100111 10010011 001L001110100 0101O01001110100101 V1001001001 101001E101 001101001… sometimes love is hidden in the wiring. This month’s Planet explores this in an animation featuring some of the 31 robotic characters created during April. Here are the spoils from Planet Four…
And here is the planet illustration and a line up of all the illustrated aliens created during April 2013:
You can buy a print of the planet here and follow the progress of the project here. All the animations are also collected on their own Vimeo channel.
I have been using the new Twitter owned Vine App a lot recently to create some mini stopmotion animations. It a fun way to pass the time while rendering or to distract me while I should be doing something more important. Below is a little selection of the kind of thing I’ve been making.
I also try to ‘animate’ the sound so it syncs with the action. All sounds are captured live as I shoot the footage as that’s how the app works… super lo-fi!!
I’m on there as Handymartian if you want to see more.
It’s time for another planets worth of illustrations and animation. The new animated short Planet Three is now online:
If you haven’t caught up with the previous planets you can do so on their new Vimeo channel The Planets.
Here is the planet illustration and a line up of all the illustrated aliens created during March 2013. You can follow the Illustrated Aliens project on the all new refreshed blog:
Here is the second month’s bounty from my Illustrated Aliens project. First up is the animation “Planet Two”:
‘While spending some time on Planet Two we follow a day in the life of one of it’s typical inhabitants… ahh the rat race, a struggle people from all over the cosmos have to deal with.’
And here is the planet illustration and a line up of all the illustrated aliens created during February 2013:
You can buy a print of the planet here and follow the progress of the project here. To see the stuff created for Planet One click here.
This year I have started an ongoing project called ‘Illustrated Aliens’. Every day I am creating a new character/creature/alien that through the month will build up to a whole planet illustration featuring all the aliens of that month. I have just finished the first months illustrations and with them I also created a mini animated short.
The ridiculously talented Animade have set up a cool new Vimeo channel called ‘Full Secs’ inviting people to make an animation with just one second of action in it. The rules are simple; a two second title card followed by a one second animation followed by a two second end credit card. And the results have been brilliant, lots of really inventive ideas, silly puns, quick fire gags and brilliant animation skills. I thought I’d have a go myself and came up with this:
I have just completed a new commercial for Experian’s Credit Expert. It is the second ad in the ‘helping hands’ campaign (the first one can be seen here: https://vimeo.com/36359932) and this one features a gang of characters who represent a cross section of the population.
Credits:
Direction – Andy Martin
Animation – Laurie Proud, Rich Wake, Andy Martin
Production Company – Strange Beast
Agency – Red Brick Road
On Saturday I took part in a small event in North London called Mews Fest. For my part I put on an open air screening of short films by top independent animators from around the world…I called it ‘The Outdoor Animated Cinema’. This being the first screening I have curated I wasn’t sure quite what to expect. If people would contribute films, if people would come to the event or if people would stay and watch the animations. I shouldn’t have worried.
The animators were brilliant! They responded positively to my requests to screen their films, they sent me high quality versions to play and very quickly I had 1 hour 20 minutes of tip top independent animations to show. I tried to pick stuff that showed the breadth of talent out there, from stop motion geniuses, via 3D wizards, to 2D masters. You can see the poster that lists the animators who got involved here.
On the night, after the sun went down, the seats filled up and people stood all around the edges. As it hit 8.30pm I set the films going. The reaction was amazing as people watched each short film, they laughed at the funny ones, were moved by the more emotional ones and even confused by the weirder ones. Some people dipped in and out as they experienced the whole of what Mews Fest had to offer, but a lot of people stayed and watched the whole lot.
It was a brilliant thing to have been a part of and I want to say a big thank you to the guys and girls at Avenue Mews for putting on such a great event. Thanks also to the animators for letting me show their amazing work and to the people who came along and made it a successful night.
Here are some pictures from the screening:
Setting up
Holding page showing the start time of the screening
People being creative with the projector before the films start
The audience begins to grow
And it starts
The animations looked great against the white wall
And the audience seemed to be enjoying the films
…and here is a video taken when the event was in full swing (starting at ‘The Outdoor Animated Cinema) that gives you a flavour of what Mews Fest was like:
…and finally here is the graphics package I animated especially for the screening. First a short titles sequence to open the screening, then before each short I put up a title card with the name of the animator and their website address so people could find out more about each person if they wanted to, and finally an end animation to let the viewers know they could wander off and enjoy the rest of the festival:
I am putting together a screening as part of a small event called Mews Fest happening in Muswell Hill, North London on Saturday 8th September. I will be showing some tip top independent animators work and I’m looking forward to seeing these brilliant animations projected on a massive wall.
If you are in the area when the sun has gone down you should pop along and have a watch. Spread the word…
If you click on this poster you will be able to see it large, download it and share it around if you like.
And here is a flyer that tells you more of what is happening at Mews Fest:
