All Monsters Attack!

Some more stuff!

2009-09-09T14:17:00.001-07:00

More soon! :D

Also I'm on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Atarimonkey

Some new stuff!

2009-07-16T12:51:00.000-07:00

I'm gonna overhaul the whole blog soon, so stand by!!

Been a while.

2009-03-30T16:40:00.000-07:00

By request of my friends, I'm gonna start posting on this blog again.

Which i guess is good news, the bad news is that I'm turning off the comments. I can't deal with the paranoia that no one is looking at the blog any more, so this way i can update when i feel like.

As always my portfolio is up at : http://www.jaysmithportfolio.com/

It's even got some animation samples on it! :P

Have a good one!

Jay

Update

2008-10-27T17:35:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, Been a while. I've been trying to teach myself 3ds max properly in an attempt to increase my job skill level. So I've been hiding myself away, staring at many online tutorials and will probably still be away for a few months while i try to get this in the bag, so to speak!

First off the Paper Child Book. Thanks for the Emails, asking to take part. I will Contact all that have contacted me soon. My digital camera broke while lending it to my sister, so that will have to be replaced soon before we proceed. The idea is to do a 100+ pages of paper children pictures and donate any earnings to charity. However we have not finalized any of the finer details, such as were to get it printed or even which charity to donate too. We did set our selves a time limit of about a year, so there is no rush. I will update ever so often right here.

Here's a pic! Try to guess who it is! :)

So for the moment, Adios! And wish me luck!!

P.S I'll try to get something up for Halloween!

j.

Paper Child book update

2008-09-18T11:11:00.000-07:00

....is still on the way!

I want to post some examples, but I've lent out my digital camera to my sister, so maybe in a couple of days!

Here's a naked lady in the meantime!

Back to the job hunt!! :)

Website and Paperchild book

2008-09-04T07:52:00.000-07:00

Hey all, sorry for the short break. I know i said i would post some of my animation tests, but due to recent events, I've had to finish off some other stuff first.

First of all my website is now up and running! (yay!!) It can be seen here:

http://www.jaysmithportfolio.com/

Took so long to build and i'm quite proud of how it turned out. I'm also now listed on IllustrationMundo and Pixiv in case anyone wants to take a look.

Secondly, a couple of friends and i are starting work on a PaperChild artbook collection. More details of exactly what that is to come, but I'm gonna try to convince some fellow artists to contribute to the project. If any ones interested, give us a shout. Examples below:

Now back to the job hunting!
Back soon! :)

Random stuff 1

2008-08-13T13:20:00.000-07:00

Not been up to much this past week other than trying to update my portfolio. Need to get that done ASAP and start shipping it around.

I'm also looking into some sort of representation by an illustration agent in the UK, has anyone anyone ever dealt with an agent before or got any advice if it's really worth exploring or not? Any information would be helpful!

Next week hopefully I'll be posting some small animation tests into rigging my own characters in flash. So hopefully that will be more interesting!

Here's some girl designs in the meantime.

Check this out, it's from the 1985 film "The Adventures of Mark Twain" by Will Vinton. Fantastic film that i recommend everyone check out sometime if you haven't already.

Mach Go Go Go!

2008-08-05T20:24:00.000-07:00

Gotta love speed racer!!

Any show that has a kid and a monkey in it is okay by me!!

One of the thing that confuses me about Animators in the UK who dislike anime, will use the idea that anime has limited frames for animation as a reason to dislike anime, then in the same breath will hold such old school Brit cartoons like Danger Mouse as examples of quality animation!

I don't see any difference!

Weird stuff!

Ghosts n' Goblins

2008-07-30T19:37:00.000-07:00

Here's a hand painted piece i did based on one of my fave Videogames "Ghosts n' Goblins". I have spent many hours tryng to master this game on my nes, and i still can't get much further than the 3rd level. It will Haunt me FOREVERRRRRRR......

The 3 piece set is of the main character Knight Arthur in his 3 stages of health.

The Original Flash reference art.

