Canterbury Anifest 5-6th October 2012

With recently getting a new job to pay for supplies and networking purposes to kick start my career as a Stop-frame animator, this gave me opportunity to go to a festival i've been looking forward to go to since last year i couldn't make it due to other commitments, at first i was going down as puplic but found myself as a volunteer from the night before the festival meeting people i knew who were already taking part from Birmingham City University and other festivals.

Sophie Graves and myself

First task as a volunteer was to prepare the plastercine characters for the 'Plastercine people: Masterclass From Animate and Create Studio' later on in the day, which was great to get to know other people of mutual interest over some plastercine and a great set of tools to work with.

Tony Dalton and myself before - Ray Harryhausen-The Godfather

Later on that day i got the chance to go to a talk on Ray Harryhausen the Godfather of Stop-motion with the curator of the Ray Harryhausen collection and auther of five books about Rays film work Tony Dalton was a delight to meet such a nice guy and willing to talk about so much of Rays work.

Jessica,Cassidy Curtis,Sophie and myself

DreamWorks - Meet the Lion tamer

Cassidy Curtis is Dreamworks supervising animator for the summer blockbuster Madagascar 3 animating Alex the Lion and from the moment the volunteers and myself met him we kind of saw a resemblence between Cassidy and Alex the lion wether that was coinsidence or character driven choice from the director.

Cassidy was a great pleasure to meet as Dan the festival organiser said "you've got to love Cassidy because he's just one big yank". The talk was great having a whole range of things to talk about from working on a range of films including 'How to train a Dragon','Shrek' and 'Madagascar'.

Talking about the age old question for cg animators 'Do you Have to be able to draw to animate well?' and we got to the reasoning that some people can still animate really well without drawing but it will always help and elevate your work and so answer being it can always help your animation skills what ever level of an animator you are.

Then also as you see in the image above here Cassidy was pointing out the difference in Shrek in 3d and in 2d to show how the points in the arm and shape of the pose can focus the eye of the audience intentionally very well. Then in 3d this doesn't come so easily.

Aardman- How to talk Pirate

Pirate Captain From Pirates

Jim Parkyn talking through the making and animating of the models, including the rapid prototyping mouth technique which enabled the characters to speak. There was also behind-the-scenes clips which were great to see as more studio shots from pirates were shown of sketches and photos of the puppet building process.

Charles Darwin from Pirates

Also looked forward to talking with Jim again at Flip Festival in Wolverhampton where i volunteered.

Double Negative- Making Monsters

Eamonn Butler talking about behind the scenes of John Carter was great because i was surprised how much i enjoyed the film as because of the reviews before it came out. The special effects had so much thought into it was great to see what they'd use in the green screen before made for the audience to see.

Pixar: Inside the toy box 

Dan McCoy Pixars technical director discussed some of the complications and problems that pixar have tackled from the technical side with telling us how some things could be re-used for more than one thing same with cheat techniques.

My hotel room view instant view from anytime of the day of the Canterbury Cathedral

anyone not been to Canterbury Anifest i recommend its a great festival and worth volunteers so many great speakers, also check out Animate and Create.

http://www.canterburyanifest.com/what-is-anifest/

http://animateandcreate.com

Good News, Everyone!

My animation 'Street Act' will be shown at 'made in Roath' film screenings at the SHO Gallery

madeinroath is an artist-led, free event, now in its 4th year, which aims to take art out of the gallery and into the wider community, allowing a larger and broader audience to access the wealth of creative talent in our neighbourhood whilst maintaining a standard of excellence, reflecting the contemporary art scene in Cardiff and South Wales.

It showcases the work of emerging and established artists, makers, musicians, writers and performers, who use the whole of Roath as the venue, including domestic, commercial, public and overlooked or disused spaces.

madeinroath offers residents and visitors an opportunity to engage in the arts through a dynamic programme of exhibitions, residencies, collaborations with community groups, workshops and performances.

Other News!

Depict!

"A staggering variety of entries were received from all over the globe from Brazil and Ethiopia to Germany and Hungary and we very had a difficult job in selecting the shortlist. We received a record number of entries (over 600 from more than 30 countries!), and now the shortlisted films for DepicT!"

Sadly i was unsuccessful with my animation entry to 'Depict!' but with such high volume of competition  i was glad to have been considered and to see the many great entries that were put forward here is the link - http://www.depict.org/watch-films/

Encounters Animation Festival -Bristol

animation trailer done by- A Productions

Full Programe can be found here- Encounters 2012

After visiting Encounters festival last year i was highly impressed with the amount of industry that was there, the volume of talks on animation and also gave me the chance to talk to the likes of  John K and David Sproxton which gave great opitunity for networking.

This year i will be going for two days with the likes of a talk from co-director of Paranorman Sam Fell and a talk from the Kings behind Aardman David Sproxton,Peter Lord and Nick Park.

Canterbury Anifest

festival programme - Canterbury Anifest

As Canterbury Anifest approaches its 6th year the question ‘What is Anifest?’ is as important as ever- and it is exactly this that makes the event so special and exciting. Just over five years ago the first ever Canterbury Anifest kicked off with a series of workshops and master classes exploring the animation industry and all the different skills and creative disciplines that go in to making an animated film.

Canterbury Anifest is the South East’s only annual animation festival. It’s a great community event that invites people of all ages to come and experience the magic of animation; allowing them to get involved with something out of the ordinary. With its range of workshops, young people awards and family-friendly events, it has something for everyone. Anifest also caters for specialists and those in the industry, featuring national and international awards, and guest speakers from some of the biggest names in animation.

Extremely excited as this will be my first time attending Canterbury anifest after only finding out about late last year going into my third year at university i vowed to make sure i go this year, time is booked off, festival pass booked only train and accommodation to sort next.

Also ill be finding out wether my animation 'Street Act' will be shown on thursday with the possibility to show my work to world class industry specialists and a chance to network more and get my name out there in the animation world.