The Willoughbys and Netflix!

It's finally announced! Check out the line up for the animated movies Netflix has coming up!

Showreel!

So I finally published my current reel. Not sure why it took me so long, I think it's because I was working on newer stuff and feel like it isn't as up to date as it could be, but what the hell eh?




Animation Showreel - India Barnardo from India Barnardo on Vimeo.

WIA

I recently joined WIA - Women in Animation, and I've been attending the Vancouver chapter events. I have been thoroughly impressed with what they have to offer women in animation/film industry and I just have to spread the news!!

Their current goal is to reach 50/50 by 2025. I think this drive is really important and it's not just related to gender either. If the industry can build working environments that are inclusive and diverse, this will encourage people to apply that would ordinarily feel to intimidated to. At any level you are at, you can help with inclusion. Encourage people to show their work, encourage people to apply for jobs, encourage people full stop.

At the Siggraph WIA Summit I attended on Saturday their shared this paper. The stats are horrifying, and showing all the talk of late hasn't actually been improving the numbers, so now is time for action!

Check out the WIA website and join today regardless of your gender http://womeninanimation.org/

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In other news my lack of posts reflect that I've been beavering away at Cat and Moth and we have now formed our lighting team! I can't wait to share the teaser with you, so watch this space!

The Willoughby's

This post has been a long time coming, Cat and Moth and my next new project has taking over all of life! Cat and Moth now has a completion date for September, eeeek! So it's full steam ahead! If you want to keep up to date, check out our newsletter over on the site, or foolow us on the many social media outlets @catandmoth

Okay onto the next thing! The next project I've just started work on is Ricky Gervais' The Willoughby's! It looks super fricking cool too.

It's also got some incredible voice talent, including Will Forte, Maya Rudolph and Terry Crews! It's based on a book by Lois Lowry. It's pretty dark, and which makes for a good combo with Ricky Gervais!

I can't wait to show you more in the future, but for now you'll have to suck up the beautiful concept art above :D

Damn

Yay finally managed to render my second Animsquad shot from the class I did last spring. I had an amazing experience in the Expert class with Malcon Pierce and I highly recommend his class, if I can afford to, I'll do it again some day!

Damn from India Barnardo on Vimeo.

Yikes!

Oohh my, I have neglected this little corner of the internet for some time!

I miss writing, and I need to do this more. I hope you are all living life to the mostest and that you haven't missed my waffling too much!

I've been keeping my instagram drawing/painting feed fairly updated, it's probably the quickest easiest outlet at the moment. I've also been selling some animation and art books, to make way for an upcoming move. I hate to part with my books but I can only carry so many.

These last few months have been a whirlwind of excitement and Cat and Moth has been taking over my life, literally! It's sooo much fun working on a short film full-time, if you ever get the opportunity I would grab it by the horns.

Working on Cat and Moth has been a huge learning curve in terms of directing, managing, creating, writing, everything! And it really has got me thinking about ways to write and create stories via film post-C&M. Next, I'd love to be able to produce stories from start to finish in the quickest, dirtiest way possible, which isn't always possible with animation. I was particular inspired to hear about Edgar Wright's story about creating lots of sketches for Beadles Hot Shots, where technically it was meant to be the audience sending in their skits, but there were never enough, so Edgar as an apprentice had to produce a ton of content, unbeknownst to Beadle. I like that phrase, it should be a title for something "Unbeknownst to Beadle", in Italics.

You can check out the whole interview by Adam Buxton here.

I think this quantity of exploration will be an exciting new endeavour. I can't wait to pick up a camera and have a play.

Is there anything you are desperate to try? What's stopping you?

Enough waffling from me today! Hopefully I can make this a more regular occurrence.

Over and Out!

iAnimate Podcast

I got the pleasure of talking about Ballerina on the latest iAnimate podcast! I have tried to listen, but it's too cringey listening to my own voice, so hopefully it doesn't hurt your ears too much...

http://ianimate.net/podcasts/item/interview-with-ballerina-animation-director-and-animators.html

Otto!

I worked on the Otto Christmas Advert just as I was finishing up at Studio AKA, I love that studio, such wonderful people and collaborative project. 

