Random

Here is a random picture that was never used for anything, we were trying to work out a style for something.

Story Train Cakes!

It was Mr Gareth's last day today and he brought these in which were made by his lovely wife. I enjoyed eating Mr Dan, he was yummy!

Old Header

Hello. Due to the new blog layout you wont see the header that was on here since the beginning of this blog. Well here it is. This is a back ground from Rubbish King of the Jumble.

Gary Spangle

Here is a board from Mr Warwick for the Gary Spangle shorts we did for the Chanel 4 Animation night. Gary Spangle was a slightly off kilter presenter.

Concept Art

Here is another concept picture for one of our projects by Miss Susanne.

All The Posts on this Blog

Since I have changed the layout of this blog it is easier to see all the posts that have been done on here. Here it is as one picture. Maybe take a little bit to have a look back at some old posts? Some lovely work by a lot of different people over the years.

Dance Cycle

Here is the last dance cycle for Fizz from the Tweenies. This was animated by Mr Phil.

Painting

Here is a painting of Lolly and Jeff by Mr Tom.

An Anthropomorphised Mouse Walk Cycle

An anthropomorphised mouse walk cycle. By Mr Phil. That is all.

2 Years Work

Here is the result of 2 years work. All fit onto 11 DVD's. This is just the animatics, audio and storyboard pannels for Driver Dans Story Train. The actual animation files or the green screen would be a totally different story.

The Final Final Cut

So we have finished the Animatics on Driver Dan's Story Train now. This is a view of the timeline of the last episode special. What you are looking at is 22 mins, blue blocks are storyboard panels (top 3 rows). Then in the audio tracks (all 24 of them) are the blip track (blip at the start of each new scene), Dan's line, 6 kids tracks, 12 character tracks, 2 sound effect tracks and the bottom two tracks are the dump tracks (unused lines). Fhew indeed I hear you say.
We use Final Cut Pro to do the animatics.

My Health Tips

Here are two visuals designed by Miss Leah for the shorts we did for MV Studios which was for the My Health Tips website. You may notice the original top picture showing the dead animals in spicy sauce, it was later changed to a burger. You can see the shorts on our site here!!

Franks Cat Do and Dont

Here are some examples of some do and don't sketches from Mr Jerome for drawing the characters on Frankenstein's Cat.

Frankenstein's Cat

Here is a group picture of all the recurring characters from the Franks Cat series we did for Mackinnon and Saunders and the BBC.

Scratch and Sniff

Here is a Scratch and Sniff sketch found on Mr Phil's desk.

Born to Learn

Here is a nice article on the Co.Design website about our Born to Learn shorts for the 21st Century Learning Initiative. You can see them all on vimeo here.
Fhew, I don't think I have managed to fit in 4 links in one post before.

Play Bus Again (but with added video)

Hello, I am reposting an old image but thought I would as Sis has posted a link to the video of the title sequence for Playbus. See it here. This was one of the original background paintings for it.

Happy New Year

Happy Christmas

Happy Christmas to you all. This was our card we sent out to people. The concept was by Mr Paul and was executed by Miss Leah. See you next year.

Group Shot

Good Morning. Here is a recent line up with just some characters we have worked with over the years. That was quite a hectic day in the office when they showed up let me tell you.

Story Board

Here is a page from one of the Storyboards from Driver Dan's Story Train. These are done by Mr Phil. Each episode has two weeks for storyboard, that's one week rough and one week clean up, typing out, corrections, making sure all the characters are the right hight to each other, adding a few extra panels for clarity of action etc. adding back ground detail, making sure the staging is right etc.

Concept Art

Here is just one of the many concept art pieces being done at the moment for a project of ours. Miss Susanne did this. We love it.

Robbie Viking

Here is one of the Vikings that were in the flash back bit in Robbie and the Vikings. Mr Paul did this section as cut out in after effects. The characters and BG's were designed by Mr Tim and drawn by Mr Gary . Click on the Robbie Tab to see the other pictures.

Simmo

Hi good afternoon. Here is a picture from a few years ago of a pilot we did about football. It was called Simmo. The kit looks a bit like Bristol City doesn't it? It was in no way intentional.

Flash Library

  "This morning I was doing something with Flash using an old library. This was the library for a series we did called Dusty and Musty. I decided to open this up and see how extensive it is. As you can see it's full. This is everything you need for the 6 main characters. Turnarounds, walk cycles (for every angle), run cycles (for every angle), lipsync (for every angle, happy AND sad) and everything is in twice as one has the shadow on and the other doesn't. This was library version 53 and was what was ready for the start of production. It was constantly updated with reusable animation in and more props etc.
So much work by so many people, there was a lot of heart put into this project. I discovered I was capable of 46hr shifts. We became a little family for those 18 months." *genuinely wiping away a little tear.
- Jane

The picture shows the library in sections and the long thin pic on the right is how it looks un-sectioned, quite long isn't it.

