Animation Classic No.3 – ‘Rejected’ by Don Hertzfeldt

I saw this at one of the animated encounters film festivals at the Watershed in Bristol quite a few years ago now; it was one of those rare moments where a chink of sunlight breaks through an otherwise grey day. I almost pissed myself laughing (PMSL for you nerds out there) when this gem came on:

Surreal, check. Cartoon violence, check. Funny as hell, check. Proper old-school 2D animation, check. What more could you want! This film had a massive influence on me and was possibly the main driver for creating my film ‘Mouks‘. I see this film as very much an animators film, for animators… which is probably why I like it so much! But still, it gets me every time… thanks Don *tips hat

My spoon is tooo big…

‘Mouks’ – The Money Shot!

Everyone has a labour of love in their life – this was mine! 5 years in the making (!) and weighing in at a girthy 3 whole minutes. Created in my spare time to keep me sane from animating teddy bears waving day-in-day-out in my day job! This really is what years of working in the kids animation industry does to someone. Officially deemed ‘too strong for Aardman‘ – not sure what to make of that little claim to fame… enjoy (I did!)

It was fully animated from start to finish in Traditional 2D, then scanned and traced in Adobe Flash. It is what it is, but I can’t tell you how much this stupid little film means to me. The SFX and music was a joint effort from Darren Lambourne (who came up with the gruesome baby noises and visceral crunches) and Robin Stout who dragged it up from the gutter!

Trying to Catch Hepatitis C?

Told you I wasn’t a single issue guy! Lets talk about Animation! :D

I’ve spent most of my professional career as a professional 2D animator – both traditional 2D and digital 2D. I come from a background of pegbars, lightboxes, rostrum cameras, inking, cel paints, 16mm film, Steenbecks, studio lights and dope sheets. Over the years I’ve learned to love Adobe Flash and consider it ‘my backyard’ – its allowed me to create high quality quick turnaround content, like this:

Meet ‘Dennis’ – he’s trying to catch Hepatitis C! I designed, storyboarded and animated this spot for Rubberductions in 2007 using Adobe Flash. I really loved this job, it was the first project that I managed to get off the back of my independant film ‘Mouks’. Everyone from the agency right the way through to the Hep C sufferers who saw the film loved it! Big piles of win all round :D