Li'l Jimmy

Everyone who's familiar with Jim Norton knows he's just adorable. He's the only person on Earth who can pick up trannies or engage in watersports and make said activities seem cute and endearing. He's also known for projecting a dysmorphic self-image that makes my own seem buff and masculine by comparison (which is no mean feat). So the Yimmy character design is more a visualisation of this grotesquerie than an actual caricature of the man himself. Anyway, here's the lovable scamp in action.
The last couple of shots are a nod to Chris Reccardi, one of the more visually daring post-John K "Ren & Stimpy" directors.
That's all you get for today. I'm sure you'll find the emotional resources to muddle through.

Chicken Licked (AKA how the hell did my scanner get so dirty?)

Here are some line tests for "Norton & Friends", my O&A animation. As with my three prior shorts I'm going the longer route of pencils-on-paper rather than tablets. I just prefer the process and I don't have to compromise my style this way, plus I don't really have a deadline so fuggit.Here are a batch of atypical walk cycles. Right now it kinda looks like they're skating but it'll hopefully make sense in the final composited shot.Again, out of context this one's a little hard to fathom but it's strangely hypnotic.
Some quick cutaways:

The last one I'm really happy with, especially given that I have no idea how chickens move and I can't dance for shit. I rarely animate on 'ones' (25 frames-per-second as opposed to 12.5) but in this case I reckon the fluidity of movement suits the pacing of the short.
More, less chicken-ey, more Jimmy-ey tests next.

RAMONE!

More on my radio show animation project, with the working title "Chicken Chokes You". The clip I'm animating is from "The Opie & Anthony Show", undoubtedly SiriusXM's best program in terms of relevance and unfiltered humour. Growing from borderline-unlistenable roots as a 'shock jock' double act, it's morphed into a uniquely authentic outlet for political debate, social satire and theoretical musings interspersed with molestation humour and ridiculing the less fortunate.The duo consist of former nice-guy-doormat-turned-embittered-sociopath Greg Hughes (Opie) along with former tin-knocker-turned-casually-racist-cradlesnatcher Anthony Cumia. Their third mic is standup comedian Jim Norton, with whom I'd been vaguely familiar through his collabs with Louis CK and Lewis Black when I first saw him perform at a charity benefit at Gotham in New York a few years back. I subsequently became a huge follower of his books, performances and O&A in general.I'd say the show's initial appeal was its ability to hit nerves with me that I'd assumed a quarter-century of bitter douchebaggery had eroded, but the more I listened the more I felt a legitimate affinity with what they were doing. It's the same fundamental comfort that I take from hearing performers like Doug Stanhope (as well as the aforementioned CK and Black) that beneath the unending bullshit we're fed by the media in all its forms there are a small handful of people who are scathingly honest. Or, more likely, their opinions and thought processes just happen to coincide with mine, which of course makes them geniuses. I think that's how it works.
Ironically the audio I picked to animate is Jim Norton's 'light' side at work, hilarious when juxtaposed against his usual brutal tirades and confessions of sexual deviancy. I'm not entirely sure how the short will play out of this context, but here's the original audio (thanks to kennethjohnali for uploading the clip):

The show has previously shown a lot of enthusiasm for fan-made animation, holding their own animation festival back in '08 and encouraging some really gifted creatives such as Allthingsmedia and the staggeringly prolific, Terry Gilliam-esque Cokelogic. So if I'm gonna follow through on this I really want to be proud of the result beyond just having some new showreel footage. Watch this space.

The Happy Wanderer

The Victoria Film Festival is now a-happenin' until the 13th. "The Naughty List" is being shown on the 12th as part of the pretty unique, quasi-interactive program 'Converge', which begins at 2pm and is spread out among a number of different venues across the city. I can safely say it's the first time anything of mine has been screened at an undersea garden.
Here's the description from the program:"Everything is fair game as ConVergers take to the streets and unique spaces of Humboldt Valley to see how far the Festival can push the new technology. We've searched the world for wonderful short films. Then we found some terrific, unusual and sometimes odd places to show them. After that we got crazy with the technology. You'll watch films on a projector you can hold in your hand, we'll play with video walkmans, portable DVD players, and we'll even take you back to the past with hand cranked players. You can wander the streets and venture into unusual places and catch the ones that take your fancy. Locations will be as stimulating as the films and in many cases reveal a side of Victoria seldom open to the public. The Festival has created an afternoon of play just to demonstrate the explosion of changes in how, where and what we're watching. And so we ask you again: Where do you like to watch?

HOW TO CONVERGE
Starting Point: Go to a Box Office (Oyster Bar or Parkside Victoria Resort & Spa) after 1:30pm to turn in your ticket for a USB Flashdrive wristband that contains short films (yes, even you become a venue!). The wristband will identify you as a ConVerge patron and give you access to all the venues. Also pick up the ConVerge Program with map to all our venues and away you go. But remember to keep a sharp eye out because we've also got some surprises along the streets as you go between venues.

