Showing posts with label Blue Sky. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blue Sky. Show all posts

Friday, 22 December 2017

Stocking Fillers

Before I retreat into Xmasdom there are a couple of new podcasts ready for your listenin' ears over on Skwigly. Last week we resumed our longer-running series with a couple of timely guest spots, namely Ferdinand director Carlos Saldanha and Google Spotlight Stories composer Scot Stafford whose first directorial effort Sonaria was recently released. Some of you may recall we spoke with Scot in the first Animation Composed podcast outing about a year ago regarding his music output.
This morning saw us hit episode 75 (not counting all the other series strands and minisodes) with a focus on some holiday animation, primarily Blue Zoo (guests Tom Box, Simone Giampaolo and Francesco Mazza)'s new internally-produced short Lynx and Birds and director Jeroen Jaspaert tells us about the latest Magic Light Pictures Julia Donaldson adaptation The Highway Rat that you can catch on BBC1 Xmas day.
You can stream them above or direct download them here (74) and here (75).
Right now I'm far far away doing my best to get all the character animation done and dusted for my latest film Sunscapades. There are some sequences in this one that I'm incredibly chuffed with and would love to post up here but it would sort of spoil the film so I have to abstain. In the meantime here are a couple of Insta-peeks:
A post shared by Ben Mitchell (@benlmitchell) on

A post shared by Ben Mitchell (@benlmitchell) on

A post shared by Ben Mitchell (@benlmitchell) on

A post shared by Ben Mitchell (@benlmitchell) on
More of that good shiz if you follow me on Instagram, the 34-year-old man typed without hating himself whatsoever.
Captain dipshit over here was already on his way to Portland for the holidays before he realised he'd left his Cintiq pen back at his home office in Bristol, so any productivity in the next couple of weeks is entirely owed to the brilliant Dani Abram who posted her spare one to me. Some beverages and a big shiny Special Thanks credit in her future, but here in the present let me point you in the direction of her website so you can bask in her awesomeness. Spirit of the season and that.
Now to the past, and a last little bleat of gratitude regarding Klementhro, the film I really should have drawn a line under since its online release but just won't shut up about. Mainly I want to extend my thanks once again to the Short of the Week team who took a punt on it, including Rob for the original write-up and Georg who included it in his Top 10 of 2017. Here's a cheeky repost of last year's holiday animation for the benefit of those who hadn't seen the original film when it originally went up:

Thursday, 14 July 2016

Small steps, giant leaps...

https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/273397147/download?client_id=02gUJC0hH2ct1EGOcYXQIzRFU91c72Ea
In the latest episode of the Skwigly Animation Podcast we’re joined by Skwigly contributor Wez Allard in discussion of the recent Annecy festival and its film/event highlights, in particular the presentation of Blue Sky’s latest offering Ice Age: Collision Course which is released this Friday in UK cinemas. Joining us are the film’s director Michael Thurmeier and producer Lori Forte who discuss the journey of the franchise, the evolution of its technological sophistication over the years and the process of working with the film’s voice cast among other topics. Give 'er a download or stream below:
Other discussion points of this episode include the value of staying practiced when it comes to animation fundamentals, the legacy of the recently-passed Camberwick Green and Trumpton creator Gordon Murray, hopes for Disney’s upcoming Wreck-It Ralph sequel and Laika’s latest offering Kubo and the Two Strings.
https://www.crcpress.com/Independent-Animation-Developing-Producing-and-Distributing-Your-Animated/Mitchell/p/book/9781138855724
I also talk a little bit about the upcoming release of my book Independent Animation: Developing, Producing and Distributing Your Animated Films, which I'm very happy to say will be tied-in with Skwigly upon its release. In fact there's quite a lot in mind for the ways in which the site and the book will complement one another, and there's some real potential for the book to be the foundation of something quite exciting that I'll be building on in the months (possibly even years) after it comes out. On that note, don't forget the book will be released this September through CRC/Taylor & Francis, so swing by their site and give it a look!