Early Man, Isle of Dogs, India, Cardiff Animation Festival & Annecy!

Its been almost a year since my last update so here goes...

I spent 3 months at Aardman Features as a Junior Animator on Early Man. Was really cool to finally get to work there and be part of the Aardman team. I had to re-learn how to shoot on doubles and get into a more cartoony style of animation which was a fun process.

I then went on to do a short stint on Isle of Dogs by Wes Anderson as an Assistant Animator right at the end of production at 3 Mills Studios in London. I was mostly animating background elements and characters but it was great to meet the crew over there and get to know how they work. 

In January after lots of training and fundraising I left for India to volunteer in Maharashtra state with VSO ICS for 3 months. I was working on a womens empowerment and livelihoods project in rural tribal villages with the aim of helping the women to become more financially independent and to start their own businesses. It was incredibly challenging work but ultimately rewarding and something I have wanted to do for a long time.

After India things started to ramp up for Cardiff Animation Festival in April. There hasn't been an animation festival in Cardiff since the early 90's and so along with 5 other co-organisers we set about bringing it back. I think we all underestimated quite how hard it would be but the festival went incredibly well and we had some amazing feedback from those who attended so it was worth the blood, sweat and tears. Along with an industry day, talks, masterclasses, colouring, feature and short film screenings we also had an exhibition of sets and puppets from "Chuck Steel: Night of the Trampires" and I hosted the "A Night with the Trampires" talk with members of the crew and exclusive clips from the film. Roll on CAF 2!

Since April I've been working back at Trampires in the run up to Annecy Festival where Chuck had its world premiere last Tuesday in the Bonlieu Grand Salle which was very well received.  It was really exciting to FINALLY be able to screen the film that we worked on for so long and watch the audience's reaction. We also had a stand in the Mifa trade area where we set up an exhibition of sets and puppets from the film to show everyone who we are and what we can make. At our Mifa stand we also had a display of our exciting new projects in development, watch this space!