What have Aardman been upto?

This post is in response to a comment left by michael

I too was thinking, "what have Aardman been doing lately" and initially thought that they seemed to have cut their output and moved into the toys and books market, this was partly due to receiving a Wallace and Gromit comic as a Christmas present.

However, with a little further investigation they have been very busy...

Lets not forget Flushed Away which was in the cinemas this Christas. Aardman have been working on this for a few years now and as mentioned in the Southbank show they are moving into CGI in a big way. The plot is a little too Hollywood for my liking but the characters and animation are top quality.

The plasticine slugs and rats from Creature Comforts have been accurately reproduced in CGI for this film and I believe that they had the worlds first singing maggots in a film. According to BlueYonder the same slugs have also recorded a music video with breakdancing.

According to the Aardman website they also have "The Presentators" on nickelodeon and "Angry Kid" on BBC3.

What's next?

Again according to their website there are 3 films in the making and new shows including:

Chop Socky Chooks: "a cgi series for cartoon network featuring “kick-ass chickens in kung-fu capers“ "
Shaun the Sheep: "a kids series featuring the much loved character from ‘a close shave’"
and
Animated Sketch Show (working title) which they are working on for citv

New Years Resolutions for Animators

Here's some New Years resolutions for me, but they could apply to any animator.

1) Do better backups
This one was due to loosing some critical files from the computer over the holidays.

2) Experiment with different styles
So far I've only really made stop motion and model based CGI films and the results are beginning to look a bit similar. I think it would benefit all of my projects to make at least one short film in a completely different style. I'm thinking of changing my origional idea of animating Captain Correct in 3D and instead do that as 2D using Anime Studio (another Christmas present)

3) Sketch more
I've got a small notepad as part of my Christmas present and a short pencil from Ikea. My aim is to sketch out more of my ideas when I have them rather than waiting till I get back to the office.

4) Training
Last year I looked at the courses in London's St Martin's College. Although I probably won't have time or money to attend one of those, I do intend to get some online training and run through some more tutorials in all those books I've read.

5) Finally finish project
The Flea Circus Film has been work in progress for a couple of years now. Its time I knucked down to some serious weekend and evening grafting to get this completed.

Christmas Animation

This Christmas, television has been good for animation. A whole raft of Aardman including the Wallace & Gromit films and Creature Comforts Christmas specials.


CBeebies also provided a Christmas special of the Koala Brothers a stop motion animation made by the UK company Spellbound Entertainment Ltd. The brothers fly to the Southpole and return with their penguin friend to spend Christmas in the outback. This childrens programme had an amazing array of weather and technical effects such a the brothers wrestling with a map whilst flying their plane. The range of animal characters are lovable and well made, the sets range from the simple desert of the outback to the snowy south pole set.



Following on the Australian Christmas theme was another Stop Motion film "A very Barry Christmas" made by Canadian company Cuppa Coffee. Due to a flying mixup Barry and Santa get swapped and Santa is forced to feed the animals in Barry's Safari park and Barry attempts to manage Christmas wit the help of elves and reindeer. The animals here are also excellently made characters but aimed at an old audience (they are just not nice!)

Cuppa Coffee also make Celebrity Deathmatch and a wide range of Children's animation.

RIP Joseph Barbera

Today in LA, Joseph Barbera died at the age of 95. One of the influences in my love of animation, Mr Barbera with Mr Hanna provided some of my favourites such as Captain Caveman, Huckleberry Hound the Smurfs and more recently Dexter's Laboratory.

His name will live on through his films for many years from now.

It's animation but not as we know it

Anthony Pascale from Trekmovie reports on CBS considering a new Star Trek series in 2D animation. The new stylings are somewhat like a comic book and has raised some strong opinions from trekkies.

http://trekmovie.com/2006/12/13/cbs-considering-new-animated-trek-series/