Thanks for the comments on my last post. Since Mister Sun has decided to pop his head out, my hay fever has been going chicken oriental!! On the upside though it's rare for us Brits to be actually able to get a tan in England, this been a nation mostly known for been overcast at the best of times. :)

To answer the question from Jason in the comments from my last post, i simply scan the pencil sketch into Photoshop, then ink/trace the image in a mix of Illustrator and Flash. Nothing special! :)

UY Girls

2008-07-19T18:36:00.000-07:00

Here's are some characters from my fave longtime Anime series Urusei Yatsura.

Benten

Oyuki

Ran-Chan

I love this series, and the first and third movies are on my most watched films each year.

I've recently been getting into the idea of "Super Flat" style with my designs. Not quite the Takashi Murakami art movement, but the idea of having everything in a flat minimum color with super clean line work. Kinda works with my education of starting in Graphic design area, then moving into Animation.

As i kinda mentioned before, i really want to move away from other peoples thoughts and theories about what makes a good design and really push what i want to do instead (weather it be good or not!). Not that i don't respect or give a crap about others opinions, it's just that they have a habit of taking over.

People have a habit of making you feel that they're way, is the only way. And if you feel that you can't pull off they want, i puts you in a self slump which is hard to get out off.

Sorry about the whining, but hey isn't that what a blog is for??

j.

Retro Crap!

2008-07-11T12:02:00.000-07:00

Er....can't think of anything to say?

Newport mash up!

2008-06-22T08:20:00.000-07:00

last weekend i returned to newport for a drawing mashup with my old pal Dave Surman from the UWCN videogame design course!

It was great fun catching up with old mates, plus the event had a live burlesque show which was quite spectacular!!

Digital version of the piece i did live for the event which i call "The Crying Monkey King".

Photos taken by Alison Oddy

And something unrelated!:

Some Ladies

2008-06-06T19:07:00.000-07:00

Some girl designs i did for a local company. The colours are a bit rushed, but whatever! All ways been bit nervous posting girl designs, especially when looking at other quality cartoony girl designers like Shane Glines or Katie Rice. But i think the best approach to design, is to worry less about others and just go ahead with what you enjoy.

Got to try animating something with this effect setup:

Toei Doga Fanboy

2008-03-26T18:20:00.001-07:00

Hey guys,

My Toei Doga fanboy blog is now up and running at: http://toeidogafanboy.blogspot.com/

Stop by and check it out sometime!

j.

Transformers Vs North Korea

2008-03-19T09:07:00.000-07:00

Behold one of my fave Transformers as a child, the much underused "Reflector". Three decepticons that function as one and turn into a spy camera. He kinda vanished after the first season, though is seen as a background character in the movie. I kinda want him to turn up in the new series, but i'm guessing thats not likely.

Anyway last Tuesday, my brother Phil and i came across a cheap anime dvd in the pound store called "Solar Adventure". Animation wise and story wise, not much to report. But on closer inspection a few interesting things became apparent about this film.

1) This film was made in South Korea.

2) The bad guys were North Koreans.

3) The Main super weapon/cannon was a ripoff of the original Daiclone "Reflector" toy.

Reflector In original Daiclone Colours.

I asked around on a few boards, and yes, "Solar adventure" is a fantastic piece of South Korean propaganda animation. Apparently Walmart removed the dvd and vhs from its store in the states a few years ago after learning about the content of the film. My local pound store isn't quite so enlightened.

In other news, I've set up the Toei/Doga fanboy blog, I'm just getting some more stuff to post on it first, before making my first post.

Portfolio site still up soon, still having html probs!

And I'm still job hunting..............nightmare!!

Other than that, not much to report.

PSP, PSP, PSP!

2008-02-13T16:40:00.000-08:00

A present i made for my 4 year old nephew Jack. He can be very persistent, i spent most of xmas with him bugging me every 5 minutes.

My portfolio website should be up in about a week, just have to iron out some bugs.

I'm also going to start a Toei Doga fan blog, with shot by shot screengrabs I've been making while teaching myself storyboarding. Would anyone be interested in that, or maybe interested in helping out with opinions or such?

