Sketches from New Zealand

Sketches from New Zealand? But you live in England! So, why?

Well, I spent the end of 2017 and early 2018 in Australia and New Zealand, travelling around with my girlfriend. She was touring a theatre show and as I could continue my animation work with just my laptop and an internet connection, I took the office on the road for a short while! It was great fun and allowed me to meet her family on the New Zealand side, down in Christchurch.

Christchurch

We spent a week there over Christmas, enjoying their summer whilst everyone was shivering back home (sorry, but the gloating rights are still being exercised!) We stayed with her brother and his girlfriend, who live in a traditional workers cottage on the edge of town. It’s even got a tin roof! It was pretty special. I learnt a lot about the town and how it’s still recovering after the massive earthquakes that destroyed most of the buildings and infrastructure back in 2011. It’s still got these containers which acted as pop up shops until new ones were built. They were due to be de-commissioned just after we left, the extent of the re-build project being so huge.

Kaikoura

We also travelled to Kaikoura for a few days, which was actually pretty stormy and a bit chilly! I wasn’t prepared for it at all. The bay was beautiful though and we saw the seals flopping about on the pebbles and near the benches. They had zero interest in humans!

I love to sketch when I’m travelling, although I sometimes struggle to get myself to actually do it! Carving out the time can be tricky when there’s often a limited amount during a vacation, but if I do I always find the images bring back so many memories of the trip. It’s worth it in the long run! I still remember the chilly feeling waking up in Kaikoura, almost like we’d camped as the house was a rambling self build with bits added on and varied materials throughout. Very cool! Seeing the tops of the mountains across the bay tipped with cloud can make you feel very small indeed, especially after the rain storm the evening before. The plants were still looking perky though (and so exotic!)

Jumping out of planes

Look at my funky hat I had to wear, very professional 😉

For Christmas my girlfriend, Josie bought me a skydive. I’d always wanted to get that close to flying but when I actually was presented with the gift I was instantly bricking it! When we were going up in the little plane, I was very calm (like I’d accepted my fate) but this did me favours as it allowed me to enjoy the free fall and parachute much more. Zipping through the damp clouds then seeing the patchwork of Canterbury appear before you was unbelievable. I would definitely go again! So massive thanks to Josie for it 😀

Anyway, I hope you like my short selection of New Zealand sketches. I wish I could do a tour and JUST draw. One of my aims is to make a book collecting all my sketches that I love. I’ll have to see if I can carve out some time for that!

Toon Boom Camp London

Last weekend I was down in London for another sunny few days of Toon Boom’s Career Camps series. It’s two days of seminars and workshops on all aspects of the software, allowing those who are interested to get some hands-on experience before making the switch.

I was there taking the cut-out animation sessions (the same as I did in Dublin). We had a big group! And it was warm. Very warm. So hats off to all those who attended and managed to keep their concentration instead of running to the nearest lido 🙂

It’s always really inspiring to go to these events. The talks by Adam Shaw of Blue Zoo and Will Studd of Aardman were a huge motivator, giving a solid grounding to why everyone was there (in the long run!) Personally I’m excited to get back into training development again and working on more animation projects in the near future, especially in Toon Boom!

London on the rise

London has some really brilliant plans for Toon Boom Harmony and it’s integration into the studios down there. That, along with the great work going on in Bristol is helping bring the ‘long form production king’ to the South! Let us not forget the mighty Manchester, with its very own Brown Bag Films where I used to work. Those guys have been doing amazing stuff with Harmony since 2015. I think they were the first U.K studio to adopt the software on such a large scale. When I joined they were around 40 people there, now they’re heading towards 140…immense! So with all these places gradually expanding and increasing their knowledge level and talent pool, I have high hopes for a ‘platinum age’ of animation in the U.K. And yes, all these inverted commas are me trying to coin phrases before they’re a thing! Maybe one day I’ll be noted as the first to use the phrase in some publication. Oh the fame!

Toon Boom Shortcuts Cheat Sheet

Oh and for those who took my class and would like my personal Harmony shortcuts sheet, you can download the PDF here: https://www.toonboomtrainer.com/resources/shortcuts.pdf

Bath Spa town sketching

I was recently in the lovely town of Bath Spa. A GREAT place with lots of beautiful buildings and surrounded by big, bushy trees this time of year! Here’s a sketch from Kings Mead Square whilst having a coffee break in the sun. Fun fact: the famed waters of Bath Spa taste like eggs. NICE.

The cafes around this little area are buzzing nowadays! The whole of the U.K is constantly hopped up on coffee 🙂

Nuremberg Zoo

This weekend just gone I took advantage of those cheap European flights we have over here and hopped across to Nuremberg. My friend and I did the ‘find the cheapest deals online and book it’ kind of thing, without any specific reason to go. I think this made it more fun actually! Just wandering around and working things out, rather than the standard super researching that goes on with most Internet booked trips.

We ended up going to Nuremberg’s Tiergarten Zoo, which is set is a massive, sprawling park and includes a beer garden!

It was a sunny day, so we did a bit of sketching, had a pretzel, a beer and an ice cream. #DasKugel Top day out!

Nuremberg zoo sketches along with some German chaps at the tram stop

Toon Boom webinar on YouTube

Hey all! The recent LIVE webinar I conducted for Toon Boom Animation is now available to view on YouTube. If you have any questions about the topics I’m covering or the software in general, feel free to drop me a line on my contact page.

