Woody

I’ve just sent some money across to this great little animation project. The stop-motion camera work has all wrapped up, and it looks brilliant from what I can see on their Pozible webpage. I’m particularly interested in the animators they say they’ve got on board for this (especially as the project has got such a tiny budget): people who have worked on Mary and Max, Harvey Krumpet, Wallace and Gromit and the new Pirates (haven’t seen yet but the trailers are hilarious). I’ve looked at the studio website Gingerbread Man and the blog for Woody but I haven’t found any names of these animators. Does anybody know who they are?

Sunchaser music video

Fun and catchy, with a 70’s-TV-cartoon-feel, this music video is a collaboration with the film and video production company SilverSun Pictures. Part animation, part live-action music video for Australian band Sunchaser & The Wayward Orchestra.
The Film clip is directed and edited by Douglas Kirk and filmed by Roger Price. Animation by yours truly, using brilliant character designs by illustrator Kieron Pratt.
Animation Post Processing by Nathan Clark.
Live Performance lighting/stage production by Gary Peadon/Greenroom.

EDIT, 2014:
I’ve got a soft spot for this one, as it was kinda my big break. I was learning ToonBoom Animate at the time, and wanted a nice big project to practice with. I was also really into Venture Bros and old nostalgia cartoons back then, so was really keen to animate with a 70’s toony style. I watched Scoobydoo and Josie and the Pussycats over and over – hopefully you can see the influence in the characters’ movements and run.

If you go to 1:07 on the music video, you’ll see the world transition into a 16-bit platform game. This was the first time I got to play with sprite animation, and back then I was terribly ignorant of pixel art and sprite sheets. But nothing teaches more efficiently than a deadline, and I pulled through with a little help from Megaman and Princess Peach. Enjoy, folks. I certainly did.

‘Mi Amistad’ short film

Two kids from very different worlds grow up together in a tiny Uruguayan town. Their simple friendship develops in innocence and childish fantasy, until time and circumstance tear them apart.
Hand-drawn animated film, music score by Sam Smith.

The story behind this:
In my last year of University, I had a chance to spent a whole year making one film, and I decided to look back on one of the most important, if confusing, part of my life.
I grew up in Uruguay, in a little northern town called Salto. My parents worked for over six years in humanitarian aid with the local churches. We left when I was 11 to go live in Australia. (It was a massive culture shock, despite having Aussie parents)

The film is based on my last days in Salto, and the disruption of my friendship with the kids who lived there, most who lived in the poor outskirts of town where my parents were working.
I was about to travel on a plane, and live in a wealthier country. This realisation, that I had privileges my closest friends didn’t, was a tough thing for a little kid to think about. Neither I or my friends could really express it at the time.
This film was my attempt to express those feelings of alienation, difference and loss from the point of view of a kid.
I also wanted to draw the town I grew up in, the characters and landscape I still love and miss.

Thanks for watching.