The start of the festival season...

Hello hello hello!

Wowie what a couple of weeks it's been! Finished off on a major project Galaxy Chocolate Ad, and then I went to an animation festival called Animex.

I definitely have the festival bug this year, and I'm going to attempt to pop along to as many as I can afford!

Animex is a mighty festival in Middlesbrough, England, that has been running for 13 years altogether. Run by some spectacular lecturers from my old University. Over the years I've had the pleasure to meet an amazing array of incredible people, Eric Goldberg, Mark Walsh, Stuart Sumida, Ed Hooks, to name but a few.

...and this year was no exception.

There were lots of animation talks including Ed Hooks, Alastair McIlwain (Staandlooper), David Au (Rough Draft), Will Becher (Aardman), Murray Barber (The Mill), Ferran Domerech (MPC), Andrew Whiterhurst (Double Negative), Stuart Sumida, Hans Rijpkema (R&H) and Rob Dressel (Disney).

If you ever get chance to go to a festival near by or this one, in fact, don't pass up the opportunity.  It's such a great buzz, to meet all these very talented enthusatic people. It's a perfect place to make friends and meet old ones.

...because I'm a little afriad to babble on too much about how wonderful this event is, here are my favourite quotes from the event:

"We don't have problems, we have opportunities"

                                                    - Andrew Whitehurst

"The avoidence of failure is not the same 

thing as pursuing success"

                                  - Ed Hooks

"You've got to be prepared for your work to 

be thrown away. 

The joy is in doing it. If it gets out, it gets out!"

                                    - David Au

"If you don't recognise even a tiny bit of the caricature, 

it's not funny anymore....real life informs caricature"

                                              - Stuart Sumida

"Getting into the right frame of mind is all apart of the 

process of starting somethin new"

                                                  - Alastair McIlwain

I particularly liked Alastair's talk, it was filled with insight on how to open up your mind to creativity and how to achieve this. The link between a closed mind and goign through the process to achieve an open one:

Closed, soultion specific --> space --> time --> more time --> confidence --> Open, abstract view

But this can also be reached by....

Closed, soultion specific --> humour --> Open, abstract view

...the power of humour. Just like how John Cleese explains in the video a posted a while back called "On Creativity".

I can't wait to go to another one and meet even more people and get inspired! Hopefully I'll see you meet you there too :). If you'd like anymor infomation on Animex and thigns i saw/heard, just drop me an email. 

Otherwise visit

www.animex.net

@AnimexFestival

Day 48

I wanted to write a summary on Animex, but i've just beeen so busy since I got back. But now, i've had the chance, and here it is:

So I arrived Tuesday evening, and decided to go to the Animex screen to see the documentary about ILM. It was great to see it in context, as I'm currently reading The Pixar Touch, it really started to fall place in my head. Also, it was very interesting seeing different points of view.

Wednesday was the day with Fraser MacLean, which was amazing, and that's an understatement. I learnt so much from him. We used these brilliant pencils, and I can't stop using them now, i've ordered more in fact! His book, Setting the Scene, is superb, and he signed it for me too! I'm in the process of getting the animatic for Cat and Moth together, so I can send it to him at the end of the month. So, I'm very excited about that. Also in the session was Visual Development designer Tori Davis. She was lovely and inspiring. She had worked on Rio, (by Blue Sky Studios) one of my top 10 films to date. Her drawings were spectacular, so I had to buy her book!

Thursday was the first day of Animex Talk (I think next year I'll try and buy a ticket for the whole week). The schedule was full packed. We heard from Max Howard about the Oscars (a great insight), Hans Rijpkema from Rhythm and Hues about how to make Stereoscopic films correctly, (so you don't throw up!) which blew my mind, very interesting indeed. Then in the afternoon was filled by Curtis Jobling (Bob the Builder and Frankenstein's Cat) about his career progression and some advice along the way. Ben White - for Framestore (woo!), talked about Sherlock Holmes. Then to finish off the day we heard from Oli Hyatt from Blue Zoo, all about Animation UK, and fighting the cause for Tax breaks within the Animation industry, so our animation industry can stay in Britain!

The lounge took place in the evening. This is basically a networking evening, to meet all the speakers and guests of animex. It's great to get chatting to people and get a few business cards, and give some out! I met some lovely speakers and students.

Friday Animex Talk Day 2! Full packed with great information again. the first alk was by Rick Leary from Double Negative, all about Harry Potter. Next up was Shelley Page, with her favourite films and adverts from the last 18 months. I was amazed and excited, as she showed Coca Cola Siege (which I got to work on!) and Kia, which my colleagues had all worked on previously. It was a great great compliment. There were some great other films she showed too, including Paths of Hate. After lunch we heard from the recruiters from several companies, MPC, Double Negative, Framstore, Dreamworks and from Rachelle Lewis too. It was very insightful, even thoguh I had heard from them before, it's interesting to see how the recruitment process progresses from year to year. For example, hardly anyone uses hard copies any more (except Double Negative). After the break, up next was Dan Zelcs talking about his progression from studying at the University of Teesside (where Animex is hosted) to becoming the Lead Rigger at MPC. It was a very interesting story. Then to end the day and the whole of Animex Talk, Fraser MacLean and Tori Davis were up. Fraser talked a lot about the history of animation, which has to be one of my favourite subjects. It was great to hear his point of view and experiences.

...and that was it! What a fabulous week it was. I'd also like to add a massive thank you to the people that put me up for the week , Moz & Co. :)

Ditto looks hungry, but will she eat anything?

Day 43!

Well back from Animex now :), so back to normal. Very very inspirational week! Can't wait to get drawing and designing and animating! Karen deJong was amazing! so insightful. Oh and Eric Goldberg did about a 3-4 hour presentation last night which was brilliant!

Anyway, I can stop going off on tangents now and back to the drawings...

Day 41!

Morning!



Well sat in the lecture hall waiting for Animex to start, here's my doodles :)







And here's some pictures from the day:
Charles Solomon - beauty and the beast lecture



Paul Wells:




Joseph Gilland, really inspirational guy!




Tony west:


The lounge:







Doodles from the lounge:











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Location:Regent Rd,Middlesbrough,United Kingdom

Day 37

whoaa nearly at 40 days!

Well, on Tuesday my friends and I are traveling up to Middlesbrough for Animex

On the Wednesday we have a workshop with Eric Goldberg!!

Some (as from previous visits) I'm hoping it will deliever that all important overwhelming dollop of inspiration! So hopefully I can reflect that in this blog :)

Anyway, here is todays drawings and art:

 Cakes (does that count as art?)

My website is pretty much complete! just need a few more pieces of art to go on there :) and find a good host!