'Bear' Short Film- Now Online!!

My short film 'Bear' is now available to watch on YouTube. More detailed writing about it on the Animated Short tag on the sidebar, if ya want to know more. But basically: an ambitious project, learned a LOT, was not funded and animated entirely by myself. Total budget was around £1.5k, along with countless hours (12 months) of work which I did for free, with no exterior sources to motivate me etc. Yes, it's far from 'perfect', but proud of what I achieved with it (making a project from start to finish is hard, let alone one of this length and solo). I'm using what I learnt from this one to take with me into my next project, which I'm already developing. Watch this space, hope ya enjoy xo

Full credits: Bear: Peter Stone The Manager: Anthea Carpenter Procter Director of photography: Alan Livesey Score: Jason Williams Storyboard ref/ runner: Ben Fuller Director/ animator/ writer: Flora Martyr Additional audio/ foley: ADOBE SFX iLIFE SOUND EFFECTS FREESOUND.ORG

‘Bear’ One Year On/ WINNING AN AWARD!

In September last year, I completed my most ambitious solo project to date: my eleven minute short film ‘Bear’, which I wrote, directed, animated and I guess produced (by default) as well. To be brutally honest, it hasn’t had the most successful festival run thus far (though still waiting to hear back from a few), which kind of went against my hopes and expectations for the film- I thought it might have done a little better on that side of things. That’s not to say it hasn’t had any success- it has been selected for several screenings, all of which have had extremely positive feedback.

And to my surprise at the films' most recent outing, it won the ‘Northern Spirit’ award at The Spirit of Independence Film Festival (in a packed out screening)! This was a complete surprise to me and I’m so honoured that the Screen Yorkshire judges selected ‘Bear’ to win the prize. The films it was playing alongside were all absolutely fantastic, so to win felt even more special. And also to have an animated film picked as the winner amongst live action films was quite something. Animation is often seen as something ‘lesser’ than live action and often not taken as seriously, or just as a format exclusive to children’s media. I mean you only need to look as far as the Academy Awards as evidence…

Not embarrassing at all! Photo credit Jacob Flannery.

I feel winning this award has given me a fair amount of well needed validation in the ‘industry’. I feel my route to the ‘industry’ was slow and meandering, with not a lot of connections and not attending any of the typical universities (i.e. CSM, NFTS, RCA) which often get you a leg up in this field. I have really just done my own thing, kept plugging away and it feels like everything I have been doing to this point is finally paying off. And in my opinion, deservedly so. It makes me want to keep chasing my dreams of becoming a feature film director and has given me the extra bit of motivation to do so. More on that towards the end of this post…

I hadn’t actually watched ‘Bear’ since it’s Manchester screening prior to this in December 2022, because often when finishing a project, I need time away from it to really let what I’ve created sink in and be able to form a realistic opinion on my work. Something I find hard to do so close after finishing a project- if I’m honest I usually dislike it and can only see the negatives/ mistakes and my ability to see the film as a whole is often distorted.

The Saturday morning of the festival I was a little apprehensive about seeing my film again on a big screen with a good sound system. For some reason, I had (wrongly) built up an image in my head that the film was really ‘bad’ (probably because of the amount of festival rejections). Since my completion of the film, I feel I have grown as both a filmmaker and a person and I wasn’t sure if it would really represent me very well. But maybe some of that growth was down to having made this film anyway. Looking back, it was an extremely ambitious project, though I do feel I pulled it off- or at least to a certain extent. When it was playing at SOIFF, I was actually thinking ‘you know what, this is actually quite alright’ and there are some parts of it which I am especially proud of. I’ll go through a few of those now:

Firstly, the fact that I wrote and directed such an ambitious project, with no outside forces like funding etc to keep me going. It wasn’t a totally smooth ride either and there were bumps along the way, with my metal health and other things which kept it from not going as smoothly. Though I persisted and finished it. Which, we all know, is a hard thing to do. Abandoning projects midway is so common in creative people (myself included).

Secondly, I’m really impressed with the animation and a few techniques I used (no spoilers, sorry)! I really liked how I kept it on the experimental side and true to my style/ background, whilst keeping a cohesive look and feel throughout, with focus on story. I always think, if this is what I can do alone, then what I could produce with a team would be amazing!

As a concept piece, I also found myself impressed. I say ‘concept piece’, because the film was made to showcase who I am as a filmmaker/ director, and illustrate what I can make on an extremely limited budget with time constraints. It definitely shows the type of film I want to be making in the future, both thematically and stylistically. But with a larger team and a budget behind I could take things much further. One of my goals for this film was to have it as a so called ‘calling card’ with hope of making a feature film next. But because of it’s lack of festival run, I felt I hadn’t really achieved this or I would need to make another, 'better' short next year. Though on this most recent viewing of the film, I felt this was actually achieved and it’s something I think I can show to someone (a higher up) and say ‘I want to make this kind of thing, but bigger and better’!

