My Pretties...

I've had a few (as in literally three) emails from people who have noticed that, of late, my main website URL ben-mitchell.co.uk just links directly to this blog. The simple reason behind it is that the Great G5 Crash of 2010 took out all my website source files and assets. While the pages that were already uploaded survived, it's rendered the updating process a chore that'd take the same effort as redesigning the site from scratch which, to be honest, is the better idea. I liked the way last year's site came out and it was a valuable project in terms of getting acclimated to Actionscript 3.0, but it was pretty dense and I think a series of separate sites that cut through the treacle would serve me better professionally.
To that end I'm putting together a new design portfolio that will filter out a great deal of my earlier work and focus more on commissions of late. As my animation work has increased, there have been a fair few graphic/illustration offshoots including character design work. Digging through external hard drives and backup DVDs I've been piecing together the ones that stand out and, in my mind, go together well. Here's the first smattering, from my favourite project of 2010, Channel 4's 'SuperMe'. These were all partially inspired by the young Bristolian clubgoing contingent, glimpsed spilling out of pubs/clubs/taxis/clothing at 3am when their nights are just beginning and tired old men like me are headed home, judging them sanctimoniously while my memory glosses over the many years in which I behaved just as cretinously.










Of the twelve designs, the bottom two were the ones that ended up being used. The other short I animated for the project made use of all the proposed designs as it took place in a populated nightclub, though some are only glimpsed briefly or in the shadows.








These are twenty-one of nearly a hundred designs for people alone, so it's very possible that once I've amassed them all I'll need to do some filtering. If you have any thoughts about which characters are more expendable don't feel shy about letting me know. There are also less proliferate sections for 'Animals' and 'Things' which I'll have ready soon. Meanwhile I'll bow out with some adorable transvestism: