- animation takes long enough as is, let alone if you have to re-do any of it. Plus if you’re in it for the long haul, you want to ensure the style you’ve gone with is right and fits the project. Sometimes I feel I might not do enough as I’m too eager to just start animating, but with this one being such a short film, I know I have the time to really develop it and get it right.

I decided to use Procreate for the bulk of the drawing this time round, for several reasons. Firstly, as wonderful as Callipeg (the program I use most for animation) is, the brush options are unfortunately quite limited, meaning I wouldn’t be able to get the desired texture/ look for this film, compared to other programs with a wider variety of brush options. TVPaint was also out of the question for this, because I wanted to be able to do this project in a fairly portable manner, especially with Christmas coming up, along with the cold weather, meaning I might want to work elsewhere other than my desk in my freezing cold office room. So, the only other option I had to use was Procreate. I purchased the app around a year ago when I bought my iPad, but never really had the opportunity to fully utilise it, besides a few concept pieces for ‘Bear’ here and there and a few other bits and bobs.

When I was exploring it prior, I definitely appreciated the variety of brushes and thought that I’d love to be able to utilise this app one day for something animation related (I don’t really do illustration or anything). I have tried out animating with it, but for me, the timeline isn’t very intuitive for animation, with all the layers being on the side (I get it works for some people, but not me- maybe I’m too old fashioned)! But, this project is more of a collection of separate drawings than stringing images together in such a way that they animate if that makes sense.

So once I decided on the software the first task was trying out a load of brushes- a process I always find fun, though I have a tendency to get distracted easily whilst doing so as there’s so much to explore!

Above are some of the brushes I tried out in the first instance- really testing out different sizes, styles, textures and opacities. Once I felt had explored enough, I imported them into TVPaint to see how they’d look in a sequence and against 16mm film- something which I had in mind to use as the background for this- due to it’s properties reflecting those of a moths- colourful yet translucent, plus the abstract nature of the medium. Though this might not be how I decide to finish the piece once I’ve drawn all the moths- I have a few other ideas in mind, but that’s for later anyway. Here’s the test in video form, plus it will give more of an idea of the concept/ how the finished piece might look:

In most of my animations, I use a brush with a thick, hard, solid outline, so as it’s a way of working I gravitate towards, that style came up in my tests. After playing it through several times, I decided that it was in fact too harsh and didn’t really reflect any properties of moths- something which for this animation I felt would be necessary. After reviewing them, I knew I wanted them to be more delicate than some of the styles I had been working with. I then went back to the drawing board and selected three further brushes after much more trial and error to do some ‘deeper’ testing with.

I wanted to make 6 moths using each chosen brush to see how they’d work in sequence. It was no good just drawing one or two, when the whole thing is going to last over a minute. I’ve found whenever I do style frames for previous projects, they might look good as a still image, but sometimes it doesn’t always translate to when it’s moving. So in my tests in style, when it comes to finalising the look, I always like to do at least a couple seconds of movement.

The first brush I tested was ‘Eaglehawk’, though I quickly decided that I did not want to pursue this one any further. I thought it looked more appropriate when auditioning brush strokes, but when it came to drawing full moth with it, it wasn’t giving the effect I was after, so I quickly disbanded this idea.

The second brush I tested was one called ‘Gloaming’. Here’s one drawn with that brush:

I quite liked it and it was definitely more delicate looking than my previous tests, but it still wasn’t quite right. So my search continued.

Lastly, the brush I tested was called ‘Wild Light’ (under the ‘Artistic’ category), which is the one I have decided to go for. At first I tried it with the opacity set to 60%, but after drawing several in this manner, I changed it to 100% and these looked well, urm 100% better:

This brush gave such a lovely, textured feel, yet dark and solid enough so it didn’t look too ‘weak’, and transparent enough so it felt somewhat ‘moth-like’ (I am definitely going to start using that phrase regularly)! I loved the frayed, bitten edges, which for me resembled the markings on a moth. I can’t wait to get stuck in! Now I just need to come up with a workable pipeline…

I really liked using Procreate for these tests and I’m looking forward to using it when I start this project properly. It’s very user friendly and great for this especially, because it allows you to flip layers, meaning I only have to draw one side of each moth, too- therefore cutting down on some work! I want the look of this animation to be very symmetrical because I feel that way it will work best, especially for when each image changes to the next.

Hopefully I’ll get a decent start on this over the Christmas break- will do some updates on how I’m getting on over the next few months. I have no idea how long it all might take, but I might try and aim for say 20 moths a day- or one hour of work perhaps (though obviously more over the time off).