Yes, there are many mistakes too and a lot I feel I have learnt from it which I can take in to my next project. One, is the sound design- it wasn’t as bad as I imagined or had built up in my head, but I know it could be improved with the right people behind it. I also feel the edit could have been a lot tighter and less ‘baggy’. Though at the time I felt all of it was needed. Yes, I could potentially do a recut now and rebuild the sound design, but there would be little point in doing that as I’ll never move on to my next project if I keep striving for an unattainable ‘perfection’ in this project. So leave it, learn from it and go again!

…So what next?

I’ve a few months left on my current work contract, but after that, I still haven’t given up on the idea that I would like to make a feature film. Over the last few months in my free time I’ve been slowly developing my idea and exploring what I want to make. So once this contract is up, I think I’m going to go full force into writing the treatment for it and aim to attach a producer in order to get BFI development funding to aid me to write the script. That’s pretty much the plan! Though because it’s such a big challenge (and therefore quite scary), I sometimes feel that maybe I’ll make another short instead as it’s more attainable etc and feels ‘safer’. But if I ask myself what I truly want to do in life, to make a feature film has always been one of my goals. So yeah, there’s never going to be the right or ‘perfect’ time to do it- so I should just go for it.

I would like to make another short alongside developing the feature (as I do have a lot of ideas for those too), but probably a music video, because it’s a been a while (2016) since my last one and I find it such a fun format to work in. I like the idea of creating something which is more heavy on the visuals than narrative (yes I’m aware narrative music videos do exist!), whilst working on my feature which will be narrative based.

BEAR- Selected

Delighted to announce that 'Bear' has another festival outing- woop woop! It has been selected for The Spirit of Independence Film Festival, which is actually a film festival based here in Sheffield. So if you fancy catching my film (or any of the other fantastic looking shorts/ features), then make sure you have Saturday 30th September free!

To see the rest of the line up, find out more about the festival and to buy tickets, head to the website here.

Hope to see some of you there!

'Bear' BTS #3

Third in my ‘behind the scenes’ series of my short film, ‘Bear’ is this clip:

Click here to see the previous ones.

This one illustrates the colouring process. After completing all the outlines in Callipeg, I exported them into TVPaint via JSON files and used the CTG layers to block colour the character and main props. I then used a textured brush for the bear head as I wanted to give it a feel of fur and have it separate from how the character was coloured. I textured this frame by frame using clipping masks, again to give the feel of the head more texture and a feel of movement (like how fur might move). At the end of the clip, you can see this shot in sequence with a few others from the scene.

I originally wanted to add some shadows/ highlight shading using EbSynth, but as I was doing this project solo and given myself a limited time to do it in (until I needed to get a new job basically!), plus it being 11 minutes in length, I decided against it or who knows, I might still be working on it! Next time though...

'Bear' BTS #2

Second in my ‘behind the scenes’ series of my short film, ‘Bear’ is this clip:

Click here to view the previous one.

This is more of a process video- something I've rarely shared before of my work, mainly due to seldom filming timelapses when I animate. I usually find it quite off putting to know that every little move is being recorded! Though when making this short, I purposefully decided to capture as much bts footage as possible (besides the live action shoot, down to budget or lack thereof) of all the different post production processes involved. This is because I knew I wanted to have some documentation of creating the project, as it's my most ambitious to date.

This clip is split into three parts: first is a timelapse of how I created one of the backgrounds in TVPaint from a reference photo I took; second is a timelapse extract of rotoscoping the outlines- these were all done on my iPad using Callipeg. To make it as smooth as possible and to make sure I don't forget any lines or miss them out, I take one line and draw it until the end of the shot. I then choose another line and repeat the process until all lines are complete! It's kind of more monotonous this way, but therapeutic all the same! You can also see in this clip that the filming location is the same as the previous bts clip- the beauty of rotoscoping, especially on a tight budget. You do not need to shoot in a fancy/ expensive studio or against a green screen either- I guess it helps a little as it makes the character easier to see as the background is so contrasting, but it’s not necessary. This is proof! And lastly, is the finished shot.

Credits for this clip: Peter Stone is Bear and Alan Livesey on camera for the live action shoot.

