The Work of Sandro Cleuzo

Thought I would share some work from one of my favourite animator/illustrators Sandro Cleuzo. I think I stumbled across his blog sometime a couple of years back and have been an avid viewer ever since.

The characters he designs use the grand old technique of Milt Kahl with his straights on curves yet he seems to pull away from this ideal with very broad expressions adding a sort of slapstick cartoony effect. His creations seem to cry out to be animated and they are so full of personality and life that they seem to live and breath right there on the page.

As for his animation well thats a whole new ball game. The thing that I would point out the most is the imagination and use of poses. Below is a walk cycle of his I found a while ago and just the manner in which the archer moves is totally unique and neatly thought out. Just that quick double bounce tells you so much about what he is like, happy, free spirited and maybe slightly naive.

              

As you've probably guessed I'm an avid fan and will definitely be posting more about him when I find new things. Head over to his blog now at http://inspectorcleuzo.blogspot.co.uk/ to find out more and look through his character back catalogue. He also has a great feature on there called 'Milt Kahl Day' in which he post beautiful drawings of the master of animation. It has sadly been missing for a while but there are tons of previous posts holding a wealth of information. So go get 'em!

First test for new film 'Busy Lately'

Well hopefully this will the first of many posts about my new film 'Busy Lately'. Most of the design work is done and I am just testing out the animation style and how interprets into an editing suite.

Thought i'd share with you the first line test so I hope you like it. Much more will be following in upcoming posts

           

Sleeping Betty by Claude Cloutier

And there was me wondering what I was going to post today. That was until I visited one of my favourite blogs 'On Animation' and found this beauty of a film.

Produced and animated by Claude Cloutier 'Sleeping Betty' is a film that follows the short story of a sleeping princess and her fathers sometimes surreal attempts to wake her from her slumber. The random originality of all the characters and gags are a triumph especially my personal favourite the witch who comes in hoovering with her broom. Oh and the horse riding the taxi, theres just to many. These all coming from a man who says he is 'not' a funny man.

It just shows that there are some animators still out there producing films using traditional hand drawn techniques and with such talent and draftsmenship. There isn't a frame throughout that piece that doesn't purvey weight, character and pose. A brilliant piece of work and I look forward to seeing more and learning more about Claude Cloutier.

                 

Please watch this and enjoy every 24 frames of each second!

Secret Garden Party Animation

Over the last month I've been working with Atomic Arts to produce this years Secret Garden Party website, and I say produce the website I mean doing the animation. Secret Garden Party celebrates its 10th year anniversary this year so it was great to be apart of it all.

IMAGES  ARE PROPERTY OF PETE LOVEDAY

I animated some great illustrations by the talented cartoonist Pete Loveday. They are all over the website and more are to be added in the coming weeks which I will make sure to post up.

Meanwhile click on the picture above to head straight over to the website and check it out, or alternatively click on this link  http://www.secretgardenparty.com/2012/#!/home/

Did some great work for Alice Dupre again last month and it seems like another brilliant outcome. The project was for Charlie Simpson (formerly of Busted fame) on his new music video for 'Farmer and His Gun'.

The premise was a story similar to the great classic Watership Down, with the video following a lonely rabbit who finds love and all done in the style of a children's book. Washed over the top was a great watercolour effect that proved very effective and stopped it becoming a boring old Flash animation. Alice's style is one that I really like and had a great time on her Ikea internet commercials she did last year (of which you can see here on a previous post http://tcs16.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/happy-to-bed-animation.html)

Lets hope that this video pushes her into the animation elite and then hopefully they'll be a lot more of where this came from. Check out her website at www.aloveday.co.uk

As for I animated and cleaned up the dog in the middle of the piece and cleaned up the female rabbit and all the small little blighters at the end of the video.

I hope you enjoyed it!

New Showreel

Thought I would post up my new showreel. It has all the work that I've been doing over the last year and a few more of my favourites. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have enjoyed making them.

The Art of Brittney Lee

Amazing artist Brittney Lee has caught my eye lately. Her style is simply captivating, the colours and curves she uses are so vivid and sharp that I vow anyone to dislike her work.

As Sandro Cleuzo says on his blog 'I got so inspired too draw' after seeing these beautiful pieces. I'm aiming to email her and hopefully secure a print for myself. I can imagine that looking at any of her pieces every day will certainly put a spring in my step.

If you haven't checked her out already then do so now. Her blog is as at http://britsketch.blogspot.co.uk. You'll not be disappointed!