It's been tough finding a copy to share, as most of them are Germany restricted videos. Unfortunately the only version available is with all this writing plastered all over it. But nevertheless it is such a lovely piece and I was so happy to be apart of it for a short time.

I got to help with the previz for the show and then I got to animate on there shots:

(Mum and Dad only) 

Then I had time to block these shots out:

 

Thanks for looking! :D

Catch up!

Well quite a lot has happened the last couple of months, so here are my current updates....

Currently I'm concentrating on learning the torso, I hope at some point i can start writing about bits of things again! Cat & Moth is snowballing into production, and it's incredibly exciting!

And I can finally share what I've been working on at MPC:

Whoa!

Wowowiwiwoiiwweee.....

What a month! I started at Studio AKA at the beginning of August, and what an awesome place! My first piece of work is even out already. I had about a week to complete the 50 seconds of animation on me tod, and the director basically let me do what ever I wanted!


And I can't believe I didn't share this either. It was a crazy month. This is probably the first weekend I've been able to catch up on things. Anyway, here is the 2D character test I did for the film Cat & Moth that I'm directing:

Ditto Character Test from India Barnardo on Vimeo.

Hope you are all having a wicked September, Autumn is pretty much here!

New shot new shot!

Yay! I can finally post my newest shot! Hurrah! I've been working away trying to get out some new content, and this is the first in a line of pieces :)

Let me know what you think in the comments!

English version

Ballerina

Ooooohh my, I'm sooo excited to share with you the teaser poster AND teaser stills AAAND teaser trailer for Ballerina!!

Eeeeek, I thought it would be a while until we saw any movement, but here we are! YAY!! I hope you like it :D

The trailer is dubbed in French, but I ended up with quite a few shots! I'm so proud of our first movie, it was such amazing experience!

Updates!!

Whooaaa there nelly, have I been a busy bee or what?! The last time I posted here was March? Yeesh, time flies.

OKAY soooo, where do I begin?

Firstly, I shall do a new "Bits of Things" post soon, I have neglected the postage terribly, and I've been burrowing away at perfecting heads.

Cat & Moth has really taken off, with the addition of Artella as a crew finding tool, it's been brilliant.

I've been adding all my drawing stuffs to tumblr and instagram as of late, as it seems easier to keep track of! I'd love if you gave me a like or follow over there!

What else.... ooohh I finished Animsquad, my that was awesome, I miss it so, and feel a bit wobbly without the routine! I'll have my shots from there to upload at the end of the month.

And breath, phew, I think that's it. So watch this space, I have some of the head structural stuff as I mentioned, AND a couple of new books to add to the mix that I'm almost done with.

Thanks for putting up with me!

Over and OUT.

Books, books and more books

Man, books make it hard travelling light.

But I'm so happy to be back with my mini-library. Going to try and squeeze as much out of them as I can whilst I'm back.

On that note... here are a few books I've seen recently that look like must haves for any collection:

The art of Zootopia - (I wanna go see this sooo bad! Hurry up UK release date!)

The Making of Fantastic Mr.Fox - The look inside feature on amazon is really extensive, looks like a fab book!

Pixar Storytelling: Rules for Effective Storytelling Based on Pixar's Greatest Films - Not the shortest title in the world, but I'm intrigued by the content. It's not directly related to Pixar, I can't work out the exact connection. But I think it's based on Pixar films rather then the opinions of Pixar themselves. But for about £6 on kindle, it might be worth a bash!

Sketching

We are into the second week of Animsquad spring term, and this week, I had a revelation moment!

I was observing our tutor, Malcon, drawing over our shots and really looking at his short hand for describing a new emotion, or better pose. And I started to draw along with him. I felt as thought my short hand got so much better incredibly quickly. 

It's very cool watching someone draw, not for drawings sake, or for making it pretty, but to get the idea and emotion across and using that as a means to study. It really illustrates how they would approach it naturally, and not consciously. 

I wish classes for drawing could be set up like that, but the tutor would be too aware of what they are doing. I'm definitely going to be using it in the future to pick up tips.

Oh...and we love foreshortening!

Happy (belated) New Year!

Okay, sooo it's way past me being able to say Happy New Year, as February is almost done!