'Bear' BTS #1

One year on almost to the day since the reference footage shoot for my short film 'Bear', I've got it together to post some behind the scenes footage! The majority of the film was shot in one location, with only a few major props included. Everything else was drawn in/ animated afterwards. This shot of him working in the factory is a good example of this:

I'll be doing a series of similar 'making of' clips- comparing the original footage to the final composite, maybe throw in some timelapse bits too- I filmed a lot as I was animating, so will be nice to finally put it out there for all to see.

Here's the moving version of the above (YouTube now doesn't let me choose a thumbnail for shorts- sigh):

Credits: Peter Stone as Bear and Alan Livesey on camera. Directed and animated by myself!

'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!

'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

'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

'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

Background Style/ Project Update

A late post, I know, I know. I just felt I was far too busy to stop working on the backgrounds/ project in general to type this thing out. But I assure you, I am still working hard on ‘Bear’!

I bet you want to know what background style I’ve chosen then? Well read on…

I decided to go for a fairly minimalist take on things for several reasons. The first being the pressure of time- if I went for a super complex style, then the likelihood of still working on the backgrounds at the end of the year would be very real. And something which I definitely do not want. A finished film is always better than an unfinished film, however ‘great’ the unfinished film might be, hypothetically, of course!

I also wanted to do something within my skillset. My primary skills lie in rotoscoping and are very character focussed, rather than anything else. Usually my backgrounds (when I do them) are more impressionistic/ abstract, so I wanted to carry that across into this film and despite it being a more advanced piece in terms of story, I still want it to reflect who I am as an artist/ filmmaker. I didn’t want to make really clean looking backgrounds, because that wouldn’t be playing to my skillset and I’m probably not the best person to carry that out. Maybe that’s for when I make a film with a budget. All eyes on you, funders!

If you remember back in January I actually posted about some potential background styles. Before starting the animation process, I was convinced that those were the style I’d go for, but as I got further into the project, I felt they’d be too complex to reproduce for each background in the time that I have. I really liked the textured aspect to them, which I kept for the current backgrounds, but everything else was kind of scrapped. I also created them in Procreate- a wonderful drawing app, but personally I find it difficult to animate in, so if I were to use the same continuity in bushes etc for the parts which needed to be moving such as doors opening, then that would have posed a problem. So I needed to find a way of making the backgrounds in TVPaint.

After deciding to scrap my original ideas I was a little stuck to be honest, but I then watched several short animations to get some inspiration going and that definitely worked! It always does, I find. I’m always super inspired after coming back from any form of animation festival or short film screening. My favourite place currently to source quality short animation online is the YouTube channel BANG BANG which you should all go check out (right after reading the rest of this post)!

I stumbled upon several shorts which utilised black and white/ greyscale backgrounds and thought that could be a good way forward.

My designs evolved from something really clean and graphic (which I almost went for, but deep down I knew something wasn’t quite ‘right’) to something similar, but with texture and something which suited the style of the film much more. The added texture softened the whole image and was much more pleasing to look at. I also like the fact it didn’t look as ‘clean’ as the original idea. You can see the evolution of my designs here:

The middle style was at first the design I decided to go with, but then as I created more backgrounds for the project, I was finding the two-tone idea quite limiting and I didn’t think the backgrounds were looking ‘good enough’ or at least complex enough for what I wanted to achieve with my film. I also disliked the amount of white space in them. I then decided to still use the same concept, but in a more greyscale way as you can see in the third design. I am much happier with how these are looking. I feel as the designs are somewhat ‘closed in’ and perhaps even claustrophobic feeling, they definitely suit the tone of the film. The style is quite dark, emulating what the character is going through, throughout. They are minimal, but have more than enough detail for the audience to tell what room or setting he is in. They are still pretty much as time efficient to carry out, too.

I’ll leave you with this little clip, so you can see what it all looks like when its moving:

‘Bear’ Colour Week 1

If you’ve been keeping up with these updates, then you will know that last week I finally finished the outlines and made a start on the colouring. This week I managed to colour 35 shots in full, as well as making a solid start on the background designs. So all in all I made good progress this week. I know last week I stated that I’d do a post on the backgrounds, but I just wanted to make double-y sure that the style I have chosen is the route I want to go down, before fully committing to it. As far as I’m concerned it is, but I’m just mulling it over in my head a little more just incase I have some last minute thoughts or inspiration! So do expect a post on that soon, but just not right now!

To be honest there’s not much else interesting to report on how it’s all going, so just going to casually manifest/ put it out ‘there’ that after this short I want to direct a rotoscoped feature. I guess I’ll see you in the background style post…

Here’s an image of the most recent colour swatch (has developed a fair bit since last week):

'Bear' Colour Style

Deciding on the colour style for ‘Bear’ was a fairly straightforward process, as while I was creating the outlines, in the back of my mind I was always thinking of how to colour it. Before the animating began and even in my initial ideas phase for this film before it was even a script, I also had a quite strong idea of how I wanted it to look.

