The Compeditor

It's difficult to describe how exciting and useful this is, being able to see my tests straight away.  Thank you to Graham and to Bazza's Bazaar.

Hello strangers

I'm currently preparing for some activity of the animated variety, so I shall close my door on the beams of sunlight and the sound of bongos that accompanies it around here.  My studio is a health and safety concern though and is presently only accessible by diving head first in from the doorway so first I must make a space.  A large space for a new acquisition, for I hope to be the proud owner of an Acmade Compeditor this week or next, and then I start some more tests on my vampire film Frombald.

Show us your shorts

I showed some of my shorts last night at a WFTV & LIAF event at Deluxe Soho.  I was on a panel in the company of Magdalena Osinska and Suzanne Deakin, it was really nice to catch up with LIAF news and think about animation a bit.  It was easy to see why Suzanne has been so successful as a commercial animator.   Talent plays a large role of course  but also she has a very positive attitude to the processes and challenges of working commercially.  My favourite animation of hers is the Olay 'The End of Lines', you can see it here on the Slinky website.  Magdalena can animate anything!  I saw Zbigniev's Cupboard in the summer, but I hadn't realised that she also made 'Joyets', she's so versatile, it's no wonder she's currently busy at Aardman.

Spring!

This is a little timelapse sequence that I took this time last year.  The exciting event will probably happen again quite soon.

Small recreational excitements

Our potatoes and our coffee in the shed and an absorbing trip to the Wallace collection.

My excuses

I have been having a busy patch and I admit guiltily that I have been contributing to another blog, temporarily neglecting my own news from the bog.  Emily Tracy and I have been helping Gayhurst Community School to make their First Light film about sneezing and germs and you can read all about it on their blog.  We've been helping the children to make an experimental animation with archive footage; we spend alot of time frowning and scribbling notes between workshops because we are trying out ideas and techniques that are strange and new to us both. Of course the children take it all in their stride and with glee and gusto.

 I have also returned to Anglia Ruskin University to teach a little bit on the animation module, which I always really enjoy and next week Wendy Scott and I start a Creative Partnerships project near Tilbury Town.

To Paris and Back

With grateful thanks to my parents-in-law for keeping our home life together, we were able to skip merrily off to the Festival of Different and Experimental Films in Paris,  there was time to go to the Pompidou centre to see the wopping Mondrian de Stijl exhibition, the Cluny Museum and many cafes of course.

Snowy leaves, birdy footsteps and squirrel looking in.

Other things

I'm really enjoying the more thought-provoking posts on A P Engine at the moment, read Adam Pugh if you can, I wonder if he's grown a full beard and writes in a shed. It's Great stuff. Samantha Moore has also written a very elegant piece on Animated Documentaries, she makes a very welcome addition to the discourse around animation. It's really good to read some longer articles, a nice antidote to the all the tweet tweeting.

First Light Green Light

Emily Tracy & I are really pleased to announce that we have been awarded a First Light Young Film Fund Pilot Grant to work with pupils at Gayhurst Community School. We are going to be making an experimental animated film based on a film from the BFI archive. You can see Coughs and Sneezes here. It's a little sadistic but very funny.

Dead Peter and the mob

I've managed to make a re start on Frombald again. I've remembered what I was doing and why I like the story so much. I'm sure I'll be able to enlarge upon that later. For the meantime here is what I've been up to today. I've been printing onto 35mm with rubber stamps that I'm carving by hand, and colouring with watercolour. The shots will be comprised of little loops, this method will make the work necessarily spare in both line and motion, it's an exciting restriction.

Monster, Yuck on Head & Pirate Hobbs

Yesterday at the LCFF we made flipbooks using live action and drawing. Here are my three examples before I bound them, totally trumped by the very brilliant books from the workshop participants. I used Istopmotion to capture and print the live action images and I found some very handy self adhesive book cloth from Shepherd's to cover the stapled edge.

Tigers, Fangs and Shamans

Today I've put my KT Tunstall animations on my Youtube channel and I've also managed to put them on my website without breaking it, so you can watch them easily and issue rude comments if you like.

London Animation Club

Last night Kim and I went to the marvellous monthly London Animation Club, beautifully run by Martin Pickles. People come along and show work in progress, finished and polished work and archive animations too and the mixture works very well. It's spurred me on a bit.

Papercuts

I've been busy making invitations for a family party.

2 Autumns

It feels as if we're having a second autumn doesn't it?

Happy Halloween

Actually this is exactly what my studio looks like at the moment.

Salisbury

Last week I went to Salisbury Cathedral and enjoyed the little model of the cathedral being constructed. I'd always wondered how and now I know.

Puffin, Tadpole & Platypus

I made 3 little monoprints for my brother and Harry.

I havn't added many postings recently, I'm sorry if you looked and there was nothing new here. I blame Damages, plus a little bit of plot maintenance, and a few workshops at the Barbican and NPG.














Here we are eating all the tomatoes before they get home.