This is the trailer for the Toei Doga film "Little Prince And The Eight Headed Dragon"

New year blues.....

2008-01-18T18:18:00.000-08:00

Well its a new year and I'm unemployed again. So i guess it's time to dust off the old portfolio and finally get my portfolio website up and running ASAP. Oh happy times!

Anyway heres the first three page to a comic strip I'm working on. Minus the text.

Heres a game i made while at Cartoon Saloon, working on Skunk-Fu for the CBBC website.

Play the game here!

Also i thought i would post this. Dogtanian was massive in the UK durring the 80's, so i thought i would post the original Japanese intro to the show. Maybe time for some Dogtanian fanart!!

Ghostboy

2007-12-18T14:28:00.000-08:00

Custom papercraft Ghostboy made for the Crossville project!

FireBird

2007-12-12T10:50:00.000-08:00

I first saw Firebird 2772 (Hi no Tori 2772) back on my animation course at UWCN in 1999, it was a badly dubbed english version, but contained the imortal lines:

"Have you brought the firebird, the only thing that can save our planet?"

"I brought vegetables!"

Since then i've been collecting Tezuka's Phoenix
manga, which is vastly superior.

Huey, Dewey and Louie

2007-12-08T12:28:00.000-08:00

Been working through 3 seasons of Ducktales with my very own nephew Jack. Gotta admit I'm thoroughly enjoying it as well. Gonna start with the huge Carl Barks comic collection i grabbed off the net tomorrow!

J.

Girlies!

2007-11-13T04:13:00.000-08:00

Just working on my portfolio at the moment! Also working on my website (which is no way near finished!). http://www.jaysmithportfolio.com/

I haven't checked these images on any different computers, so i may take them down later if the colours look to different.

I Chu, Chu, Choose you!

2007-10-26T15:43:00.000-07:00

Another Zelda desktop wallpaper as requested by Okkle over on the Vinyl Abuse forum!

Larger 1600x1200 version here

Zelda desktop wallpaper!

2007-10-19T09:39:00.000-07:00

Heres a Zelda desktop wallpaper i made, cuz i'm loving the new DS Zelda game!

Larger 1600x1200 version here

Tasty, Tasty, very, very Tasty!

2007-10-17T13:20:00.000-07:00

Heres my contribution to the cereal killers artbook, tons of fun working on this. I have a major soft spot for 60's/70's Kaiju films such as Godzilla and Gamera. Even the name of my blog is the same as my fav godzilla film. I recommend "All monsters attack!", even though it's the least popular of the Godzilla series, it's a cross between "Godzilla" and "Home alone".

Anyway check out the cereal killers blog at:

http://idigcerealkillers.blogspot.com/

Blog Strangeness!

2007-10-04T09:11:00.000-07:00

heyya!

Been a while since I've updated the Blog. For some reason it wouldn't accept my password for ages, until yesterday.....very strange!

Hopefully over the next couple of days I'll fix the look of the Blog and post some of the stuff I've been working on over the past few months!

Cheers

J.

2 more weeks!

2007-06-29T02:24:00.000-07:00

2 more weeks and i'm outta here, back to the UK!

Two more week and skunk starts on the bbc.

Here's a recreation of my fave classic Star Trek episode with skunk characters.

Meat Wagon

2007-05-02T02:20:00.000-07:00

Only a couple more months here and then i'm back on the meat wagon. Scary Stuff!!

The characters below are going to part of a comic strip i'm working on, the colours are based on old videogame packaging. Donkey kong, Nintendo Family Computer and Sega Master System (though the last one looks more like a smurf).

Oh and by the way:

09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0

If you dont know what that means?
Google it!

mario again

2007-03-28T07:57:00.000-07:00

A picture of mario i drew for the cartoonsaloon sketch blog!
(at some point i will fix the left hand and the perspective on the 1-up mushroom, and give it an original bg!)

Reasons for not updating blog?:

none! :(

i'm sorry!

Skunk Crew 2007

2007-02-23T02:00:00.000-08:00

I'm BACK baby!!