Ink Dot

It's a new Ink Dot exhibition next month and 2 of our Directors got in (Mr Paul and Miss Jane) as well as one of our freelancers Mr Mathew! Go see it if you have the chance. Buy some of em too. Especially Miss Jane's (she paid me to say that).

Encounters Trailer

Here it is then, the trailer for this years Encounters Festival in Bristol. Once again Directed by Mr Paul. Animation by Miss Jane, Miss Kirsten and Mr Chris.

Children In Need

Here is Driver Dan practicing the routine with Cerrie for the Children in Need dance. You can watch it here.
Mr Matt also helped Dan with his moves.

Team

Here are the team for Driver Dan's Story Train. Don't they look happy.

Encounters Trailers

Leading up to the point when we can show the new Encounters Film Festival trailer we have done this year, here is a place where you can see all the previous years trailers. All in one place. It's Mr Pauls website. He has made them all from the very beginning.

Art Briefs

 

 Here is a picture of all the finished art briefs for the storybook art for Driver Dan's Story Train series two. 

City

Morning. We are just finishing off a new short for the 21st Century Learning initiative. Here is a still from it. I will post up a link to it soon.

Dusty Hat

Hello, here is a model sheet for a pirate hat for Dusty in an episode of Dusty and Musty. It was quite a big hat as you can see, it also was quite a complicated shape too. Not much fun to animate in 2D.

Driver Dan

Look who came into the office today! Choo Wooooo!!

More Jobs

Click on the picture to see it clearly. Need some more animators so send us your showreel links and CV's via email.

Class Reunion

Here is a storyboard page for the new short for the 21st Century Learning Initiative. You can see the short here.
The style had to move on a bit from the first one as the characters are talking a lot and talking to each other so there was a need for more expression. So then if you make the faces more realistic you then need to add hair and clothes, otherwise it just looks a bit wrong.
Again Damian Lewis does the voice, this time with Alex Kelly (she does some of the voices on Story Train). Board by Mr Dave, animation by Mr Rob, Mr Ollie and Mr Dan. Directed by Miss Jane.

This Years Encounters, an Image.

Hellooooo, apologies for lack of blogging, it's been very busy here. Anyway, exciting image here of the new Encounters trailer and ident for this years festival. Ooooooooo look at it's lovelyness. Mr Paul and Miss Jane delivered this yesterday so the branding and things for the festival can be tied in.
Mr Paul has outdone himself, this one is quite epic. Animation by Miss Jane, Miss Kirsten and Mr Chris. Everything else by Mr Paul who is very clever. He doesn't like it when I keep telling him that.
I will link it soon when it's online.

Job Advertisement

Morning, here is a job position that is now open. Click on the picture to see in detail.

Story Train Shoot

Today we shot a new title sequence for Driver Dan's Story Train. Look there is the book.
On the frount row is Miss Maggie, Miss Brooke, Miss Suzanne, Mr Elliot, Mr Sai, Miss Dot, Miss Tia, Miss Ella, Mr Caspar and Miss Helen. On the back row is Mr Gary, Mr Stan and Mr James.

The Village with Three Corners

Here is a link to The village with Three Corners which was a Stop Motion and 2D film we did back in 1995. The round tree you may recognise from Mr Paul's toy shelf and the Tweenies picture. Mr Phil, Mr Nigel, Mr Gary, Mr Andy, Miss Theresa and Mr Lee worked on this. I'm sure Mr Mark did something on this too.

E4 Sting

Here is another E4 Sting this time by Miss Jane. Mr Chris helped by doing the compositing.

A Production Still

Hello! Sorry I haven't been posting much lately, everyone is ever so busy here and it takes up a lot of my time to crack the whip about!

Here is a picture to show one of the frames of notes for the animator from a scene from a new short we are doing for 21st Century Learning Initiative. Here you see the models of each character put in to position (not poses correctly or started animation) and the prop of the table and punch bowl. You can see some notes from the Director (miss Jane) who would have put notes all the way through the Flash file at certain points to let the animator know what should be happening and when.

You can also see there is the QuickTime of the animatic, this play's inside the FLA to give the animators extra info of what should be going on. Anyone using Flash will know that for some unknown reason in the newer versions of Flash you can't import QuickTime’s. It's very inconvenient.

Vote!

Mr Chris has entered an E4 sting! Watch it and vote for him here.

Look At Our Big Sister!

Who woke her up? www.aforanimation.blogspot.com

The Stay Puft

Here it is, The Stay Puft trophy. Present holder is Mr Peter, this is on his desk. You get this when you win 10 - 0 on Table Football

Table Football Rules

Here is a link to a page of Mr Paul's new web site that features the A Productions Table Football rules! We take it quite seriously you know.
Here is Mr Pauls site.

A Lovely Gift

Here is the commemorative gift given to us for being commissioned to do a section on a new feature film! Miss Jane and Miss Leah brought it back from London. It's very exciting. It's going to mean not much sleep over the coming months. But Miss Jane is used to that quite frankly. I will give you more info as we progress along with it all.

Pedro Still of High Detail

Here is another still from Pedro and Frankensheep. Look at the detail!