Anyway, I guess that’s for me to figure out!! Not sure if I’ll post again before Christmas, so if I don’t, then have a great one if you celebrate it, have fun and stay safe xo

35mm

I finally got round to developing a roll of 35mm film which I finished off last week (though started in July)! Because the film itself and the developing of said film is so expensive these days, I feel I have to be really cautious or precious over the photos I take with it and how often I use it. Mainly incase they don't come out 'good', but I feel the more I do use it, the better I'll get at film photography and more use to my camera, so the hit rate will be better overall. Must do more! Hopefully I'll manage another roll over Christmas.

Below are a some which I liked:

Rotoscope Over 3D Test #3

Third one of these. Really quite like this style, perhaps something to develop into a slightly more long form piece. Maybe... I didn't actually like this one to start with, so I left it on my computer for a while, thinking it'll just be one of those pieces that I'll never share (I have loads like that)!! Then I went back to it last week just to have another look, changed the colours and for some reason it just clicked! Making art is a weird process.

On an unrelated note, the super talented filmmaker Liam White has a crowdfunder happening right now for his most recent short, 'Housewarming'. I would highly recommend having a look at his campaign and donating if you can spare the funds. I'd love to see him be able to make this project, so fingers crossed he reaches his target!

Swimming

It’s been around about a month, but I now have a new animated clip to share! This is a continuation in technique of the previous one where I rotoscoped over a 3D reference. I wanted to develop this way of working to see how it looks on other shots/ characters.

I had some hand drawn abstract patterned frames hanging around (as you do), which I always had intended to incorporate in an animation at some point- though wasn’t sure especially what (or when). I was looking at them and felt that they were reminiscent of waves in a loose, abstract kind of way. With this in mind, I decided to use a reference clip of someone swimming.

For the figure, I used a similar style to the previous one- black outline with black shading, but instead of a white fill for the body, I used a shade of blue which I felt complimented the background. Here is the clip:

I think the end result is really eye catching and love the contrast between the smooth, clean look/ feel of the rotoscope animation, with the rougher, choppier hand drawn background. I love how the background turned out when animated, too- it does actually kind of look like waves! I also really like the colours- I could have so easily wimped out and just filled the figure with white again, but I feel that the blue really gives it something extra.

I think this is a technique which I want to carry on exploring for a while. I don’t feel I’m finished with it yet, or pushed it as far as I want to! Watch this space for more as always.

Ps. I watched the animated feature film ‘Entergalactic’ on Netflix not so long ago and I honestly don’t feel it’s been hyped up enough- it was absolutely fantastic!! Please go and check it out and give it some love.

'Bear': Manchester Screening Details

Hey hey! It’s been a while- I’ve been busy with work and life, but still doing things!! I’ll try and make time to do more of a general update blog soon (perhaps)- we’ll see.

But first, some more exciting news on ‘Bear’: it’s coming to Manchester! It’s playing as part of the quarterly Filmed Up event at HOME Cinema on Tuesday 6th December at 6.20pm.

I’m really pleased that it got selected for this, because it’s a fairly local event, meaning some of the cast and crew are able to come down and join all the fun too! Also, I love HOME, so to have my film screened there is pretty cool IMO. Plus, the selection of films playing that evening looks great.

It’s only £5.50, which for 90-ish minutes of local talent, is what I’d call a bargain. Link to tickets and for more info, please click HERE. Hope to see you there!

'Bear'- First Public Screening

I'm delighted to announce the details for the first public screening of my short film, ‘Bear’- woop woop!!

It’s part of the ‘Showroom Shorts’ monthly short film event at the Showroom Cinema in Sheffield. It’s one of fifteen films playing that night- and I’m overjoyed to be part of it as the programme looks absolutely amazing! Click here to see for yourself.

It’s on Tuesday 15th November and the films start at 9pm- though it’s recommended to get there earlier as most of the filmmakers (myself included) will be present, so a chance to chat/ network (whatever you like to call it)! Oh yes, it’s also FREE- how cool is that?!

Below is a screen grab from the event page itself, which has a bit more info (click to enlarge):

…And just in case you missed it before, here’s the trailer for ‘Bear’:

Be great to see some of you down there- I’m usually wearing a yellow hat, so come say hey!

Rotoscope 3D Animation Test

I know in my last post I suggested these test clips might slow down a little, but I actually made another one already. I said I’d only do them if I had a specific idea for something I wanted to try, rather than doing them for (what feels) like the sake of it. Soon after writing that post, I genuinely did have something I wanted to try, so here we are!

Ever since hearing about ‘Mixamo’- the free Adobe resource (what’s the catch lol) of 3D characters and animations you can use in your own projects, I wanted to utilise it in some way or other. I’ve had a few ideas before, but not really got that far in executing them …until now. I think my other ideas were over complicated hence never carrying them out, though this idea was definitely something I felt I could complete.

So what is it?!

I wanted to try rotoscoping over one of the 3D characters. Why? A couple of reasons. Firstly, to see how it might look and if it would work altogether. I’d been curious about this, just to see how much drawing over a 3D character would differ than drawing over filmed footage of a human. Whether it would pick up on certain nuances, or even look anything like what I was trying to replicate. I think I was curious about trying these things, because I thought it could potentially be a great way of making my next film, rather than using real actors. More on that later.