2006-11-15T04:34:00.000-08:00

Finally moved into my new place and got the internet installed (Took long enough!)

the new jobs okay! thanks to all you guys that emailed me!!

here's Unico, one of 6 Tezuka character redesigns im working on at the moment for a friend of mine!, i'll post the rest when they are done!

i now hereby Solomonly swear that i will update my blog regularly, or die an evil death!!!

I'm Moving!!

2006-09-10T09:45:00.000-07:00

Wow long time, no post!!, well there is a reason, i'm moving to Ireland to go and work for the Cartoon Saloon guys, which i am mighty looking forward too!

Yay me!!

Dont know how long it will take to get a net conection when i'm over there, but hopefully when i'm fully settled in, i will be in a better postion to update my blog!

So for the moment, see ya later!

jay

p.s check out my myspace page, if you got the time:

http://www.myspace.com/atarimonkey

Two Heads and a Butt!!

2006-06-18T14:22:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I’m sorry, im not doing two well at updating the old blog at the moment, i'm trying to update my portfolio and seem to be suffering from artists block!! Hopefully I’ll snap out of it soon and get my shit together!!

Girl Mario

2006-05-20T14:16:00.000-07:00

Phew, what a hectic couple of weeks, heres somthing to tide you guys over untill the next big update, it was going to be some Great Giana Sisters designs, but they just kinda turned into some girls wearing mario caps!! (Giana Sisters were a mario rip off in the firstplace!!)

Anyway, upnext more UY designs: MR INVADER (lum's dad)

:P

Urusei Yatsura 1: Jariten

2006-04-25T13:47:00.000-07:00

I thought I would start small, so I’d figure I’d start with my least favorite character, Jariten, Lum’s cousin. Apparently "Jari" sort of means "brat" in Japanese, which is why only the male characters call him by his full name in the series.

Quite frankly, I never really saw the point of making him a full time character in the show. Oh well..

(sorry ben, your gonna have to wait for Ran!!)

What about Jay?

2006-04-13T14:23:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of updates on my blog! My new job has been keeping me from drawing much, one of the reasons i love this blog, is so i can slag off my job and no one will find out, as they have about as much intrest in animation as i have in football!!

Hopefully i'll only be there till i can find a new job doing something i enjoy (or at least closer to what i enjoy!)

anyhoo

Tomorrow, i'm going back to Essex for the easter weekend (if you've never been to Essex, the whole county kinda looks like Newport bus station!).

Over the next few weeks i'll be posting my redesigns of of my fav anime series Urusei Yatsura (sorry it took so long ben!!)

In other news, i just had my 26th birthday and my flatmate dan made me this wicked present, a recreation of the Gorillaz Dirty Harry video!!!

Kick ass!!!

Kim Gordon

2006-03-18T12:58:00.000-08:00

my half-assed atempt at drawing Sonic Youth babe Kim Gordon!

Managed to find myself a new job, not even close to what i want, but least it pays the bills!! :(

Pikmin

2006-03-11T14:41:00.000-08:00

I just remembered how much i love playing this game!!

Just the thing to take the stress off!!

I've had a pretty rough week and i have the feeling it's gonna get rougher.

P.S check out this mp3 via 8-bit weapon:

Gameboy Rocker

Fantastic!! :-P

Layout update!

2006-03-10T20:30:00.000-08:00

After many hours of tinkering, i finally managed to update the layout and colour scheme of my blog.

The colour scheme is based on the old Nintendo Donkey Kong JR Game & Watch.

Hope you like it!

:-)

Can't sleep!

2006-03-01T18:25:00.000-08:00

Do you ever have this problem, you can't sleep cuz you've got an image of a character in your head??

so with out further a doo (and to save my own sanity!!)

Here's Mr Skipperdoo!! (dont ask!)

:P

Updates and Shop

2006-03-01T11:02:00.000-08:00

Just updating the layout of my blog (trying to figure out the coding), so pay no attention to the layout for the moment!

