Some time ago I decided to embark upon a wee personal project exploring the possibility and merit of creating graphics/designs for print that are made up of the frames of 8 second animated loops. You can read more about it in my initial blog post for the project.
After creating the first 10x10, as I have named them, the idea kind of fell by the wayside but I have decided to revisit it and I will hopefully produce enough to compile 10 such designs in the coming weeks.
So below is the second graphic and animated loop of the series which was an attempt at equally balancing the control of the final design with the need to control the animation.   

Below are some very daft cartoons and comic strips that I have drawn for greeting cards.
​You can buy them in my Etsy shop which is right HERE!
Or you can click on any of the images to take you to where you can purchase that particular card.

Ever wanted to know more about the famous Lemons of Rock and Pop? Well now you can!
I have compiled, in a zine, short bios and illustrations of nine of the most influential lemons to have ever graced the music industry:

John Lemmon, Kanye Zest, Iggy Pulp, Whitney Juiceton, Robert Plant, Lemmy, John Peel, Seed Barrett and Miley Citrus.

You can buy this super informative zine on Etsy, right HERE!  

The 1st of February was Hourly Comic Day. This meant that there were lots of people, around the world, attempting to create a short comic strip for every hour that they were awake! This year, for the first time, I decided to join them.
Not long into the day I was surprised by how difficult a challenge it actually is. I was fairly determined, beforehand, that it wasn't going to be too much of an imposition on my regular working day. My thought was that I'd spend 15 minutes max on each strip and be happy to let it stay loose and rough if need be. Well... I did keep it rough, but it's amazing how quickly 15 minutes turns into 30 or more! So I started to lag a bit and as soon as that happens you're on the back foot, slipping further and further behind while trying to catch up. I didn't help matters much by going out for a few hours in the evening (without my sketchbook!) and unfortunately I had to admit defeat and finish things up the next day. With a bit more practice drawing comics (which I don't do nearly as much as I'd like) perhaps things would have been easier. In fact, I felt myself improving and becoming more comfortable with the characters that I was drawing and the time constraints as the day progressed. That's hardly insightful of course: as everyone knows, practice makes perfect.
Having now given it a go, I'm amazed and inspired by what some people are able to produce during this challenge. Already looking forward to giving it another shot next year!

Anyway, here is the product of my Hourly Comic Day 2016...    

My Edinburgh College of Art degree film, Hart's Desire, is now available to watch online, in full.

I've been lucky enough to have had it played at several international film festivals and I was honoured (and amazed!) when it was awarded the BAFTA in Scotland Award for Animation 2013. Showing the film around the world and visiting some amazing cities in the process has been a great experience, and one that I hope to be able to repeat with future projects. Now, however, I'm excited about being able to share it with everyone online... that's why I made it after all!

You can watch Hart's Desire below, or follow this link to watch it in better quality direct from Vimeo.
    

I have started a wee personal project that I'm calling 10x10. 

I've always found it interesting to see an animator's drawings laid out in sequence as a static image. There's something really satisfying about being able to scrutinise the details of each individual drawing and the small changes that occur from one to the next. Liberated from the treadmill of time that the drawings have been designed for, you can view several frames at once, jump backwards and forwards through them and view the work as a sort of comic strip. 
I'm interested in exploring, through a series of images with some unifying parameters, the merits of presenting drawings for animation as a graphic or print to be enjoyed/appreciated in it's own right.

Each image will be made up of 100 'frames', set out on a 10x10 grid and will be accompanied by the resulting 8 second (at 12.5fps) loop of animation. The balance between the creation of image and animation may be interesting. With any increased effort towards the design or control of the final 10x10 image comes a loss of control over how the animation must play out and similarly to follow any particular desire or need within the animation comes at a loss of the ability to design and configure the image as a whole.

Below is the first image and accompanying animated loop. This first 10x10 leans towards making the animation 'work' rather than trying to control the final image. In a sense then, the image is the product while the animation was the process. Perhaps for a future 10x10 the design of the image will be the process and the animation the product.

As previously posted on this blog, my degree film Hart's Desire was nominated for the animation award at the British Academy Scotland Awards which took place at the Radisson Blu hotel in Glasgow on Sunday 17th of November. 
It was a brilliant evening, spent with my fellow nominees Ross Hogg and Claire Lamond, an evening made even more special when Hart's Desire took home the award!
So thank you to all the tutors in animation at ECA, to Mike Vass who composed and performed the music for the film, and to Keith Duncan who worked on the sound. The film wouldn't be what it is without any of you.
   

I recently finished my latest animation project: A music video for Kevin Pearce.
You can watch it on youtube by clicking here. Or if you'd prefer, it's on Vimeo here.

I created the video by using a tribal, folk art inspired aesthetic to tell the story of a fox who is out to find what is missing in he and his vixen's small corner of life. The film is animated by combining torn paper elements, stop frame, hand drawn and 2D digital techniques as well as the principles of a phenakistoscope to complement the ethereal, natural and crafted qualities of Kevin Pearce's 'We've Been Lovin'.

The track will be available to buy and download from the 18th November 2013.