Penguin film alliance!
I have some exciting news: as of last week, my recent short animated film, Who moved my Penguin? is screening exclusively through Adastra’s channel, BoggleSox. The channel also screens such properties (fancy word for stuff, tangible or not) as Grandpa in my Pocket, Bounty Hamster and Spider! Funnily enough, you can see my fiancee, Josie (as of Feb 14th!) in the show Ha Ha Hairies on there, too!
It’s really great to get the film seen by such a large audience (50 million channel views and counting!) with the bonus of being around the brilliant shows mentioned above. I’d LOVE to create more of these little films but it’s all down to funds to do so. They’re not expensive (I can actually make them quickly, in animation terms) but I still need money to live 😉 If you are looking to fund some new short animated series work, LET’S TALK! 😀 I’d love to hear from you.
Here’s the film again, updated to it’s new place on the web. As of last week it became inactive on my Vimeo and YouTube accounts, ready for this launch. At that time, it had amassed over 40,000 views. I’m chuffed with that! My last proper short film was during university and with the internet not being the beast it is now, it garnered nowhere near as much eyeballing. Festival submissions and DVD posting ruled back then! Ahhh sweet 2007…
Spring sunset
- At March 20, 2019
- By Adam
- In Sketchbook, Updates
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Today apparently marks the start of Spring here in the U.K plus there’s something called a super worm moon whatever that is! The days are getting warmer and the rain has lifted, at least in Manchester, for the time being.
I was wandering around town today, looking at all the incredible development that is going on in this city. It’s like something out of a sci fi novel, except when I read about Hyperloop it makes me think we are actually IN a sci fi novel. It’s very cool but also maybe moving a tad fast. Capitalism doing its thing I guess! Just to be clear though, no Hyperloop in Manchester, just lots of cranes and shiny glass 🙂
Whilst contemplating life in the big ‘Northern Powerhouse’ I saw an ace sunset out of my window. I’ve sketched and drawn this numerous times, but it never gets boring, as the clouds are ALWAYS different. you notice little changes in the tree/building silhouettes, too. this sketch was digital (Krita again) whereas the others are normally in a sketchbook with mixed media. tonight had these wonderful, silky ink clouds that almost dripped across the gradient skyline. Here’s the sketch:
Anyway, enough about skies! A little side note: my short film: Who moved my Penguin? recently got accepted into the Lift Off screenings run by Pinewood Studios. So here’s to the film’s first laurels..! There’s a few other festivals that it’s looking likely to get into due to its theme, so I’ll post updates when I get some 🙂 The work on the new film is going good now too, made some progress today! The trick I’m finding is balancing the time between different projects, keeping all the plates spinning, as it were. Oop, one’s about to drop, no more blogging distractions from me…
Athletic lizards
- At March 03, 2019
- By Adam
- In Sketchbook, Travel
- 0
Okay maybe not lizards that run track or anything, but bear with me…
When I was working away last year I used to see these funky lizards on the wall below the studio window. They’d be sitting out in the scorching midday sun practically frying to the concrete. There were two distinct types, green lizards and the grey/black ones with orange heads. Some of them were a foot long and could move very quickly when bothered! My favourite thing they did was their ‘push up’ routine. When they saw another lizard, they’d immediately enter into a push up contest, bobbing quickly up and down until one clearly gave in due to lack of muscles 😉
He’s a sketch of the triumphant winner. I gave him the name Limmy as he was the most frequent wall visitor and also the one who was most likely to get squashed by a car, judging by his road safety choices. This has absolutely no linkage to why he’s called Limmy, he just felt like one.
The sketch was made in the brilliant (and FREE) Krita software. Support them with a donation if you like what you see, and don’t forget to feed back on your experiences or wish lists! I do love the brush selection but often wish the handling of masks was a little more straight forward. But maybe I’m just used to a different method 😀 Can’t complain for free eh?
Sepia life drawings
- At February 24, 2019
- By Adam
- In animation, illustration, Sketchbook
- 0
Time for another life drawing post! This outing onto the paper was great as I actually felt I captured more of what I was going for in each image. The model had brilliant figure and structure for drawing, with the outside orange street lighting casting an unusual fringe glow. I was using a slightly sepia paper already, so started sketching in a burnt umber/dark sepia charcoal stick pastel thing…I’m not exactly sure what it was! It definitely helped me loosen up though and focus on what I was drawing a bit better. I try out different styles when I’m doing it, mainly to have fun and experiment, but also sometimes it gives me these happy accidents 🙂
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- Colour accents
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- Constant movement sketches
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- Long pencil study
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- One angle of two
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- Second angle of two
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- Silhouette focus
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- Hard lighting
Who moved my Penguin?
- At February 16, 2019
- By Adam
- In animation, Updates
- 0
Here it is! The short film I made about basically being kind to one another, no matter where in the world you come from. It’s around 2 minutes long and you can watch below (note: this video is now playing from BoggleSox’s channel due to a streaming partnership with them).
Where does the story come from?
The story came about from watching all this news on refugees trying desperately to get away from their homeland, and the very mixed reception that people gave them. I didn’t want to make a film that was preachy or too political, as I feel like there’s enough depressing things out there already! My aim was to tell a lighter version which can be viewed by all, with a core message of kindness and empathy.
The picture pin board sequence works around the idea that circumstances affecting the movement of people are often out of their control. This is shown through the easy life of a young Westerner, with details of their affluent life scattered around the photos. The actual pictures are representative of the exotic holidays that rich tourists ‘take and tick off’ on their individual road to self affirmation. the only interaction with the world outside their bubble being a throw away, filtered photo or an ‘awareness’ post on social media. These are just fleeting moments to them, like the worldwide, disaster news they scroll through online everyday.
But I believe people are still fundamentally good! And so this is the end to the story. So be kind to one another people 🙂
One of the first sketches for the film
How was the film made?
The film was made in Toon Boom Harmony using Adobe Premier, After Effects, Audition & Photoshop for certain parts. I started the film as an exercise for rigging demos (a hand drawn character that is rigged up like a skeleton) but it evolved past that, probably because it took so long to finish! I actually believed that the Syrian refugee crisis would be ‘over’ by the time I finished and no longer in the news, but alas… The film was started in 2016 but often was put off due to work commitments and other projects. I finally came to the realisation that I needed to be brave and just finish it towards the end of 2018, when my girlfriend and I were robbed in Mauritius and I was also reading The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron…but that is story for a different post!
There’s an original score by Richard Hunter (it was great to work with him too..thanks Richard!) and assisting direction from Josie Cerise…saving me from moments of madness 😉
If you have any questions about the film or the process, just send them over from the contact page. I hope you enjoy it!