And with that, also is Ballerina and Montreal *sad face*. Ballerina was such an awesome experience, and I've loved living in another part of the world. We move back to Blighty soon, with new adventures afoot. Including unemployment, education, friends and family ;).

I actually can't wait to properly concentrate on Cat and Moth, and my own animations for a while. I've joined up to Animsquad, so I'm looking forward to hopefully digesting what I learnt on Ballerina.

I hope you, in the wide world web, are all staying healthy and happy. And here's to an amazing 2016! BRING IT!

What are your (rather late) aims for the New Year?

Merry Christmas!!!

oooohh my, where has the time gone?!

Okay so firstly, CTN was mega! I got to hang out with Ted Ty (our boss) and Sergio Pablos, he's such an awesome bloke, and daaaamn good. We got to meet Andrew Chesworth, such a lovely guy! Eeeek so many awesome people. A lot of the crew from Ballerina were there too, it was so great to run around with those guys soaking up all the inspiration. It's such a wonderful weekend to meet new people and soak up all that knowledge. I really enjoyed going to the story and storyboarding lectures, they were so insightful. Oh and to top it off, I won a raffle ticket to the Disney screening on the last evening and got to see sneaky peeks of Pickle and Peanut, Zootopia and Moana!

Secondly, Ballerina is coming into the home straight now, I can't believe how fast the last year has gone, I don't want it to end!

Thirdly, I never announced the opening up of the Cat and Moth site! It's finally live and I've been preparing some juicy goodies for any followers. Cat and Moth is also on twitter, facebook and instagram, so please give it a like or follow to follow our progress :D

 

Fourthly, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Bits of Things - Eyes 2

Heellloooo,

I just got back from CTN and it was AWESOME!!! Very inspired, and I'll write a post of the awesome stuff I found and people I met.

BUT for today, I've been researching eyes again, and looking at when and why the pupils dilate for my current close up shot, so I thought I would share a couple of articles I found that proved to be useful :)

The Eye Pupil

How we use our eyes to give away what we are thinking

Eyes are just tooo coool.

Back and books.

RIGHT!

Soo however quiet I have been, I have actually somehow kept up my drawing, and I'm neglecting "Bits of Things" - I'd like to take up where I left off, so watch this space for some hand stuff coming your way!

Also, I'd like to draw (no pun intended) you to these pre-order books I've been stacking up in my wishlist, as they look aaaamazing!

Before Ever After: The Lost Lectures of Walt Disney's Animation Studio in Hardcover by Don Hahn and Tracey Miller-Zarneke

This title is up for pre-order coming out October 20th 2015 and I was sold at "Lost Lectures of Walt Disney". I'm so intrigued by Disney at the time of Snow White, and if you would like to find out more about how they discovered everything they did, then you have to pre-order this book NOW.

Another book of Disney hiding stuff ;)

They Drew as They Pleased: The Hidden Art of Disney's Golden Age: The 1930s

At a snatch for only $19 (USD) and hardcover too, this is a hard book not to notice. Written by Didier Ghez and Intro by Pete Docter, it looks to be a great complimentary read to the above "Lost Lectures" book.  Here I hope we can learn and see their source of inspiration. Pre-order for the 8th September 2015.

I think this is probably my biggest want of the bunch

Funny!: Twenty-Five Years in the Pixar Story Room (The Art of....)

I'm just so intrigued by what gags make it, and why, and what gags don't! Plus, I love to laugh, who doesn't! November 17th 2015 for this one, hardcover, and only $14-15 big one's too! (USD)

The next on my pre-order hit list, is this beaut...

The Nine Old Men: Lessons, Techniques, and Inspiration from Disney's Great Animators

I'm sold by this sentence "Deja gives special attention to each animator and provides a thoughtful analysis on their techniques that include figure drawing, acting, story structure, and execution". Looks to be another $19 at pre-order price, and doesn't seem to have a release date just yet.

And finally, but by no means leastly

An Animator's Gallery: Eric Goldberg Draws the Disney Characters

Jeff Williams pointed this one out on his twitter, and strongly recommended by him too. How could I resist not adding this to the list?

And for this week's book order, I bought this (for a bit of fun!), I'll let you know how I get on :)

What books have you got on your wish-list?

As far as I can tell, all these books seem available vai amazon.co.uk, .com and .ca