Also i've just opened a CafePress shop:

http://www.cafepress.com/jaydsmith

So please buy my junk!! :P

Gee Whizz

2006-02-20T17:38:00.000-08:00

I'll be taking part in the Gee Whizz Benefit Fund.

Heres the link with the info:

http://www.vinylabuse.com/geewhizz/

Handy Smurf

2006-02-16T02:56:00.000-08:00

The single worst thing about CGI animation is waiting for it to render!! Everything is progressing nicely and the replacement animation rig works great. Hopefully I can post the Mario pixel test in the next few days. But I am confident that I can go ahead and progress with the original pixel idea.

While im waiting, I've still got tons of these smurf designs to post. :)

More tomorrow!

3D pixel tests

2006-02-06T16:03:00.000-08:00

Heres an image from a project i'm working on at the moment. This character is too detailed for what i want. :P

This is more along the lines of what i was thinking, here's mario from supermarioland on the original gameboy (in full monochrome glory). I want to keep the whole style like 8-bit sprite game.

More Sketchbook Work

2006-02-06T06:55:00.000-08:00

I'm Planing to redo the look of my blog, so there should be a bigger update soon! :P

In the meantime, here's some girl studys. Told ya i work rough!! :)

Vinylabuse Banner

2006-01-25T09:44:00.000-08:00

A banner i did for the nice guys over at the Vinylabuse forum. Check out the vinylabuse site here:

http://www.vinylabuse.com/

How does the Disney/Pixar deal affect me?

2006-01-24T16:23:00.000-08:00

It doesn’t! :P

Panda GO Panda!!

2006-01-16T10:35:00.000-08:00

Here's Mimiko from Panda go Panda.

I'm never gonna get a job at Ghibli if i keep drawing Miyazaki characters spazed! :(

Brain Jello

2006-01-05T10:00:00.000-08:00

I want this book!!!

2005-12-28T10:57:00.000-08:00

But i cant find it anywere! If i dont get it soon, i'm gonna get stabbie!!

Dam it! :)

Sketchbook Stuff

2005-12-17T10:24:00.000-08:00

Shingo Araki Hair

2005-12-16T19:10:00.000-08:00

Just trying to figure out how Shingo Araki (character designer behind Ulysses 31, Saint Saya and Fist of the North Star) draws hair. Brilliant combination of shapes and designs.

Shingo Araki is a Fantastic character designer and growing up watching shows like Ulysses 31, have been a major influence on my tastes now.

Sounds strange but 80's anime hair rules!! :)

New Images

2005-12-14T17:10:00.000-08:00

sorry guys, having problems uploading new images. hopefully it will be fixed by tommorow!

Girly head studys

2005-12-01T09:51:00.000-08:00

More soon! :)

Cover Art

2005-11-24T16:22:00.000-08:00

My art is on the cover of Newport's community arts magazine "Insight". The cover was done as part of the "Jack Frost" project for Newport council.

Big thanks to Glen Biseker at Sillent publishings and the guys over at Autografik Design.

Still Alive!

2005-11-24T16:13:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone,

thanks for the emails! Yeah i'm still alive, just been bogged down with lots of work lately.

will post new art this weekend!

cheers again!

Exhibition

2005-11-09T05:25:00.000-08:00

i've been asked to take part in Peskimo's "Monster Mash" exhibition. It's going to be held in Bristol's "here gallery" and London's "playlounge". They are also producing a "Top Trumps" card set to accompany the show.

More details can be found here: www.themonstermash.co.uk

More Smurfs

2005-10-21T08:02:00.000-07:00

Just a small smurf update!

more soon!

Wierd Link

2005-10-14T08:53:00.000-07:00

Yeah, i'm not sure what was going on here either??

It was going to be part of a larger image, but for the life of me, i can't think what it was???

oh well!

Jim Smith Sketchbook

2005-10-13T20:45:00.000-07:00

Also got the new sketchbook from Spumco artist Jim Smith through!!
Amazing art work! Tons of roughs from "Ripping Friends". It's called "deadly are the naked" and i highly recomend it!

