I’ve been drawing a lot of new characters at the moment. Here is a sample of some of them.

First up is a Tree Man:

Next are some yellow Fuzzy Shapes:

And finally, Link Worms:

Click on the images to see the illustrations larger.

I’ve just become an uncle so I decided to design my brand new nephew, Arnie, his own character buddy. Here he is in a bear costume in the woods.

This is the first video for my Handymartian project. This tune is called “Digital Introduction…” and is the first song off the first “Digital Mixtape”. These mixtapes pull together various songs, sounds and audio ideas into an EP sized chunk.

You can hear the full “Digital Mixtape One” below:

If you can’t see the player above click here.

Working in collaboration with the lovely people at Fred & Eric I animated this type based informational short for ‘Mindshare’.

Credits:

Animation Direction: Andy Martin
Design Direction: Fred & Eric
Production: Fred & Eric
Sound Effects & Mix: Wise Buddah

You should buy the latest issue of Computer Arts magazine. Mainly because it is a tip top publication packed to the rafters with inspiration, information and creative know how, but also because a couple of my bits are in it.

Firstly on the cover is a DVD that has a selection of Showreels, including mine:

And secondly, if you turn to page 76 you will find 10 tips I did for artworking up images to be animated in After Effects:

Be warned, my ugly mug appears in the top right of this page but I think you can safely cover that up with you thumb as you read the rest. Thanks to Computer Arts for asking me to do this, it was a fun challenge and hopefully some people will find it useful.

On the first weekend of April I didn’t sleep very much. On Saturday morning myself and my good friend Simon Russell went to pick up our brief for a 48 hour Sci Fi film challenge. We were given a title for the film (Red Rain), a line of dialogue (“”If I have to go tomorrow I’d rather leave early.”) and a prop (a plate of biscuits). Then we had till Monday morning to put together a 3-5 minute short.

With the help of our team (called ‘PANIC!’, a Hitchhikers Guide reference) we worked none stop to make this thing. It was stressful, knackering and at points completely chaotic…but it was also loads of fun. We aimed to make a short that was funny and entertaining and hopefully we got close. But that’s for you to decide:

A massive thanks to everyone who gave up most (if not all) of their weekend to help out, you made it what it is.

Team PANIC! credits:

Written by Simon Russell and Andy Martin
Directed by Andy Martin
Produced by Simon Russell
Starring Nick Blood, Imogen Doel, Ben Whybrow and Ben Deery
Visual Effects Ashley Pay
Music Andy Martin
Camera Evan Pugh
Audio Design Josh Roberts
Edited by Felix Black and Nicola Jude
Graphics by Simon Russell
Make Up by Kiri Mellalieu, Sofhie Clark and Michelle Hutley
Props by Janka Slawik
Runner Robbie Ash

UPDATE: Our film has made the top 10 shortlist!

Three friends of mine have set up a company called Fred & Eric and are inviting people to create an ampersand to fit between their Fred and their Eric. You can see what people have made on their blog.

I like this idea and it inspired me to make this little animation based on a stupid pun.

And here it is. The last page of the 2010 Little Old Men calender. I hope you have enjoyed this little project and made full use of the calender throughout the year.

Here is Novembers calender page. Packed full of Little Old Angels!

I have just updated my main site with some of my latest bits of animation. This coincides with a brand new showreel that you can see below:

Get yourself over there and have a look.