THE AFTER PARTY
Yes, for those who can never ConVerge enough, we've got a little thing called a party going on after ConVerge is over. Come to the Oyster Bar on Humboldt Street (Between Government and Gordon Streets) for 5 PM enjoy a complimentary beverage and some appetizers to build your strength up after all your wanderings. In addition, all the films will be playing so that you've got another chance to catch any shorts you missed."

That honestly sounds awesome and it's kinda rubbish that I can't be there to participate. But any British Columbians out there who have the time should definitely check it out.
Book online.

Chicken Scratch

Thrown into the mix of day-to-day work, funding applications and self-promotion I'm working on a micro short that'll hopefully scratch my itch to keep on with the traditional 2D stuff. Given that my next short 'Bullies' will be far more contemporary (read: economical) and less in the vein of my usual style, I wanted to take something on that would keep me practiced and possibly give me an excuse to venture into looser, Kricfalusi/Clampett-esque animation. I'll elaborate further in the coming weeks but for now I'll just say it's set to audio from a radio show that I listen to a lot when I work so I figured it'd be logical to tie the two together.
Here are some rough sketches and layouts:

Cashin' In

While I endeavour to tie all the creative loose ends in my scattershot life, my new album "The Book of Women" is gradually garnering some positive feedback. I have an outline for a marketing plan that will be put into action in April (four months after the release, which is traditionally not the way to go but I just don't have the time right now). This will consist of the usual batch of associated merchandise, a mini-site and exclusive tracks/remixes, plus I'd ideally like to release it as a digital download to keep up with the yoof. Until then all's I have are two new poster prints, both with the same album cover artwork (which I blathered about last month) that's cropped for the actual CD but lends itself rather well to portrait dimensions.
There's a large print (35" x 23") and a medium print (20" x 16") both available to buy online. Pick one up and cover that blank space on your wall/door/soul!
As I'm always keen to jump on any opportunity to showboat, there are also posters available for two prior Struwwelpeter albums, one for the somewhat-nightmarish "Rapeseed" (2004) and three for the pinkier, bunny-ier "Agnosticaust" (2006):

Quickies

In my continued effort to keep the holiday season alive ('cause I just don't know when to let go) I'm happy to say there's another 2011 screening for "The Naughty List", this time at the 6th Athens Animfest. It's really nice to find this out as my second film "Ground Running" screened at the 4th edition back in '09. It's being shown as part of the Tributes 2011 Panorama section, haven't worked out the date/time just yet but check out their website and Facebook page for more info.
On another note I've finished the first of several supplemental showreels, these are spun off from my main showreel which kind of lumps all the animation stuff together. The idea being that I can submit tighter, more theme-specific reels when certain job applications call for it. Plan is to have one each for character animation, digital animation, motion graphics and VFX work, which will give me an excuse to create some new content in all those areas. In the meantime here's the first version of the character animation showreel (which features the first looks at some in-the-works projects such as Alpaca Gals and Erica):
Any thoughts always appreciated, especially if you can somehow use the opportunity to tell me how handsome and sympathetic a fella I am. Not sure how that would work exactly, but roll with it.

Woah. Happy new year to me...

The latest festival to inform me it's screening "The Naughty List" is a biggie, and in all honesty I'm kind of out-of-my-mind ecstatic to be a part of it. It's the Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film, one of the more coveted animation festivals out there and definitely in the top five of my fest wishlist. It's kind of like asking out the hottest girl in school because you figure there's nothing to lose, and despite all odds she actually says 'yes' (particularly welcome news as a couple of her younger, less glamorous/popular sisters had recently told me to piss off...okay, I'm bad with analogies).Another major benefit is, unlike most of the other higher-end festivals that have been a little too far away to feasibly attend (or the timing didn't pan out) the comparative locality of Germany hopefully means I'll get to be there in person. One of these years I was always going to head over there to check it out whether anything of mine was screened or not, so you can appreciate why I'm doubly-stoked to have the excuse.
A billion thanks for the inclusion and another round of gratitude for everyone who helped me get the fillum done. This has been a pretty great start to what'll hopefully be a pretty great year.

Déjà Vu

Falalala...eh, you get the idea.Admittedly it's pretty much the exact same image as last year's blog-card-thing, but sort of interesting to see how it developed from the original concept illustration. 'Interesting' being, as ever, a pretty subjective word.
Glad tidings. And all that. Innit?

Festive Frolics

Some news that comes as something of a comfort given my concerns that "The Naughty List" might die on its arse once the holiday season is over - it will get its first (so far) screening of 2011 at Canada's Victoria Film Festival on February 6th. If memory serves, this is the first time any film of mine has been shown in the massive, sprawling land-mass that is Canada (outside of me forcing every friend and relative through it). As a Canadian myself I'd been hoping I'd get something shown there eventually, so grand news all around, eh?After my monthly self-googling I've also learned that the film received its tenth screening at Serbia's Film Front festival in Novi Sad last Saturday (18th). Even though I'm late to the party it's good news as I was keeping my fingers crossed that I'd get ten in by the end of the year. They also apparently screened "Ground Running" (the 'lost' Ben Mitchell film) on the 16th. Sweet, a twofer - they're good eggs, them Serbians.