New Animation: The Fox and the Owl

So, over the last few months I've been finishing up on directing and animating a little film for Entrepreneur Impet called 'The Fox and the Owl'. It's a little Aesop's fable-esq film to explain all about their coaching method and what exactly coaching is.

I jumped at the chance to create this as the story was so interesting and my mind was flooded with inspiration and thoughts on the design. A few brainstorming sessions later we came up with a few rough sketches of the fox and the owl and it was full steam ahead. In terms of the overall style I thought back to cartoons such as Winnie The Pooh and Animals of Farthing Wood to get inspiration. They created such warm, cosy worlds to inhabit their characters and thats what I wanted to achieve here.

I love the result of the fox and the owl and how it all came together with the help of a great team. When the voiceover came through at the beginning of the project I was chomping at the bit to get started. The voiceover artist, Matt Simandl, did an amazing job and really bought the characters to life before I'd even put pencil to paper. With any luck we should all be working on the follow up next year so fingers crossed.

Time for a Halloween Animation

It's that time of year again when everything gets a bit spooky and we await the arrival of the dreaded trick or treaters. Obviously it wouldn't be right not to share a Halloween animation with you all.

A year or so ago now I had the pleasure of coming up with a promo for River Film's excellent competition Four4. Make a film on a given subject that has four shots at equally four seconds. Thats only 16 seconds in total, a very very short film competition. That years theme was horror so I was briefed to create a horror themed animation, or for the sake of this post a Halloween animation, to promote the competition. We tried to come up with a scenario that included some of the best known horror characters and we fit quite a few in. See if you can spot Frankenstein, Freddie Krueger, Chucky, the girl from the Exorcist and many more. Check it out below for a chilling surprise.

If you've got a Halloween animation then let me know in the comments below. Would be great to see them.

Kevin Pearce - Bedlam - Our new short film

We've released our new short film to accompany singer/songwriter Kevin Pearce's new song Bedlam. It's a chilly encounter set in a vast icy cavern. An insurmountable wall of ice separates a man and a woman. They must find a way to reach each other before it's too late....

I once again collaborated with co-director William Long for the first time since The Robin, so it was great to get back so soon and create another film. We started off with Kevin's thoughts of a man stuck in an icy palace. Our brains started ticking over and once Will's brother sparked us with the fact that comets are icy we were off. It went quickly from small story to epic short in a matter or hours and we're so glad it did.

We're so pleased with how it has gone so far, having been out in the world for a month now. We've already received showmetheanimation.com's Pick of Day and Film Shortage's prestigious Daily Pick and we couldn't be prouder. Please give the film a watch below, it would be great to hear your thoughts.

The Robin Trailer

Hi everybody, its been a really long time since I last posted which is partly because I've been working on my new short film co-directed and written with William Long. It's about a tiny English Robin who wants nothing more than to devour a scrumptious seed ball for breakfast but two stubborn pigeons find it first. There's nothing the Robin won't do to reclaim that seed ball...nothing at all.

The trailer is now complete and available for your your viewing pleasure. Check it out above. Like it, share it, then head over to our twitter page @therobinfilm and follow us for news and the release date!

Enjoy

1st Anniversary for 'Deja View'

Congratulations to Andreas Deja for his first year in blogging. Over the last year his blog 'Deja View' has presented us with a wealth of knowledge from the Disney back catalogue. From scene planning to character designs to films that never even saw the light of day.

I personally have enjoyed every single post and have learnt so much from each one. His knowledge on the nine old men is amazing and his personal collection of animation drawings certainly proves that. He is truly a Disney icon and fanatic and I look forward to lots more posts and insights.

Keep up the good work Andreas and heres to another year on top!

Here are some drawings that he did for a film that never made it further that initial development. This had to be my favourite of his posts, I just love his characters, the movement and acting he gets out of a single drawing.

IHUK advert

Been busy lately creating a great new online advert for the guys at Independent Hostels UK. It has been a really interesting project and has allowed me to put over a style that I have been wanting to use for some time. The characters are loosely based around the style of Hanna-Barbara, of which I have been a big fan of for a number of years. The right project has never come along but at long last this seemed to be 'the one'.

The project is yet to be completed but should only be a week or so away, so watch this space for hopefully a finished IHUK advert.

Here are the characters in the mean time.

A Tribute to Glen Keane

There is a great tribute to Glen Keane doing the rounds at the moment and thought that I would share it with you all on my blog.

What an amazing animator he was at Disney and will always be remembered for such memorable characters such as Ariel, the Beast and Tarzan. His drawings and style were always so structured and very classical, very reminiscent of the the old renaissance artists. Powerful and well posed, he really was the something different within Disney Animation.

In directing 'Tangled' he really pushed his style of designing and animating through into the final film. His structure and animation were visible and is a sign that he was constantly improving his art and therefore pushing the boundaries of what animation could be.

I feel that in leaving Disney he will be able to push himself further and develop things that we've never seen before. Bring it on!

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/

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.

New Website

I have a new website. Check it out now at www.tomsandersanimation.com

Hope you like it!

My Christmas Film

This year instead of sending out cards I have decided to make a Christmas film instead, so here it is. It took me just over 2months to achieve and was all done with hand drawn principles. The sound was created by my brother Jake who did a great job and the backgrounds were coloured in by my girlfriend Hannah Lott who is an illustrator and you check out her great work here : www.hannahlott.com.

The film was great fun to make and I am really happy with the result, it was worth all the stress! For better quality go to http://vimeo.com/33457170

Hope you like it and have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Showreel 2011

Here is my new Showreel for 2011. I hope you like it. I have really enjoyed animating everything this year even if some of the projects were just a bit stressful. I just hope all the blood sweat and tears comes out in my work. Just click on my business card to access. Enjoy!

http://vimeo.com/32007252