Animation Design Slideshow

This is a slideshow of the animation design sketches I keep over on Flickr... Hope you like it.

Dwarf Mine

LK Sketches (Detail), a photo by timbfrost on Flickr.

This is my starting point for designing a new episode background for the TV show I'm currently working on. I've just been briefed by the show's directors and have seen the storyboard. Sometimes when I'm really lucky I get to see the leica (old word for animatic).

It all starts as inky scribbles in my notebook and despite the messiness I'm careful to stay within the shows style. This really is the best bit. I get about half a day of it. After I scan in the sketches to a difference engine and set about drawing the finished artwork in Adobe's Illustrator. Once that's done, after about 3 or 4 days I build the different bits and pieces for animation for a piece of kit called Celaction.

Then i throw it at the Layout department and start the next episode. I really wish I could show more, but if I did I would be in trouble. Maybe I'll get some special permission of someone at the top. The Wise Old Elf even.

Limited Edition Print: A Career in Accountancy...

ACIA Detail 01, a photo by timbfrost on Flickr.

I've finally managed to get some fine art giclee prints done for my popular 'A Career in Accountancy is Tougher Than You Think'. There are 30 x A4 Black & White prints on German Photo Rag paper.

Prices £30 (unframed) + postage & packing. Contact me if you're interested at (bullandgate) at (gmail) dot (com).

UPDATE: 29 prints left (I shall take some photos of a framed version once I get some decent light).

Give Me Strength

For the last few years my internet presence has been scattered across multiple sites and domains. Since 1998 I've had/got:

• Several Personal Domains & bespoke websites
• A YouTube account
• A Vimeo account
• A Self-hosted Wordpress blog
• A Wordpress.com blog
• A Flickr account
• A Google+ account
• A Facebook account
• A Flavors,me page
• A Dribbble account
• A Blogger blog
• A Linkedin Account
• Two Twitter accounts

I've also registered for Etsy, Folksy and Big Cartel. I'm sure there are are several other accounts and services that I've forgotten about. The level of complexity that has seeped into the relatively simple act of trying to find an online voice / presence is very disappointing and rather shameful. If you ever met me (in you know real life) you may become aware that all I really want is a simple existence and that I treasure straight-forward, elegant solutions over convoluted and fussy ones. I'm always trying to seek out simplicity in my creative work.

So how and why have I saddled myself with all the above online options?

The answer lies in the insecurity of being a freelancer and wanting to leverage any new online medium that seems to be 'happening' or becoming 'big', allowing me to spread the word of my existence as a commercial artist... That I like the control all of the above offer me while I foist my work on a rapidly growing audience that is harder to please by the day... And because I'm an incorrigible tinkerer.

But mostly, the answer is mainly that none of the above can solely do what I need it to do, or at least they couldn't until recently. Lately, I've invested time with Google+ and kind of like it. The photo sharing tools are great and could show Flickr a thing or two. Google+ also plugs in nicely into Google's other services and if you, like me, are heavily indebted to these you understand how handy this connectivity can be. However, Google+ is a social network competing with Facebook and is perhaps too simple (for say making longer, more detailed posts). Also, the 'quality' of the followers I get is variable, in that I tend to follow back out of politeness and so my Stream is full of stuff I'm just not interested in. The whole Circles thing is not beyond me, I just don't want to spend time tending it.

Out of all the online tools I use I like the following:

1. Twitter
2. Flickr
3. Blogger, kind of

Truth is, if Flickr got their act together and allowed my personal domain to redirect to my account, improved my profile information tools, overhauled the photostream navigation and ALLOWED ANIMATED GIFS IN THE PHOTOSTREAM, I'd probably trash all others barring Twitter, which I really rather like.

Until then, it looks like it's I'll be using the Twitter / Flickr / Google Profile / Blogger grimfandango for a bit. Until the next thing.

Mostly on Google+ These Days

Here, to be exact:

http://gplus.to/timfrost

The Crew of the Red Funnel

Harrison & Co, a Brighton based design agency, recently licensed some of my Pirate cartoon characters for their client Red Funnel Ferries. They thought they'd be ideal to use in the safety signage in and around the fleet of ferries that sail between Southampton and Cowes on the Isle of Wight. I re-purposed some familiar faces and created some new ones. All were drawn in pen & ink and then vectorised in Adobe Illustrator so that the artwork could be printed really large without losing clarity. Take a squint at some images below:

This Post Was Going To Be A Long One

... But I saw sense and wrote this instead:

Just got back from the Children's Media Conference that's held in Sheffield every July. It's where a big heap of TV, publishing and interactive types make an even bigger heap and talk about kid's media and programming in between bouts of heavy lunching. This year more than any other showed me that there are great opportunities for independent creators in interactive projects, especially pre-school ones. I'm sooooo pleased to see the direction traditional publishers are taking with apps and games.

The upshot for me is that the games company I co-direct (Pie + Mash) will be concentrating on converting our Glockenspell! game to iPad, and I will also be resurrecting my long-stalled TV series project (World of Burt, image above) in the aim of making it as an interactive story. It all feels like going back to first principles and I'm really excited to be working on small projects that I love once more.

Right then, watch this space for more nice pictures etc.