Brian Cox at djcad

The Dundee University, to which djcad is attached, is very fortunate to have the esteemed actor Brian Cox as its Rector. He was kind enough to come to the college to talk to the animation students about film-making and acting. Here is a snippet from his lecture in which he talks about his acting process and the importance of motivation within a character.

The talk was full of great information as you'd expect from an actor who has worked with the likes of Wes Anderson, David Fincher, Woody Allen, Paul Greengrass and Spike Jonze. Many thanks to Brian and we hope to see him again soon.

Goodbye Animation Industry

Well, it's time for me to bow out of the animation industry for the foreseeable future. I have decided to change tack in my career and step into academia and teaching. I have had a great time in the world of animation, and been fortunate enough to have worked on some great projects and with some of the most awe-inspiringly talented people in the world. However, after many years of trying to navigate the increasingly uncertain waters of the animation industry I have decided to come ashore. The increased instability has coincided with a decreased in satisfaction with some aspects of the job.

Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee or, as all the cool kids are calling it, 'djcad'.

Over the years I have tried to maintain links with the art college where I studied (Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Scotland) and have always enjoyed researching animation techniques and writing up blog posts or giving lectures on these things. So when I saw a teaching post come up here, I decided it was time for a change. Hopefully, my departure from the animation industry will be good news for the followers of this blog. Now I am going to be devoted to the research and teaching of animation, I hope I will have much to share.

Rapid Wrap

For the past few months I've been working on a research project at the University of Dundee - making an information film about what to do if you're recovering from a heart attack. That probably sounds quite serious but it has actually been fun, we are trying to give people the information through animation and humour. Here's the last piece of animation I did for the project, created in flash, (the gif has messed up the colours). It was really nice to do some traditional animation again. The character design is by Tom Paxton, and the film was directed by Kieran Duncan. Hopefully I'll be able to show it in full soon.

Favours and Inbetweens, feel the difference.

A short video made for an animation class to demonstrate the difference between a direct inbetween and an inbetween favouring a pose in a two frame move. All the eye darts take two frames. The ones before the blink are direct inbetweens, the ones after favour the first pose. The favours not only appear smoother but have more life to them too.

Mune Trailer

Here's a trailer of an animated film called Mune which I worked on last year in Montreal. We didn't have the biggest budget so I'm really impressed with how the final film looks. I think one of the most successful things is the lighting and colour schemes. The art director, Rémi Salmon, who has a wonderful unique style, created the concept art at the start of the project, as well as overseeing the lighting at the end - a rare thing in animated features and I think this has given Mune a very strong and interesting look. This was also helped by Nico Marlet having a hand in the character design.







Mune concept art

I'm not sure when the film is coming out but hopefully soon. Enjoy.