I guess this is because I’m a fairly visual thinker and when I have a story idea or concept, I usually have some imagery alongside that, whether that be in my head or down on paper. It’s also come from a development of my style in the work I create outside of my films, such as the short clips you read about on this very blog or see on my Instagram.

Not only this, but I had to bear (no pun intended) in mind that there’s a fair amount of shots to colour in a limited time with a crew of just me, so I can’t be overly complex with my designs or I’ll never manage to finish the film! Despite this, I wanted to move away from block colour, like in my previous film ‘Nothing New’ (and a lot of my other short films) as to say that I have developed as an animator/ artist, while still wanting the workload to be manageable.

So, I bet you’re wondering what style I ended up going for? Well look no further…

As you can see, I have used block colour for the most part of it, though have added some shading on the character to give it a little something extra. I did this using EbSynth. I also textured the bear head. I would have loved to be afforded the time to have textured the whole thing because I’m a sucker for the textured look, but I feel having the bear head as the only thing which is textured makes it stand out (which it should do), plus gives a sense of fur. So I’m totally cool with the decision to texture only one element.

I coloured the character in TVPaint using the CTG layers, which is a fairly quick process- at least on the shots where he isn’t moving around too much! In just over one day, I managed to colour and texture 25 shots, which I was super happy about. I feel the EbSynth shading part will take a little longer due to the amount of touch up which I’m anticipating, but if I colour the rest of the shots at a similar rate, the timescale shouldn’t be a problem. I considered leaving the shading out due to time, but I do think it adds something to the character, plus really shows development in my work which for me is important to display in this film. I textured the head in TVPaint as well, using the brush ‘Acrylic 4’- which gave me the look I was after. Even though there are probably ‘better’ brushes elsewhere such as Photoshop and Procreate, I wanted to keep everything in TVPaint as for the life of me I can’t stand how non-specific animation programs have their weird way of animating- it feels really unintuitive and I honestly can’t get my head around how it’s done! I love the way programs built for animation make sense such as TVPaint and Callipeg, though the latter unfortunately lacks in brush options. The TVPaint brushes are more than sufficient for my needs and I know I can either make some or purchase some, should I need.

Below is a screen grab of the swatch I’ve created for my main character.

I went for a fairly muted/ desaturated palette, as I felt it would suit the tone of the film more than using bright/ vibrant colours would. Without giving away any of the narrative, the story isn’t exactly a super happy one, so using fluorescent colours definitely didn’t suit! I’m really happy with the colours I’ve chosen, after a little trial and error to get something which works.

This week will mostly be colour/ texture work, though I’m going to make a start on background designs too, due to not being able to colour some shots without a background- so look out for that post in the next few days…

Outlines Completion Post!!

Here it is- the moment we’ve all been waiting for! THE OUTLINES ARE NOW COMPLETE!! Wow. Can’t believe I’m saying this and to be honest, at some points I really didn’t think it would happen. But it has and I’m mega proud of what I’ve achieved so far.

After a second post-animation vigorous editing process (yes, some shots I animated needed to be cut to tell the story better) I watched the outlines version of the film ‘in full’ and I actually quite like it. It tells the story I set out to tell and I think it’s a nice, compact film. If a little odd!

Despite this, there is some animation I would like to touch up. Some of the shots I completed nearer the start of the project need a little more work, due to not having fully established the style to extent the later shots were completed. Over the course of animating the outlines, I have improved my animation immensely and looking back now, there are some shots I’m not quite happy with, along with a few inconsistencies. I appreciate I don’t have the time to go back into each one and alter all of them so I need to be slightly selective, though there are some which are a ‘definite’. I think I’ll make a couple of lists for this: one for the ones which are important to rework and another list for if I get some time, it’ll be nice to rework… So that’s where I’m at currently!

Even though finishing the outlines is a massive step/ milestone, in no way does that mean it’s plain sailing from here: it isn’t. So I will not be taking my foot off the gas until I’m well underway in the colouring process and therefore will have more of an idea how long the rest of it might take.

The next step now is working out the colouring and the background styles. I hope I’ll be able to have another little clip to be able to share at some point next week- it will be nice to put something out in celebration of this landmark, so that’s something to look forward to…

Here’s the screen grab of the outlines timeline:

And here’s a couple of pictures of my notebook I use to track the time of each shot/ my days work. Maybe one day I’ll add the whole thing up to see exactly how long the outlines took- but I think I’m going to finish the film first!!

Will do another post when I’ve sorted the colouring styles- catch you then!

xo