In terms of the process, that barely differed- it was a quite simple case of importing the footage and redrawing it in a style I felt suited. In fact, because the reference footage was computer generated, it was quite a lot easier to rotoscope as more things with it stayed fixed. Such as hair. Rotoscoping hair on filmed footage is not fun (IMO), especially long hair! The footage was also cleaner and therefore easier to see some of the outlines.

A negative I found though, was the fact that because it was computer generated it was somewhat glitchy. There were occasional artefacts sticking out of the character at various points and sometimes the body/ clothing was not acting especially naturalistic. These things were fairly easily fixed though as I could just re-draw them in a way which appeared more ‘normal’/ natural.

Overall though, the concept seemed to work- or at least for this piece of footage it did. I went for a shot which contained a lot of action/ movement to it. I’m considering maybe if I tried it with a more still shot- how well that would work. Something I’d like to try anyway. It also didn’t look a complete mess (phew) and it didn’t appear too ‘uncanny valley’ either- or at least not in my eyes. Perhaps because I went for a highly stylised black and white finish, the end result came out really nicely. I skipped a lot of the facial features/ detail, which perhaps cut down on any uncanny feeling there might have been, if I went full detail with the face. Who knows… 

The second reason I wanted to try it was, as if it did work/ look ‘good’, then I might consider using it in my next short film. As you probably have guessed from reading this blog, I’m a person who likes to experiment with technique and technology, so this felt like the perfect testing ground! So, as stated above, I felt like this technique did work (though needs more experimenting on different clips, I’d say), but if it was something I’d want to use in future productions, I’d have to learn how to animate 3D characters, or at least to a certain extent. I mean this would be if I wanted them to do specific things and act in a certain way. So would there be much point taking a lot of time to learn 3D animation enough so I can use it in a short film, over hiring actors and filming them, to get a look which is similar? At this point, I’d probably say no, but it’s not like there aren’t advantages of using 3D characters instead of real life people. One main one would be that it would cut down the stress/ hassle of being on set, alongside sourcing a decent location to film in at a reasonable price. It would cut down on filming budget, but raise the amount of hours spent, therefore increasing the time budget.

Like I said, I’d want to make a few more of these test clips in the same way, to see whether it works with different shots and characters, rather than just the one I tried. I think this might help me decide if it’s something I want to pursue on a bigger project. I have even thought that it might work in a more abstract project, rather than a narrative film, because I can just use the pre-loaded animations, rather than making my own (so I wouldn’t need to spend hours and hours learning character animation in Blender). Again, I feel more test clips would help me decide here.

So in conclusion, I feel it was successful, but needs more testing. I sound like a scientist in how I approach my animations!

Here’s the clip:

New Job!!

Sooo, the title of this post is called ‘New Job’, because urm guess what, I got a new job!!!

Even though ‘Bear’ went on for slightly longer than planned, the idea after finishing that was always to get another job. I kind of like the idea of doing one job for a company, then taking a break to work on one of my own films, then a job again and so on. This, I find is a great way to satisfy a healthy work-life balance and also both sides of things I want to achieve in my career/ life. These are making a name for myself as a director (of animated films), but also being able to have the opportunity to work on other fantastic projects happening in the industry, such as feature films or TV series.

This current job is the role of an Assistant Editor working at Illuminated Films on a super fun/ creative children’s TV series (which I’m not going to state as it hasn’t been publicly announced thus far- sorry). When it is, I’ll let you know! I decided to go for an edit role this time, because it’s something I massively enjoy doing and have always wanted to try in an industry/ studio setting (which I haven’t done prior- despite my amount of experience, it’s mainly been in a corporate/ commercial setting or on my own short films). I’m also under no illusion that I’m going to get a rotoscope role each time I need a job, because the actual fact is, it’s a niche medium so there isn’t always a project I can readily jump on, unlike other forms of 2D animation which are more widely used. Hence going for a role which is both something I’m confident/ experienced in and enjoy doing.

I’m really pleased that I was selected for this role and I hope I stand out in the work that I produce for it. I’m already mid-way through the first week (it was a super quick turn around from applying to starting!!) and I’m finding it really enjoyable so far, with a really friendly, small team. And I’m not just saying that! I think it’s really cool that the work I’m doing now is contributing towards a TV series which will be broadcast at some stage in the near future. I appreciate how lucky and privileged I am to be able to work in this industry, but I also have to acknowledge the hard work I’ve put in to get me to this point- for me it definitely didn’t come easily or smoothly and there were so many times I could have given in. But I kept on going and working away, and I feel it might finally be paying off.