I also recently updated the website to a new theme (I’d been using a generic WordPress set up for a while and have only just gotten around to fixing it up!). The blog is linked up to my Facebook and Twitter too, so subscribe, like, follow, stalk…you get the idea!

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Catch me on a Toon Boom webinar

Symbols to peg Toon Boom webinar with Adam Oliver

On Thursday 7th June (tomorrow!) I’ll be talking live hosted by Toon Boom. The topic is ‘Symbols to Pegs: the differences of animating in Toon Boom Harmony’ so as you can imagine, there’s a strong focus on the crossover from other animation software. It’ll be 1 hour of animation GOLD (I may be overselling it there, but it’ll at least be a chance to get your questions answered!)

If you’d like to watch, you can sign up on Toon Boom’s website or catch the whole thing on YouTube afterwards.

Toon Boom Dublin Career Camp

Recently I was in wonderful Dublin for Toon Boom’s new initiative, their Career Camps. These weekend sessions are aimed at helping animators and studios cross over into the software, with several useful lectures and workshops to dive into. Best of all, they’re FREE!

I was there to talk and teach the cut-out animation sessions. I have to say, the crowd was very nice (even when my laptop decided it didn’t want to play with the projector for a little while). It’s so inspiring to be around passionate creatives who are still hungry to learn. It reminds me how you have to keep learning and evolving otherwise the paralysis of choice seems to creep in and pin you down with power of artistic insecurities..!

There was some gorgeous weather whilst we were there (unfortunately we were inside!) so here’s a snap from the canal in the south side of the city.

I’ll be at the Toon Boom London Career Camp on 30th June – 1st July 2018. If you’re interested, you can sign up for FREE here.

Toon Boom Training

Hey everyone! Exciting news…I’ve been working away on a business idea, Toon Boom Trainer and I recently launched the website.

Funnily enough, the website is called ToonBoomTrainer.com. We get animators up to speed in the 2D animation software, Toon Boom Harmony. But we’re not just another online course. I’ll act as your personal tutor, with a weekly review chat, 7-day support and great source files to work from. I’ve replicated the studio mentorship environment and applied it to this course, so you’ll get the absolute best advice along the way.

It’s perfectly suited to those who don’t want to spend days trawling YouTube for answers, or stumble through the more complex aspects of the program using tedious PDFs. Learning new software is an amazing investment and Toon Boom Harmony is dominating the animation industry right now. If you’re an animator already, four weeks of training will allow you to apply for Harmony-specific studio positions.

The Summer School is really just to test the water and covers a lot of ground, hence the intensive term! After this though, I’ll be focusing on specifics, so there will be rigging, animation, design and workflow courses. It’s worth mentioning that all the course is ‘intensive’, you can complete it part-time. This means you can keep your bill paying job and learn something new. To allow for those areas you might want to study further, we’ve got ‘stretch tasks’ which will enhance your understanding. Our current start date is set to July 31st, but we’re flexible and may run two batches of classes due to subscription levels.

If you’re interested in Toon Boom Trainer and would like to know more or have some feedback for me, please do get in touch!

Take part in the worldwide Sketchcrawl

Ever taken part in a Sketchcrawl? This is the original sketch meetup by Enrico Casarosa of Pixar fame. It’s like a pub crawl, but with drawing instead of beer (well, the beer is not the main focus, at least!) It’s a great way to meet fellow sketchers and see a place with fresh eyes.

There’s an event 29th July 2017, [edit: the event has been and gone, but check the Sketchcrawl forum for future events!] http://www.sketchcrawl.com/forum

You can tell I was new to watercolours when I did these…the paper crinkled like a Floridian pensioner

Added frivolities: I did my own one-man band sketchcrawl (so keen, so sad) back in 2004. I was a student then and just out around my hometown, Nottingham. Here are a few pictures from the day. Was a lot of fun as a little project, and interesting for me to see how I’ve developed. The sample pages below show I was still wrestling with construction and my ‘cartoony’ tendencies! That’s what you get growing up reading The Beano 🙂 See my new sketchbook work here.

My current hometown, Manchester is a great place to draw. There’s all the industrial charm of Deansgate locks, modern developments popping up all over the city and not forgetting the easy hipster pace of Ancoats. The tram is the lazy option, as places like Cornbrook will give you amazing views of the changing skyline, like the super expansion of Salford. Then you just hop back on and off you go! Easy peasy.

I still remember the things I drew that day (full disclosure, these sketches are pretty pants, but it’s good for nostalgia!) A sketch is worth a BAZILLION words my friends. Happy sketching y’all!

Trooping the colour

It’s the Queen’s birthday today and therefore the trooping of the colour takes place down in London. As a British citizen it’s my duty to dress in ceremonial attire and gallop around the streets on horseback, tooting a trumpet.

As I don’t have a horse and it’s awfully warm outside, I sketched the TV instead. I’m not a devout fan of the Royal family (spare me, Ma’am) but I do find the idea of a Royal family in a modern world pretty fascinating.

After recent events whereby the whole country feels like it’s going down the drain, it’s welcome distraction to watch something of order and control, even if we are paying for it. Respect to Liz for the minute’s silence. Still seems to have more wits about her than our wonderful prime minister.

I did this sketch in Mischief, a nice little drawing app for Windows and Mac. It’s got a mind-boggling ‘infinite canvas’ where you can just zoom and zoom and zoom. Try it! It’s AMAZING and could mean great things to storytelling.

It was a warm one! This chap had rather rosy cheeks.