Adventure Time

In the latest episode of the Skwigly Animation Podcast I catch up with Seb Burnett of Bristol-based Rumpus Animation, who are presently hard at work gathering funds for the second installment of The Adventures of Bertram Fiddle, the animated adventure series that debuted last year.  I did a few voices for episode one, so give generously and your ol' woodlouse-eating pal Count Fulchmuckle might ride again:

Also in this episode Steve meets Phil Chalk, Managing Director of Factory, who recently produced the successful reboot of The Clangers among other projects.
Stream the latest episode above, subscribe on iTunes or direct download here.

Latest Lightboxery

I mentioned last week that we would put up an extended version of Julia Young's brilliant interview with Disney legend Glen Keane. Here it be!

This is the first episode of what I've lazily dubbed Lightbox Plus (because, y'know, it's Lightbox with extra bits), a series I expect will be less regular than the standard Lightbox episodes and exclusive to our Vimeo channel. Don't forget we have another interview with Glen about his pre-Duet Disney years in the latest podcast (which you can download here).
Meanwhile the latest regular Lightbox features Seb Burnett, Creative Director of Rumpus Animation, talking about the previously mentioned Bertram Fiddle game. There are still some e-shopping days left and I suspect it would make the perfect cheap-as-chips gift for the indie point-and-click retro-gaming/Victorian era enthusiast in your life. So long as they have an iOS device. Have a watch below:

Learn more about the game at the Bertram Fiddle website. Look at me, brimming with seasonal altruism (in the self-serving-because-I'm-in-it sense).

Further Advent-ures (Eh? EH?!)

Recycling old material. I'm nothing if not eco-conscious.

Following on from last month's post, here are some more personal favourites from our Skwigly Advent Calendar:

David Ridges

Ant Blades

Rok Predin

Signe Baumane

Fatima Yasrebi

Jardine Sage

We're in the last stretch of it now which, given that the 25th has already come and gone, may seem a bit confusing. Last year we had a lot of people getting in touch asking if they could get involved after all the slots had been filled, so we extended the idea of contributing illustrators to include the 12 days of Christmas. This year we've done more or less the same thing:

Julia Young

Robyn Liebschner

Tanya Scott

Fatima Yasrebi

Seb Burnett

Laura-Beth Cowley

For the last one I helped out a bit on the animation (such as it is) front, using some basic After Effects whatchimajiggery. For the benefit of those who may not know, the guy leaping about in the picture is Aardman co-founder Peter Lord (who I interviewed a little while back when his film The Pirates! had just been released), which seemed appropriate. We kind of put it together spontaneously without mentioning it to him beforehand but I'm pleased to say he was sporting about it:

Making Pests of Ourselves

I'm all a-quiver with girlish glee as I get prepped for my first jaunt to Annecy next week. It's one of the top five major fests on my wishlist I've yet to get a film in, along with Ottawa (the other three being Encounters, Clermont-Ferrand and Stuttgart, who all threw me a bone). Despite making it into Annecy Plus in 2011, my plan had been to make the jaunt when/if I got something into the main festival - but frankly that could take years, if it ever happens at all. Luckily I now have a fallback position: Journalistic scumbag.

"We don't need no stinkin' - well, they are quite nice..."

 Given the surge of positive Skwigly developments since myself, Steve and Aaron took it over, it's only logical to show my face at one of the industry's most important events. We're hoping to get some podcast and written content out of it, obviously, with maybe some video footage to boot. We're also aiming for some extra reach in general, so to that end we'll be pestering folks with fliers, badges and other tote-filling goodies. For our flier design I really wanted to pool resources and convey the community vibe Skwigly's cultivated over the years. I reached out to some of my favourite animators and illustrators for character designs I could group together in a big crowd shot. Here's how it came out:

Front

Back

I'm really pleased with it and feel happy to have so many talented friends and associates involved. Here's a breakdown of their contributions - click their names to see more of their work as they're all smashing pumpkins worth checking out.

Francesca Adams

Jamie Smart

David Hutchinson

Jane Davies

Joanna Hepworth

Kat Michaelides

Katie Steed

Matt Walker

Robyn Liebschner

Sam Morrison

Seb Burnett

Signe Baumane

Sophie Klevenow & Darren Walker

Steve Henderson

Tanya Scott

The remaining designs are from my own archive of characters I threw in to fill in some spaces. And because I'm an egomaniac.
Given how much fondness people have had for the Skwigly Podcast I've also produced an exclusive sampler CD of some of our personal favourite moments from our first year. It's borderline-impossible to group all of them and have it fit on an 80 minute disc but hopefully this selection does justice to all the amazing interviewees who've given us their time and insight. It's nice to have a little physical souvenir to show for an endeavour I had no clue would still be going strong after a year, especially in these last few days before the entire planet completely forgets what CDs are. Here's the sleeve design:

Front

Back

If you'll be at Annecy yourselves drop us a line at skwigly.com!