Rotoscope clips from now on might slow down, but I have a few things in the works. I’m actually going to stop doing ‘test clips’ for now (I think), due to the fact that I prefer to have a project with an aim, rather than something which feels like I’m doing it for the sake of it. If there is a style I specifically want to try out, I will, but I’m not just going to aimlessly create clips, just for something to post on the socials (that’s not the reason I do them btw, but sometimes it feels like it). I’m actually going to start a new short film project- something which I can do in the mornings before I begin work. This project won’t be as long in duration or as ambitious as ‘Bear’, but I definitely want to make something! I feel a shorter project might allow me to experiment with style a little more. Anyway, more on that as and when I have stuff to talk about for it.

Think that’s all for now, so see you in the next one!

Walk

Another quick little experiment. I really like how the background turned out in this one! The background was created using felt tip on paper and scanned in (12 frames repeated), the character was filled with 16mm film which I applied ink to and the character was drawn in Callipeg. Hope ya like it!

Kickflip

Now that I've finished 'Bear', I'm back creating fun little rotoscope experiments, while I wait for my next big project (I'm manifesting).

It took me a few days to get back into doing this- like I stated in my last post, I always feel pretty empty once finishing a big project and often takes me a bit of time to reset, before starting something new. I usually need a break, but one side of me just doesn't like me doing that (feels like I always need to be working on something), so often have a state where I'm semi working, but also not and the stuff I produce usually isn't the best and doesn't get published anywhere.

This piece wasn't forced and I came to it quite naturally which felt nice. I found a clip of a skater doing a Kickflip on free stock footage site Pexels. I then just started animating it in a fairly sketchy manner on my iPad using Callipeg, not especially knowing where it might end up. I've had some pieces of paper which I coloured and patterned using felt tips etc hanging around from February, which I started when I had Covid. Then I began animating 'Bear', so had them sat on my desk crying out for use ever since.

Above is one of the frames.

I scanned in one of the boldest and brightest sequences (I made a load of different ones using all sorts of colours, shapes and patterns) and used it as the background. I think I might try and come up with a few animations which I could utilise these patterns as backgrounds. Think it will be a fun little exercise and get me back into the swing of making work again. Yeah, I'm going to do that!

I then felt the skater should contrast with what we have here, so decided to put him in black and white, with very little detail. I think this clip is really eye catching and fun, which is quite a contrast to 'Bear', which is on the whole quite dark and fairly constrained.

Below is the clip:

'Bear' TRAILER!!!

Well this is fun! I've made a trailer for 'Bear' and I'm super excited for you to be able to see a little more of my film.

Up until this point, I've been fairly guarded about what I share, due to not wanting to spoil anything/ give too much away. It's an eleven minute film, so even sharing ten seconds feels like I'm showing too much, but I've purposely kept what we see here quite ambiguous.

I'm also ready to share the synopsis: A high achieving factory worker wears the head of a bear whilst outside the comfort of his home. With the bear head hampering his daily life, coupled with a growing desire to conform, he finds himself torn between his perceived safety and embracing the new.

Here's the trailer:

Enjoy!

'Bear'- COMPLETED!!

As the title would suggest: ‘Bear’ is now complete!

I can’t quite believe it- almost 11 months of work, from my initial scripting stage back in October last year, right through to completion. At some points I didn’t think this would ever happen- when I’m working on such a big thing, I often find it hard to see the end, because the task feels so big. But little by little, I kept working at it and I eventually got here.

I must admit I don’t feel especially happy just yet- maybe it needs some time to sink in. Probably. I currently feel quite empty. Which is often the case when I finish working on fairly long form projects. Perhaps in a few days when I’ve really had time to process what I’ve done, I’ll feel more celebratory about things- or at least I hope so! Or maybe I’m just dissatisfied with my achievements! But, I do feel it is the former as deep down I am extremely proud of what I’ve created.

Despite what I have said above, to create something from start to finish, with no funding and no external factors to make me make it and on this scale (just over 11 minutes runtime), alongside struggling with several (both metal and physical) health problems throughout the duration, is an extremely BIG achievement. And I must remember that. To think what I’ve created here almost on my own is quite something. I have my partner Ben and my friend Alan to thank at this point- they have both given me feedback, motivation and support throughout and I honestly can’t express my gratitude enough. Without them, the film probably wouldn’t be what it is today.

I think that’s all I’ve to say about it at the moment- I’m cutting a trailer together, so watch this space for that soon xo

04111311

It's about time I put this one up online for public consumption, especially as 'Bear' is nearly complete!

My experimental short film '04111311' is a representation through colour reflecting weather and mood, depicted over the course of 365 days.

The score was composed and performed by the fantastic Jason Williams (whom I've worked with on a number of my projects, including 'Bear').

