No Toy Gets Left Behind.

I'm in an all things Pixar mood today. I saw Toy Story 3D last week, am off to see 'Up' tomorrow in 3D and the new Toy Story 3 trailer has just been released and looks awesome.

In response I thought I'd post a picture of my shelf where my Pixar animated character collection currently resides (and will no doubt grow over time).

My latest aquisitions are the Thinkway Toys Toy Story Collection Woody and Buzz which are especially awesome because they are created using the digital data files from the actual film so their likenesses are as exact as they're ever going to be. Plus they both come with a ton of cool interactive features.


Woody has his pull string with 50 original sayings and Buzz has a whole array of gadgets, including most excitingly, actual wings which snap up at the press of the button and which have blinking lights at either wing tip! Gah.. so cool.

To complete my Toy Story collection I need the Little Green Men, Rex, R.C and the Bucket of Soldiers. Not cheap. I'm least interested in getting R.C, and what I'm really looking forward to is the Mr Potato head which is not yet released but is tantalisingly close.

Also pictured is Wall-E, EVE and M-O.

Depending on how much I enjoy Up (which I'm suspecting is very much) I have my eye on a plushie Doug the talking dog with light up collar in the Disney store...

"I can't let you go outside Sam..."

Yesterday I saw the film 'Moon' by English film director Duncan Jones. I won't go into details on the plot here because there are countless reviews and discussions elsewhere on the interweb but I strongly urge you to see it while it is out because its theatrical run is very limited.

Anyhoo, in the film there is an A.I computer called GERTY, (voiced by Kevin Spacey), who keeps the main protagonist, Sam Bell (played by Sam Rockwell) company. She has become my latest favourite film character in recent months.

GERTY has several different visual emotional responses throughout the film which are displayed on a small monitor in the form of basic facial expressions. After seeing the film I immediately wanted a replica of GERTY's emotional displays and so I set about recreating her visuals to use as a desktop wallpaper on my PC.

I grabbed stills from the HD trailer and made the following images using Paint Shop Pro 7. They are all highly accurate with the possible exception of the first and the last two images for which I couldn't find any online reference for. They are still none-the-less extremely close to what is seen onscreen.

(Click each image for full resolution):











Feel free to use them as desktop wallpaper as I have done. They are in widescreen 16:9 ratio.

A Blast from the Past

So here’s a few videos which bring back memories. Checking the dates of publication I can see that they were produced in October of 2005.


These show my early early attempts at visual effect shots that I made using our first digital camera, filming at a crude 10 frames per second. As you can see, the first three show my attempts at cloning myself with the interaction between the two ‘mees’ getting more involved each time so that by the third video I was passing an object directly to myself through mid-air. The illusion to me now isn’t entirely convincing but I can remember being impressed with what I had achieved at the time.


These last two videos show my attempts at rotoscoping... more specifically lightsaber rotoscaping. These were the days when my interest in Star Wars was higher than it is now and I and my friends used to battle in the garden using wooden sticks. Basically I just drew over the stick in every frame and added the necessary illumination and blur. I remember it took ages but was the only way it could be done. My efforts got even more elaborate by the second video where I included blaster bolts, clashes and sound effects too. It’s a shame in that I used to have about five more lightsaber videos but they have long since vanished about two computers ago. I'm suprised these have survived.

Hoopy Hoops!

...So I'm munching my way through a regular pack of Hula Hoops when I notice on the back of the multibag there is mention of a competition to produce a short film in finger puppet fasion.

What really caught my attention though was that the prize for the winning film was a trip for four to Hollywood..!

Noticing that the only criteria were that the film must contain your own fingers and hula hoops I reasoned I could produce a stop-motion animation featuring these two things and have it count as a valid entry.

I have therefore decided to proceed with my entry and have made a small start already. I shall post the film here and on YouTube when it is completed and trust that I can count on you, the viewer, to vote.

Edit: teaser pic above.

New Simon's Cat Animation

Head across to the website of Simon's Cat to see the latest in the series of animations by Simon Tofield, 'Fly Guy'.

I love these animations... so simple and yet hillarious, and the behaviour of cats has been so acutely observed and portrayed through the animation that anyone who owns a cat can totally relate to it.

Also check out the competition.

Dual Monitor Goodness!

Okay, so to kick off I thought I'd post a picture of my swanky new dual monitor layout. I've been meaning to get two monitors for some time and after struggling for nigh on four hours to get the damn thing set up and actually working I am most impressed.

With two monitors on the go (the rightmost being a 23" and the left hand monitor being a 22") my screen real-estate has been in effect doubled which is awesome when it comes to artwork, film or animation production in that I can save a lot of time by not having to click between multiple windows on one screen. For example I can have image editing software open on one screen and animation software on the other, or the internet on one screen and MS Word on the other, or even two internets open at once! Open windows slide seamlessly between the two monitors and I basically just have a lot more room to work with.

Further, it greatly increases the efficiency of workflow which will no doubt aid me greatly in the future... not least in the third year of my animation course.

My First Post

Hello peeps,

I thought it about time to start up a blog, mostly as a personal repository of all my art work, film, and animation I've produced over the years but also as a place to display things I find paticularly intersting or relevant relating to the current animation and film industry.

I hope this page serves as an intersting collection of oddments which others will find, in part at least, worth taking a look at.