Get it from here: http://www.asylumpress.com/store.html

Also check out his website at: http://www.jimsmithcartoons.com/

Meathaus

2005-10-13T01:03:00.000-07:00

i Just got this book through the post!!

You need's this book!!!

http://www.meathaus.com/goforthegoldpreview.php?article_ID=13

God emperor of dune

2005-10-09T09:27:00.000-07:00

Been practicing with the brushes on photoshop.

Finally! Mr Driller!

2005-10-07T13:15:00.000-07:00

Here's the final picture. I think it works, still not 100% of the colours on Mr driller himself, think i need more practice with the photoshop brushes. It reminds me of various japanese Doujinshi style covers. :)

More Mr Driller WIP

2005-10-06T00:11:00.000-07:00

Sorry guys, had work to attend too (gotta pay dem bills!!). Here's some more WIP images from the Mr driller illo i'm working on at the moment. Should be finished by tommorow! :)

The original Drawing:

and a render of the CGI background boxes:

Mr Driller WIP

2005-09-28T21:09:00.000-07:00

Here's a work in progress of Mr driller. The blocks are going to be remade in CGI with the cool advanced lighting technique (or as i call it, the button that makes things look good). The colours on Mr driller are close to what i want, but still not quite right. I will post the final image as soon as it's done! :)

ASTROBOY GO!!!!

2005-09-20T15:58:00.000-07:00

Tank Family Robinson!

2005-09-20T06:03:00.000-07:00

Here are the designs of the kids from a short i am curently working on in my spare time called "Tank Family Robinson". It's keeping me amused while working on other things.

over the next few weeks, i'll post more concept designs, storyboards and everything else of the pre-production varity!

Smurfs

2005-09-09T14:05:00.000-07:00

some smurf redesigns:

Finally!!

2005-09-05T12:51:00.000-07:00

The new Manticore website is finally up, with much more still to come!!

Almost

2005-09-01T05:06:00.000-07:00

the new website is done, it's just undergoing some final beta testing before we upload it!!

hurray!

Still Soon!

2005-08-06T20:58:00.000-07:00

Soon!! trust me!! :)

Soon!

2005-07-23T10:41:00.000-07:00

The new look website will soon be ready!! :) hurray!

just another week or so!

Transformer's Dare!!

2005-07-18T19:05:00.000-07:00

http://www.transformerslive.com/

Sometimes when your hopes have all been shattered
And there's nowhere to turn
You wonder how you keep going
Think of all the things that really mattered
And the chances you've earned
The fire in your heart is growing
You can fly, if you try leaving the past behind
Heaven only knows what you might find

Dare - dare to believe you can survive
You hold the future in your hand
Dare - dare to keep all of your dreams alive
It's time to take a stand
And you can win, if you dare

Everybody's trying to break your spirit
Keeping you down
Seems like it's been forever
But there's another voice if you'll just hear it
Saying it's the last round
Looks like it's now or never
Out of the darkness you stumble into the light
Fighting for the things you know are right

Dare - dare to believe you can survive
The power is there at your command
Dare - dare to keep all of your dreams alive
It's time to take a stand
And you can win, if you dare

Dare - dare to believe you can survive
You hold the future in your hand
Dare - dare to keep all of your dreams alive
The power is there at your command

Dare - dare to keep all your love alive
Dare to be all you can be
Dare - 'cause there is a place where dreams survive
And it's calling you on to victory

New Posts Dam It!!

2005-07-11T06:21:00.000-07:00

sorry about the lack of new posts, things here at manticore have been quite busy over the past week or so.

Hopefully i'll post some stuff soon!

Hurray! Jimmy the Idiot Boy Doll

2005-06-28T12:41:00.000-07:00

Hurray! 10 years after they first came out, i finaly got hold of a Spumco "Jimmy the Idiot boy" talking doll. Still boxed, string talker still working! It's also alot larger than i thought it would be.

And i gota say, it's hideous!! It reminds me of chucky! :(

Wonder if they made a "Sody" doll as well?