I've been slacking 'releasing' this one, because I started writing a super loooonnnngggg and detailed blog post about it. But it was going into way too much detail, I just never got around to finishing it and I didn't want to publish the film without the blog as I thought the process might be interesting to document. So I just didn't end up posting it! But then I thought I want people to watch it, so I'm just going to publish it regardless.

In short, it's a 365 style project, where I tracked the weather for each day over the course of urm, well, 365 days and marked it with a colour depending on what the weather was like/ how I was feeling (it's all interlinked for me). I then inked the colours on 16mm film using alcohol ink and went through the lengthly process of scanning the strips in at super high res and then cleaning each image in Photoshop to remove any dust (there was a LOT) which gathered when the film was drying. Once pleased with the visuals, I handed it to my composer Jason who did an AMAZING job at scoring it.

Sorry this wasn't the super detailed post it was going to be, but at least you get to see the film now, so swings and roundabouts! Maybe I'll do one at some stage, but I'm not making any promises!!

Here's the film:

Enjoy xo

'Bear' Update 3/9

Apparently my last post was my 200th- wow! I had no idea until I happened to look at my stats this morning, but I guess that’s kind of something to celebrate. I suppose it is a fair landmark to have achieved. And so many words written!! Though I must state that I’m not trying to achieve landmarks with this blog or anything in terms of reading figures or number of posts- if I let those dictate me, I probably would have given up long ago or ended up writing things just to get clicks and/ or just for the sake of it. I think that’s why I don’t often promote my blog too much. It’s not that I don’t want people reading it (I do, and I like it when someone says that they read it), but I feel if I put an announcement with each post, then I feel I wouldn’t use the blog in the same way in which I do now. I use it as a way of tracking my progress, with a bit more detail (and somewhat a little more personal) than my Instagram posts.

I also like not restricting what I write about on here- and how it’s not specifically animation focussed- whereas my Instagram is. I mean it is largely animation focused, as that’s what I do mainly, but you know there’s football/ photography stuff, sewing, other creative ventures and just anything else I deem worthy of a blog post! It also makes me think about my work more in critical manner, which is something I feel essential if I want to keep progressing and learning (which I do). I sometimes look back over my archive and look at what I was doing several years ago and it’s interesting to see the ways I’ve improved, progressed and changed over the years. Also interesting to see what the constants are, too.

Reminiscing and analysis over, how is ‘Bear’ going? Oh yeah, first, I should give an update on my skateboarding injury for all those interested: it’s feeling a LOT better now (thankfully) and I feel almost ready to be able to go again. Though not before I’ve bought a helmet and some pads- injury is not something I’m willing to risk in future, especially as an animator.

OK, now I’m finally ready to speak about ‘Bear’! Like 4 paragraphs in on a post entitled ‘Bear Update’. But anyway, now here’s another landmark (and maybe one even more worthy of celebration): THE ACTUAL ANIMATION IS DONE!!! Done-diddly-un. I can’t believe it, I’ve almost made a film. What a journey. I still have sound design to finish and a few tweaks here and there in terms of tightening the edit etc, but everything that needs animating, has been animated! Wow.

The biggest hurdle this week was most definitely the crowd shot- one I had been dreading to be honest, due to amount of characters and the fact that I still had no reference footage for it. I had a few previous failed attempts at getting it, but this week my partner Ben and I went into the town centre on Wednesday morning and sat with my tripod for about half an hour and got everything I needed. And it came out really, really well. I couldn’t find a good piece of stock footage to use for it, so I knew filming it myself would get exactly the thing I had in mind. As the city where I live isn’t the busiest and there was never going to be a point where loads of people are walking in a big mass (or at least not at 9am which is the time we went), I had to animate each person separately and superimpose them in the TVPaint file. That was a fairly straightforward process, plus it meant I had more control and therefore could get more of a diverse range of characters- so mixing ages, genders and ethnicities. You can watch the clip below:

Other than that, I don’t think I have anymore ‘Bear’ related news. But watch this space as I’m going to make a mini teaser/ trailer type thing very soon. So stay tuned for that. And also the post where I finally announce it’s completion!!

'Bear' Update 26/8

This week has been urm, slightly ‘interesting’ shall we say. The week didn’t get off to the best start due to having had a slight skateboarding accident at the weekend which unfortunately resulted in me damaging my animating hand. Luckily it wasn’t broken- I did go and have it X-Rayed as it was quite painful and swollen. So that itself hampered my productivity especially towards the first half of the week. It’s feeling much better now though, thankfully. On top of the injury I also had a really bad bout of insomnia, lasting pretty much a whole week. I think the sound design is making me feel stressed!

How it started

How it's going!

So overall, I can’t say this was the most fun week I’ve ever had, but I can say that picture lock is now pretty much complete- I just have 1 or 2 backgrounds left (depending which route I go down) and the crowd shot to animate- which might take around a day. I think I’ll then go over the film a couple of times to tighten up the edit and make sure it’s all working how it should be.

