This summer I worked with Hannah Robinson of Muckle Hen Productions to produce a short explainer video about medical abortion.
The video shown is in English for the UK, but is also in French, Swedish and Portuguese. 
I provided storyboards, character design and animation using Photoshop and After Effects, and edited to the 4 different voiceovers.  

You can find the storyboards and character designs in my portfolio.

In March I worked with Playdead Ltd to produce storyboards for this online campaign for Wondros, which I'm now pleased to share. You can find the storyboards over on the storyboard section of my portfolio. 

“Home Matters” is a national movement that is redefining the American Dream, believing that the New American Dream is one where every American lives in a safe, nurturing environment with access to quality education, healthcare, public spaces and community services. More than half a million people in the United States do not have a home, a quarter of these individuals are children.

I was very excited to be contacted by Aaron Bartlett (Creative Concept) to do another animated sequence for "Bruni & Vergier Against the World"!

This time I was doing the animation alone, as Tom Paxton (who I collaborated with last time) had other commitments. However, I wasn't too daunted - using the experience from last time, I felt confident I could get it done in the 3 weeks given. 

After receiving the brief, I started as I usually do: dedicating a good chunk of time to gathering as much resource material as possible. This includes the riders, their specific kit, logos and poses. For the latter, I usually coerce my boyfriend to act out the poses for me to photograph, especially if I'm drawing guys. It's also a lot quicker than trying to trawl through photo stock for the right pose. Watching anime also helped (but I would do that anyway ...) 

The brief was nice and clear, so storyboards were done pretty quickly. I also didn't feel the need to take them further than the rough thumbnail stage (which of course I would have were I passing them forward to someone else to do the animating!) 

The character designs changed slightly since 2015, I believe for the better! The three riders look a bit more mature and detailed than in the first season intro. Still, the existing character designs were a useful starting point and saved me a lot of time. 

Slightly different to last time, there was a lot more emphasis on the kit and sponsors - 661 kneepads, Rock Shox suspension forks and the Specialized bike getting particular focus with each rider's segment. I had to make sure the different logos were added, and in some cases took a bit of artistic liberty in the placement to make sure they were visible (such as the "S-Works" logo on the bike)

Last year we did the animation using Adobe Photoshop, because it was the only program Tom and I both had already. This time around I was free to use Toon Boom, which I had recently upgraded to Harmony. It was easily a much faster and smoother experience than PS, which isn't really designed for animating in anyway. Like last time, I composited it in Adobe After Effects. I was able to re-use the backgrounds from season 1, which saved me a bit of time (as simple as they are). 

I haven't really gone into my process in great detail before, so I hopefully it was at least somewhat coherent and not too much of a ramble!

Bruni & Vergier (& Iles) are back for a second season, and I'm happy to say I was once again invited to provide some animation! I plan on posting a more in-depth post about my side of the sequence, but in the meantime, here's the trailer (first episode out Friday 4th March).  

I found some of the files from the CelAction training course I was fortunate to take part in! The course was held on Skye at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig and taught by the lovely and ever-patient Mat Dame of King Rollo Films. 

​For one of our last lessons we did lip synch ... and  I made things difficult for myself! Choosing a clip that was longer than recommended and wanting to incorporate body language to match the wonderfully over-the-top acting by Eartha Kitt (I admit, manipulating the stock boy puppet we were all given into to those poses was a lot of fun ... weird, weird fun).
As you will see, I did not complete the animation in the end. Perhaps a lesson to stick to the brief and keep time in mind? I wish I could go back and finish it, but unfortunately it was right at the end of the course. 

(All assets belong to King Rollo Films. The dialogue is from the Disney film "The Emperor's New Groove")

Last month I had the pleasure of working with Tom Paxton yet again, this time for a short animated segment for the intro to "Bruni & Vergier Against the World", featuring Team Lapierre and directed by Aaron Bartlett. 

I did the character design, clean-up and backgrounds, Tom handled storyboard/layout, rough animation and compositing (colouring was a joint effort).

The animation process was perhaps a little unusual, but suited us - Tom quickly worked out the timing and rough poses while I could concentrate on getting the characters on-model. This gave Tom more time to work on compositing.  We worked around 14 days on it. 

Tom Paxton - www.facebook.com/tompaxtonanimation

Aaron Bartlett -  www.creativeconcept.tv/


Team Lapierre - www.facebook.com/teamlapierre?fref=nf

Bruni & Vergier - www.facebook.com/bruniandvergier/info?tab=page_info

Trying something a bit different while playing about with Toon Boom. Just a work in progress, so will be tweaking and adding to it... but I actually sort of like him without arms!