Lynne Naylor drawing

2005-06-27T14:04:00.000-07:00

Check this out:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=20135&item=7333010664&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

If it wasnt for the fact that the price will rocket!! grrrr!!!

The Jackson 500

2005-06-23T13:00:00.000-07:00

I love waking up to post of the Parcel kind (thanks Anna). Today’s parcel contained the new book by the fantastic retro artist Tim Biskup.

Biskup (as I may of mentioned before) has the combined talents of Mary Blair and Jim Flora and wields his skills with seeming incredible ease. He is regarded as a genius amongst the animation crowd and a god amongst the designer vinyl scene.

The Jackson 500 Volume 1 is a collection of business card sized paintings with a extreme surreal feel.

Check out his site at:

http://www.timbiskup.com

CartoonRetro is 1 Year old!

2005-06-23T12:15:00.000-07:00

Happy birthday cartoon retro!

I visit the site aleast once a day! It's a fantastic collection of retro artists. So if your not a member already, stop by and join up! you dont know what your missing!

http://www.cartoonretro.com/

Howl's Moving Papercraft Castle!

2005-06-22T10:04:00.000-07:00

I had so much fun making the papercraft models from Viewtiful joe on the studio clover website, that i went searching for more and came across this:

http://www.i-love-epson.co.jp/ec/event/howl-circus/

It's a offical papercraft model from "Howl's moving castle". Acording to the website it's a level one model, so it's very hard to make (plus the instructions are in japanese.)

Check it out if you have the time (and the printer ink)

Glamfest: After thoughts

2005-06-21T03:12:00.000-07:00

The day overall was interesting, but that pretty much all I have to say about it. I can't say it was as good as last years show. The cinema was way too hot to be stuck inside all day.

I did learn a couple of things:

1. Remaking the Borjk/Chris Cunningham video "all is full of love" with a naked lady in a rubber mask is a stupid idea!

2. Slapping marmite on the chest of a toddler in the bath, to make a point about oil spillage is funny no matter how serious the film maker wants you to take it!

The Marc Craste talk was very cool, though he didn’t stick around long. I didn’t stick around to see the industry talk (probably the same old talk anyway). I also didn’t go to the after show party. For some reason we were given blue badges and the idea of paying for the privilege of hanging around with students makes me laugh.

Went to go see batman instead, which by the way, totally rocks!! :)

Glamfest 2005

2005-06-15T17:55:00.000-07:00

Me and dan will be at Glamfest 2005 (the Glamorgan animation end of year promotion) in Cardiff at the UGC on Friday. Last years was quite good and had some interesting guest speakers. Looking forward to the talk by Marc Craste (Studio AKA).

Glamorgan’s ability for self-promotion never seizes to amaze me! It's almost creepy!

Awards

2005-06-08T15:15:00.000-07:00

Big shout out to New Deal south Wales for naming Manticore films, best new Business.

More detail will be given on the new look Manticore Films website which will be up soon!

Anne Bancroft 1932-2005

2005-06-07T17:22:00.000-07:00

Actress Anne Bancroft passed away yesterday after losing her fight against cancer. I’ve always been a little obsessed with the film "The Graduate" and hoped one day I could meet Mrs Bancroft.

My condolences go out to her family.

:(

Nicktoons

2005-06-06T11:28:00.000-07:00

My freinds over at Nicktoons asked me to push this around!

http://www.nick.com/all_nick/nicktoons/site/filmfest/index.html

You havent got long left, but i'm sure if you send it NOW, it will get there in time!

Dave's blog spot

2005-06-06T10:22:00.000-07:00

Heres a link to David Surman's blog.

It's pretty boring, but hey! he's a friend! :P

http://davidsurman.blogspot.com/

Big Sorry

2005-06-03T16:44:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the lack of posts over the last week. It's been very busy at manticore. I'll try harder!

Sorry!

Illustrator CS2

2005-06-03T16:36:00.000-07:00

I can’t believe that the "live trace" tools actually work!!

Everyone said it couldn’t be done, spending 2-3 hours tracing an image is just part of the process. But I’ve seen it!! It's amazing!

This is a animation revolution comrades!

