Howdy folks. Still kicking around, just about, although as ever there's barely enough time in the day to get on here with updates. So let's sneeze 'em all out at once, shall we?
Hey, guess what's on sale again? That's right, until the end of the month you can snag yourself a copy of my book
Independent Animation: Directing, Producing and Distributing Your Animated Films at the publisher's site with 20% off (25% off if you buy more than one book, as per). It's the ideal tome for anyone out there who's considering making their own film and is after some handy advice to make it as unique and impactful as possible - and not just from my mediocre ass, but the likes of fully proper animation champions like Adam Elliot, Kirsten Lepore, Bill Plympton, Signe Baumane, Ruth Lingford, PES, Robert Morgan, Tonko House, the late great Rosto and many many more. Plus it's crammed with hundreds of byoodeefull colour pictures if all that word-readin' hurts your head.
Speakin' of grabbing up high-quality Ben Mitchell product while it's on sale, the Nintendo Switch versions of the brilliant
Bertram Fiddle games from my pals
Rumpus Animation (a prominent case study in the book that also happens to boast my various attempts at cartoon voicery, see above) are currently part of the Nintendo online sale with
Episode 1: A Dreadly Business a whopping 75% off and
Episode 2: A Bleaker Predicklement an also-pretty-decent 51% off. That's chump change, ya chumps, so grab 'em up! It also appears that
Bertram Fiddle has been nominated at this year's
UK Games Fund Awards in the category 'They Delivered', so fingers crossed they get something shiny come September.
While most of the spring and summer has been dedicated to creating visuals for a
TV series here in the UK, I thought I'd share a few recent projects from my day job at the wonderful
Shy Guys Studios here in Bristol that are now online. I didn't design any of these but they've been great in helping me get to grips more with rigged character work.
The Costs of Whistleblowing - this is something we did for Queens Management School with some cautionary advice for employees who are contemplating speaking out against workplace skullduggery and suchlike.
Geoff Needs an Explainer - this is essentially a promo for the studio itself. If you like what you see then be sure to hire them so they can keep us busy. Design by
Ryan Biercewicz.
Milestones for New Mums - nice little gift idea (for mums annoyed that their new offspring are hogging the limelight) and definitely on the funner end of the commercials production spectrum. While I did the bulk of the character animation for the first two films I did about a third of it for this one, chiefly the first scene and the odd shot here and there afterward. Alas I can't take credit for the poo-nami which is the show-stealer. Design by
Harrison Simmonds.
Practical Tips for Dealing with Anxiety - we put this one together as an internal project alongside our commissioned work. Again I only did some of the final animation with this one, all in all it's turned out really nicely so knock wood it'll resonate with folks. Design by Harrison Simmonds.
Sunscapades update (well, amendment) - things definitely seem to be slowing down on the festivals front for my little misfit film but there are still a couple on the horizon. The next event to play it will be the
Melbourne International Animation Festival in the
Late Night Bizarre programme, although the screening will be at the Treasury Theatre (still at 9pm on the 19th) and not the AMCI as
previously thought. Also there will be a
repeat screening at 10pm the following night at the same venue. How splendid!
Later on in the month
Sunscapades will be getting its first African screening (hopefully
for real this time) at the
Accra Animation Film Festival as part of a special Best of Encounters presentation, following the film's inclusion in the
Encounters Short Film Festival here in Bristol
last year. The screening will take place on Monday July 29th 5pm - for venue info and whatnot check out their
Facebook page.
Speaking of Encounters, this year's edition will be launching its competition programme soon so be sure to keep your eyes on their site. As part of the
preselection team for the animation section of the festival I can safely say there's some stunning work that will be on offer and I hope to see some of you fine folks there in September!
I think that's all I gots for now, will be back when the next sneeze builds up probably.