Houseguestski

Have just found out that 'House Guest' will be returning to Serbia for the Belgrade Documentary & Short Film Festival. This is the second Belgrade-based festival to include the film after Balkanima last year, and will run from March 30th to April 3rd. Aside from that I don't have any info on when the film will be shown, as their website is down at the moment (presumably being retooled for the 2010 edition, although there is some useful info here) but I'll be sure to post an update when I know. I never miss an opportunity to talk about myself like the self-aggrandising ass that I am.Some non-me news to balance out the universe, this week is Animated Exeter, a festival I've yet to be eligible for but has included some friends of mine in the past as well as this year. Putting aside the big boys like Plympton et al, films of note include Jo Hepworth (main assistant on 'House Guest')'s new short 'Dinnersaurs', Seb Burnett & Joe Wood's 'Julian Sweeney & His Teenie-Weenie Genie' and Sophie Klevenow's 'Noesis' which I did some sound work on (See? I brought it back to me again...I'm a coattail-riding fool). They're all worth checking out.

Update: 'Sweeney...' received a commendation and 'Noesis' won the Student Animation award. Congrats y'all :)

The Day The Music (Mercifully) Died

Sick yet strangely heartwarming illustration by Seb Burnett.

Well, I'm undeniably gutted about ol' Wacko Jacko, even though Michael Jackson the performer died a long time ago. I would honestly say that 'Thriller' was one of the LPs that inspired me to get into music. In fact, next to Faith No More's 'Angel Dust' I've always considered it to be the best album of all time. I suppose that in terms of sales the music industry saw it the same way, but being at the top of the charts rarely means the music itself is any good. 'Thriller' was the true exception of its day.
My musical 'career' is, being brutally honest, a glorified hobby. I, like gajillions of others these days, produce and release my own music online, relying primarily on word-of-mouth for promotion. Sales are extremely modest (my biggest selling album to date, 'Agnosticaust', has shifted just under 2000 copies, which would be a catastrophic failure if I was signed) but with no middleman and a whole heap of associated merchandise, the supplemental income has helped me out frequently. If I pursue music as a legitimate career in the long run, realistically it'd be as a film composer, having developed a fondness for the process over the last year. In the meantime my little indie records will continue to be pretty much for me, my friends and the small handful of lovely, lovely folks who seem to dig them.
After some introspection since last night's news, however, I've decided to retire a sizable chunk of my back catalog. While I will always love these CDs, it's the love a parent has for their screwup, ugly children - one that isn't shared by the general public. When they were released they were received well, but that was largely due to the appeal of the digital music era, then in its infancy. This was before MySpace and iTunes, when selling and distributing your music online was a novelty, and audiences were far more forgiving if the production values were shaky. Nowadays I feel that, save for a few tracks on each, the albums I worked on from 1999 to 2003 don't stand up to the state of the digital music scene today, and that sales for each have slowed to a trickle confirms this in my mind.
So, with no particular heaviness in my heart, I bid farewell to the online availability of:

'The Hot Beef Injection' - released November 2000, copies sold: 82

'Easier To Swallow' - released March 2001, copies sold: 107

'The Adventures Of Johnny Star' - released December 2001, copies sold: 621

'Somebody Stop Me' - released December 2002, copies sold: 394

I also worked on a romance (well, sex) themed trilogy of jazz albums, which never really caused much of a ripple. So to these I also bid adieu:'Heartcore: Carnal Glutton' - released July 2002, copies sold: 79

'Heartcore: Post Coitus' - released October 2003, copies sold: 40 (oof)

'Heartcore: Sunrise Regrets' - released November 2004, copies sold: 122

Both sets of albums had respective anthology releases, and these I won't rescind just yet. They always sold better and still continue to show up on royalty invoices, plus by filtering out the vast quantities of filler material they make for far better listening experiences:

I'm also happy to keep everything I've put out since adopting the moniker Struwwelpeter as these always stood apart from prior releases in terms of production, quality of songwriting and sales. Maybe when my next musical idol (yes, Michael Jackson was an idol - remember, he was acquitted) pops his or her clogs I'll retire these as well, but hopefully that won't be for a long time.
So, Mike Patton, Tori Amos, Les Claypool, Brad Roberts, Alanis Morissette, John Zorn and Tom Waits - be careful. I need you all alive and in one piece.