Despite this week not being the smoothest, I was able to get over a difficult hurdle of a section which wasn’t working. The new way I’ve decided to go about doing it worked out much better, so that feels fantastic to have put that to bed.

I was also given the completed score by my composer Jason Williams, whom I feel has done an absolutely brilliant job. I’ve worked with him for several years now on a number of my films and he always does what I have in mind and then some! The score really enhances the film and it wouldn’t be what it is without it.

Alongside this, I also finally decided what to put behind the car windows when he is driving. I didn’t want to make panoramic backgrounds in a realistic style and then keyframe them, because in my mind I had always wanted them to be sort of abstract. When you’re in a car or train, the scenery sort of whizzes by and it can look fairly abstract anyway, so I wanted to replicate this. It didn’t need to be detailed as it wouldn’t have added to the story. But I didn’t know in exactly what way or how as a few of the abstract ways I tried previously didn’t work. It then came to me- I often work with 16mm film, so I thought ‘well isn’t this quite abstract and also something I like to bring in to my rotoscope work anyway’. There have been numerous test pieces where I’ve used 16mm (or similar) as a background. So it only made sense to incorporate it into ‘Bear’ as well. See below for what I mean:

It wasn’t even like I was shoe-horning it in- it just made sense. Around 2013/14 I made several 16mm painted on/ scratched films, which didn’t actually end up ever being made into anything- they’ve just been sat on my computer ever since and I’ve used snippets of them over the years to enhance other rotoscope projects of mine. So I imported one of them into the project which was something I made on a blue reel of film and printed on my fingerprints with black acrylic paint. It made a really interesting pattern:

I put it behind the car shots and added a gaussian blur, so it doesn’t take the focus away from the character, but definitely adds something visually. As it flickers by, the patches of dark and light change, making it somewhat mirror what you see when travelling in a vehicle. Below is a grab of it in the film:

Right, well I’m going to gorge myself on football over the bank holiday weekend- I’ve got around 9 matches to watch over the 3 days and I am so ready for it! And I’m going to be photographing a few of them too- can’t wait to get back into that again. Hoping for good weather! Have a good 'un xo

'Bear' Update 21/8

This week was another really positive and productive week- woop woop!! The motivation is still extremely strong (if not stronger), with the end in sight. It always feels weird approaching this stage of the project and thinking, wow, it’s actually going to be finished soon. Having put so much work into something in an intense way for a fair chunk of time, reaching this stage of any project comes with mixed feelings and emotions. Predominately excitement (for it to be finished and also my next project), but also senses of anxiety, disbelief (that I’ve managed to get it to where it is) relief and sadness (due to not wanting to part with it) are just some of the things I’m experiencing. I’m honestly feeling mainly excited for it to be finished, but because I’ve enjoyed it for the majority of the time and grown quite attached to it, it’s actually a little bittersweet because I kind of don’t want it to end either. But then that emotion goes out the window as soon as I think about what I’m going to do next! Did somebody say feature film? Yes they did and that somebody was me.

Reflections out the way, let’s talk about the more tangible things related to the project: what have I done this week?

Short answer: a LOT.

Long answer: amongst starting the sound design, fine tuning the edit and finishing off the last few backgrounds, I filmed (and almost finished animating) the ‘scene with the other character’ in. I’m aware that sounds extremely cryptic, but I don’t want to give too much away at this point!

Due to having learnt a lot about rotoscoping during the process of this project (wasn’t sure that could be possible due to having spent the last 11 years of my life practising this medium), there were some things I wished I had done in the first instance when I filmed the bulk of the footage way back in February. It was mainly due to drawing the face- I found the eyebrows and the lips hard to pick out for a lot of shots, so this time round I asked my wonderful actress Anthea Carpenter-Procter for her scene if she could wear a contrasting lipstick colour to her face, so when I’m animating, the lips are easy to pick out. I should have also done this for the eyebrows- but for next time, I’ll know. Luckily she had quite dark eyebrows, so it didn’t pose too much of a problem. Her scene is quite dialogue heavy, so animating the lips was something I definitely didn’t want to be struggling over, so asking her to wear a lipstick was a good move and something I’ll carry into all my future projects.

For these shots, I also used a Canon DSLR to shoot it on, rather than the Blackmagic which was used to film all the footage in February. I found the colours and the contrast on the Canon to be sharper and more saturated, unlike the washed out feel of the Blackmagic. Again, this made the image easier to rotoscope and I feel going forward, shooting with a Canon would be my preferred choice. I love that because this is the biggest project of my own I have worked on to date, I have found out a lot about a medium I felt I knew so well. When working on something long-form like this, you inevitably learn more than animating short, five or so second test pieces. When you animate something short, there are a lot of things you can gloss over about the quality of footage you use, because there’s only a relatively small amount of frames to create. But on something bigger, those things which may have been slightly irksome on a small project are completely exacerbated and end up being quite frustrating throughout. Perhaps I’ll do more of a detailed post about this at some point- the things I’ve learned when shooting for rotoscoping maybe. But without trying not to repeat myself or anything I’ve already written about. We’ll see.

