2021 here we come!

A belated but very heartfelt happy new year to each and every one of you.

2021 has some VERY exciting plans in the works for us, and that means we can really help you in more areas of animation, rigging and all those lovely little areas around it. We’ve been heavily experimenting with natural media effects in Toon Boom, so look out for more on that this year too (as you can see a taste of in the animation below!)

I hope your year has started well and that the news isn’t getting you down. If it is, I have a 3 step plan which I can guarantee works 99% of the time (it’s free too).

1) Place all the items you receive news on in a room together
2) Shut the door on the room. Avoid at all costs
3) Have a nice drink and stare out the window at the wonders of nature

😀

Adam

N.B: That little joke there isn’t meant to be insensitive, just my nod to the mental war we’re all waging on the disasters on our screens right now. It’s exhausting, I know! There is light though, so keep the faith 🙂

Northumberland sketchbook & rocks!

A trip to Northumberland to spend a week in a cottage meant lots of big sky beach walks, fresh sea air and castle views. Here’s a selection of pages from my sketchbook and some doodles on rocks too! Fave moments include seeing the dogs go crazy on the sand, end of day light and watching the world go home for tea from the castle walls, and seeing a half yellowing moon hanging over the dunes, backdropped with a star-pocked sky.

: Holy island doing it’s appealing thing

: Castle views from the beach

: Stormy rain clouds from Seahouses

Sketches from a hot place

Several weeks ago myself and my partner, Josie went off to Lanzarote to visit her cousin and nieces. It’s the kind of location I probably wouldn’t head to as it’s quite rocky and barren looking in the photos, and I’m not much one for just lying on a beach (English skin ahoy..)

It was such an interesting little island though, and we had a great time! I took my sketchbook and pocket watercolours, doing little doodles when I got chance (we were only there for 5 days and the nieces were high energy!). Highlights included a cactus garden and falling asleep with the sound of the sea from our apartment window. Lush!

: People watching on the beach 1

: Beach sketching on the moon (or just a Lanzarote beach)

: Spanish island house with a cacti garden (and a weird scorpion tail one!)

: Being shown how to do it by Phoebe

: Cacti varieties and an old boat near the beach

: What better way to signpost a cactus garden than with a 30ft fibreglass cactus!

: More beach side sketches

: Minnie stopped using Snapchat on my phone for two minutes to smash out a cracking drawing

: People watching on the beach 2

: Sunset from the seaside apartment

: Love old cinema gear like this! Found in an antiques shop

: The seaside bay

Evening doodles in the living room

As has been the case for much of this locked down year, I’ve spent a fair few evenings in my living room, so I thought it was time to draw it! It’s not that I don’t sit down and watch TV, but in summer I’m normally much more out and about, plus we don’t have the social side available right now. Either way, Dan Gregory and his fab books inspired me once again to draw what was in front of me. If you haven’t read his stuff, I highly recommend it 🙂

New animation training

A little update from the world of animation training. As you may know, I’ve been running the side project turned mega beast Toon Boom Trainer. I say mega beast as at times it takes over my life! But it IS fun and I get a huge kick from running the courses and seeing people come on with their learning.

What’s this new name about?

Toon Boom Trainer has been going for 3 years now (time flies!) and it’s now time for a change. So from the end of May, Toon Boom Trainer will become….

The new logo

To start with I’ll be running the same courses, but the idea is to allow for easier expansion and training over a much broader area of animation. It’s exciting! I’m really proud of the site that’s been created as the student experience is very friendly and easy to track progress in. I’ve also go a blog set up and plans for plenty of free content, so DO sign up for the email updates when you head over 🙂

You said new course, right?

Our newest course, Advanced Animation in Toon Boom Harmony opens for sign ups as of today! Sign up via the image link below. It’s going to be a fantastic ride through the world of character animation, resulting in a showreel-worthy piece of performance. Read more on the new site, but I think you’ll love it!

Lots of great exercises and tips to get your character animation SINGING!

Distant sketching

Whilst I’m here on lock down under the government restrictions, I thought I’d try a sketching game. I take a series of pictures from a friends story on Instagram and turn them into ‘location sketches’ as though I was there. This just means I sketch them quick and loose, then throw a bit of colour on (digitally this time but normally it’d be with watercolours). These photos spoke to me because they were from a friend in Australia, where the colour and light just feels so alien other-worldly. I love the trees and vegetation out there, and I can almost here the dry rustle of the bushes in the wind. I also liked the concrete underpass photo as it reminds me a bit of the ones were have here in Manchester, and the ones in the U.S.A. There’s something calming and peaceful about those smooth, futuristic columns in permanent shade! Life humming away overhead.

So here are the sketches coloured up. I omitted one of them I finished as it was a overly worked sketch and the colour didn’t do it any favours, but it was the first one I did, so 3 out of 4 isn’t bad!

Happy Easter!

Last Sunday I found myself in the unusual situation of enforced lockdown on a sunny day. We’d taken our dog, Wilson out for his walk already and had done the jobs that needed to be done, so it was a free afternoon. The sun was streaming in the living room window and the music was forming a comfy background to settle into. Alas, hand drawn animation became a THING for the day! I haven’t done hand drawn animation for FUN for many years, and it was ACE to come back to my animation gateway drug 🙂 It did make me realise how loooooong hand drawn stuff takes, but it was very relaxing and enjoyable to make anywho. Cheesy music courtesy of Apple iMovie. Animation made in Rough Animator for the iPad.

Chris Voss Masterclass

So far I’m loving the Masterclass series. It’s so well produced and edited, along with really interesting speakers and subjects. You can see a commonality amongst the best of any field. Recently I’ve been listening to the fascinating stories from ex-FBI negotiator, Chris Voss. The way he talks to the camera is very interesting and I feel myself getting sucked into his conversations when I know it’s all an act! Amazing stuff. Here’s the doodle, all made in Toon Boom Harmony (as that’s the software I had open) using a combination of vector and bitmap brushes (I love the software as a sketching program too).

A sketch of the expressive and captivating Chris Voss! From his Masterclass series

MAF update

So far so good at #MAF2019 (or Manchester Animation Festival 2019…to the non initiated!) Great making of talk with Aardman (@aardmananimations) and brilliant to finally see Swallows of Kabul in the evening. As a quick reminder, I’m talking from 10.30am tomorrow (Thursday 14th November 2019) in the event space about animation work and the greatness of Toon Boom. If you have a festival pass, come along! It will be a great introduction to the software, perfect for those curious about what it can do and how best to use it.

MAF 2019 swag including notable additions of chocolate bee emblem and lovely pin badges. 10 out of 10!

Manchester animation festival talk

I’ll be talking about all things animation and Toon Boom next week at Manchester’s very own animation festival. It’s pretty impressive these days with loads of great events and screenings, so I’d encourage you to go. You can read the whats on guide here.

Here’s the info for my talk. If you’re around, please do come say hello!