(sorry about this computer techie rant!)

What What??

2005-05-29T08:59:00.000-07:00

Big Shout out to the WhatWhat people for adding my work to the LogoMojo collection on their site!

Thanks Guys!

Steamboy

2005-05-29T08:40:00.000-07:00

I don’t think anyone can deny that Otomo is a genius. Akira was my first (and indeed most peoples first) known experience of watching anime. The quality of animation that went into Akira, still to this day has not been beat.

Otomo is one of three Japanese animation directors (the others been Miyazaki and Anno) who have the freedom and the budget to do pretty much whatever the fuck they want! Metropolis (based on work by Tezuka) and Memories (in particular “Cannon Fodder”) both have an air of quality, which not while not as good as Akira, still rain above most western efforts at exciting action/adventure animation.

Steamboy, Otomo’s latest film to date is probably his worst. Don’t misunderstand me the film is fantastic!

But Steampunk is a tough nut to crack, the majority of people simply wont accept or understand this type of sci-fi and trying to explain it in one movie is too much for the viewer. This is also shown in the film “wild, wild, west” which was a Hollywood flop. It’s a period based sci-fi, which is been used to reflect the overwhelming increase of today’s technology. Understand? Good then you qualify to watch the film!

Otomo’s script for Steamboy, while not as self-indulgent as Oshii’s films (Innocence: GITS 2 springs to mind) is jumbled and slows the action down quite a bit. Though making everyone other than the main character “corrupt” is quite clever. I also enjoyed that they included “Robert Lewis Stevenson” as a main character, but to make him corrupt as well, that is genius!

My only other problem is with the visuals, the films is amazing to look at, but suffers from the same as most of today’s digitally coloured films. It lacks the raw quality that Akira gave, things like the digitally airbrushed shadows on the characters has always looked awfull, as when I first saw it in the “Lion King”. The steam or explosions, look no way near as good as the one used in Akira and the backgrounds (though fantastic and well researched) lack the quality of colouring that Akira or Metropolis has.

Overall though the film is great, the ending is spectacular! As with all of Otomo’s films. But chances are you would enjoy it more if you know and understand the theory behind “Steampunk” sci-fi before attempting to watch the film. If not, you could be left confused.

Comments on the blog!

2005-05-28T07:52:00.000-07:00

For some reason, i have selected that any member of joe public can comment on my blog, but it seems to revert back to only signed up members of blogger?

I not sure why this keeps happening, but i'll try and get it fixed ASAP!

Mickey Mouse in Living Colour

2005-05-25T06:43:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture i drew for the wonderfull "everybody needs 2 draw mickey once" project. Go a head, try it your self! :)

Feature animation backgrounds: real vs style

2005-05-25T03:32:00.000-07:00

I recently had an argument with Bill Wray about the use of realistic style backgrounds in feature animation (the only reason it was an argument was because of miscommunication and i infact whole heartily agree with bill). It has been brought to my intention that very few feature cartoons over the past decade have had stylised backgrounds. The only features that i can think of are:

The Powerpuff Girls Movie,
Spongebob Squarepants movie,
Teacher’s pet movie.

All of which have had to prove their own style on television first. Is this because studios don’t have faith within the movie going audience in appreciateing stylised backgrounds, or would not be able to associate and therefore would lose interest instantly?? Studios should have a little more faith in the audience!

Though i wouldn’t want realistic backgrounds (such as those in Studio Ghibli movies) to be totally abandoned in anyway and i would hate to see every feature just having cheap knock-offs of mary blair work, i would like to see producers and studios have more balls when it comes to design in features.

Demon days

2005-05-24T17:38:00.000-07:00

Got the new gorrilaz album today. Great stuff, however i dont think the music is as good as the last album.
Also my samurai jack season 2 dvd set turned up today, so i think i'll spend tonight watching that!!! :)
Still trying to figure out the limits of this new blog site and howmuch i'm able to customise it.

hiya all!

2005-05-23T06:51:00.000-07:00

welcome to my blog! theres nothing here yet, as i'm just started!