But, I have been recording some kind of ‘making of’ time lapse videos at each stage of the animation process, so I think instead of doing a post about it on here, I’ll make a short ‘behind the scenes’ type video/ vlog thing once I’ve finished everything. As maybe a video like that would help people understand the medium better, so they can create their own rotoscope animations. Basically anything to get more people on board with the medium!! So look out for that. Also writing it on here so I can be held accountable if I don’t act on it!

I think that’s it for this week. Next week it might be finished? You’ll be some of the first to know anyway! Below is a still from one of the new shots. I actually shot it in the spare room in my house and the microphone is pretty much front and centre- but hey, that’s the beauty of rotoscoping.

'Bear' Update 13/8

After a few recent dips in motivation which I alluded to in my previous updates, I feel that this week has taken a positive turn and has headed in a refreshing upward trajectory. And it feels really, really good!

I managed to get over several harder shots/ backgrounds which I have been putting off and I actually like the results as well. My ‘to do’ list is shrinking nicely and I feel extremely excited about having an almost complete film. I now feel like pushing through and getting more of it done, rather than avoiding some of the shots like I have been of late. I actually don’t want to stop working on it at the moment!

So what has changed? I think because I got to the stage of the project where I can no longer avoid some of the shots or else I’ll just be stalling, meaning I had to just pick something off the list and do it. Once done and found that ‘oh this looks quite good actually’ and/ or ‘it wasn’t even that hard so why was I procrastinating on it’, I then gained the motivation to work on more. When I can see that something is working, I don’t want to stop and when I have a taste of what the project can be or might look like when done, I just want to carry on.

I also had an injection of motivation/ inspiration from attending one of the MAF Presents evenings in Manchester on Wednesday this week. Along with a really well curated programme of short films there is space for networking/ talking with likeminded people. When you attend something like that and are asked about what you’re working on/ what do you do, I find that it takes you out of your head a little and makes you remember why you’re doing what you’re doing in the first place. It makes you less likely to want to stop the project and rekindles some of the motivations behind it you had when you were in the early stages of the film. When you’re working on something for so long and on your own, it’s easy to forget why you’re doing it or what the point of it is and it really takes some mental strength to complete it.

The motivations behind my film are firstly to create a story which I want to tell and to illustrate who I am as a director/ animator. I’ve never made such an ambitious project and I really want this to show who I am. I’m eager to succeed in this field as it’s what I have dedicated a good portion of my life to and it’s the only career I can see myself having. There is nothing I enjoy doing more. Secondly, as a ‘calling card’ film, with my intention to make a feature film next and attach a producer in order to attract funding. If I can show what I can do without funding or a producer, think of what I can do when I have both. With both these motivations now in the forefront of my mind, it makes it a lot easier to continue with the project and bring the same freshness and attitude towards it as when I started.

This just goes to show how important immersing yourself in a creative community is and something I really want to keep doing. Which is why I continue to attend festivals and events such as the one I have just mentioned, amongst others.

Below is one of my favourite backgrounds I created this week. Catch you in the next one xo

Recent Football Photography

After several months break from taking photos at football, I was back on it this weekend with not one, but two full sets!

The break was down to it being off season, plus being busy on animating 'Bear'- so not wanting to lose time I could be animating on editing photos. And also the fact that things in my personal life have been quite chaotic/ stressful in the last couple of months due to various reasons, meaning we haven't been going to as much football as we would have liked. Hopefully things are on the up now, so football photography will become more of a thing for me again. It was extremely enjoyable to get back into it!

Below are some images from Marsden FC, who play their games at the scenic Fall Lane. You can view the full set of photos here.

...And below are some images from The Rail, home to both Retford and Retford Ladies FC, the latter of who we watched on Sunday in a pre-season friendly. You can view the full set here. Heads up: if you like football and trains, then you'll enjoy these!

'Bear' Update 8/8

I didn’t do one of these last week as I felt it might have been a bit ‘same-y’ as the previous one, plus it was my birthday weekend (that’s totally a thing). And England Lionesses won the Euros so to say I was distracted would be fair. It still hasn’t quite sunk in just yet, but I feel it’s already having a huge impact on women’s football in this country.

Last post I was mentioned about trying to get a cut ready to submit to Manchester Animation Festival, which I did manage to do, albeit a work in progress. Fingers crossed I’ve done enough. Even though I have submitted it, the work continues- they’ve stipulated that it needs to be complete by September if submitted a rough cut. I have no way of knowing if it will be accepted before that, so I’m pushing ahead with the completion of it this month. There’s a fair amount to do, but it is definitely do-able. Frustrating, as I would absolutely love a break now (with it still being summer and nice weather and cricket season etc). But I just need to get over this one last push.

I have been getting a little stressed over it, so I decided to write down every little detail that needs doing in order to finish it, along with an estimate of how long each bit might take. It was a useful task and it’s a system I recommend if you have a project you’re trying to get finished. It makes it feel a little less stressful as it’s all down on paper and you can plan it out neatly in terms of what bits to do and on which day/ date. But it simultaneously feels daunting as you’re looking at everything that needs doing and trying not to cry! Though, if I just do one small thing towards it each day, then I’ll manage to finish and for me it’s easier working in bitesize chunks.

I think I’ll leave it here this week, before this post stops making sense! Plus, I want to put my full energy/ attention into the animation as opposed to writing about it at this stage, so apologies to disappoint. Hopefully try and get a better quality post out next week! In the meantime, I’ll leave you with one of the establishing background images:

'Bear' Update 25/7

Hey hey! How’s it going? Yes, you’re quite correct, there was not one off these last week due to having a holiday- now how about that! We (partner and I) had a wonderful week on the South Coast near Worthing (and beyond) for some architecture gazing, walking and of course, watching football (including a couple of the Women’s Euros games #ItsComingHome)!

Me and Ben on Worthing Pier

Before I bore you all with any more holiday snaps, I’ll get on with writing about what we’re really here for- an update on ‘Bear’.

I’m still getting on with the backgrounds and the colouring. Some of which are taking a while due to the complexity (there are moving parts like doors to contend with), though I feel on the whole, progress is being made- quite a few large and important sequences are complete and a few are near complete bar a logistical problem or two!

Despite the progress, I did have a little motivational crisis this week. It’s one of the first times I’ve felt like this in a big way about the project since that first week where I had a dip in confidence. I think this has happened this week because it’s at the stage where it’s nearly done yet it still feels like there are a lot of hurdles to get over (and hard ones, too) before I can say it’s complete. Some of the stuff left to do feels a little daunting, but I know I have to do it or the film won’t ever get finished. I think as well due to having been working on it since February almost non-stop and I kind of imagined I would have completed it by now, it feels a bit like I’m a fair way off being able to carry out the other creative ideas I want to pursue (including any football photography which I’ve been forfeiting for a while now, due to not wanting to lose a day of animating to editing the photos).

In addition to the above, I know I won’t have the film finished by my original 29th July deadline unless I rush parts of it (something I really don’t want to do due to having put so much time and effort into it already), leaving it a piece I’m not proud of and not the best it could be. Luckily Manchester Animation Festival (the deadline I was aiming for) accepts rough cuts/ works in progress (providing you can complete it by September), so I’ll see what state it’s in by Friday and if I feel I’ve done enough by then, I’ll send it in as even at this stage I’ll definitely be able to finish it by September. If not, then I guess I’ll have to wait another year. The ‘knowing I wouldn’t hit my original deadline’ was also a part to play towards my motivation dropping.

Anyway, that aside, I’ll share a behind the scenes image:

This is probably one of my favourite BTS images as it fully shows the beauty of the rotoscope medium. It also demonstrates what you can do with limited resources if you put your mind to it. Thanks to a super low budget (i.e. my own money) and therefore not having access to a proper sound stage/ studio or anything, the room I shot most of the reference material in didn’t have enough space to get this shot which I really wanted. Soooo, without willing to compromise on this occasion, I filmed it in the park where I shot some of the car scenes. And I absolutely love the result. Luckily it wasn’t really windy or anything or this shot might not have looked very realistic once comped with the background!

I think the above is a good example of knowing when not to compromise in indie filmmaking if you’re able to make it happen in a DIY fashion. This is another reason why I absolutely love rotoscoping, because it feels you can do pretty much anything with the medium, whereas in live action, it might not be possible without a huge budget, a crew, lighting, sound and a super producer who can obtain all those locations you need on the budget you have.

See you in the next one xo

35mm Photography

In early June, I treated myself to a 'new' (second hand/ pre-owned/ vintage/ insert preferred term here) 35mm camera:

What a beauty!

I've used film a lot over the past 11 years (you can scroll back down the #photography tag on this blog to find some of my earlier stuff if you're so inclined), but have given up 35mm cameras at several points in my life due to various reasons including lack of money and not making/ having the time to pursue working in the medium.

For the last year or so, I've had the urge to get back into it and I finally bit the bullet and purchased a camera I very much used to enjoy using way back when. And so far I've loved using it this time around too, though it might take a while to really get to grips with it again and get to know the camera and what settings to use etc.

One thing I was not expecting though was the incredible rise in both costs of film and film processing. I shouldn't have been so naive. Besides this, it's been really fun using a film camera again and I can't wait to keep improving my photos.

Here are some which I liked from the first roll. Classic cars and architecture- what's not to like!