Wednesday 8 January 2014

My Anecdotl Animation

A couple of months ago, I was asked to make a small 30 second promo for a new American start-up called anecdotl.com. I agreed, primarily because they had a great concept and they seemed like solid citizens. And so it proved. The process of making what eventually became a 90 second animation was one of the most enjoyable times I’ve ever spent working on a project and I put that down to the people in charge. They we supportive, didn’t micromanage me, encouraged me to do something beyond the initial proposal, and, I hope, create something a little different. They also had a good sense of humour and I always feel that counts for so much. Needless to say, people like this deserve success.

I had such fun creating this video, I know I’ll feel its absence in my life. I’ll miss listening to this tune, which has been rattling around in my brain for well over a month. Speaking of which: I should do the stand-up thing and point you all in the direction of the fantastic Josh Woodward who released this great piece of music into the public domain. One thing that continually astonishes and delights me as I make these animations is being able to use music made by such outstanding talents producing work so much better than the majority of the mainstream. Sticking my mongrel animations against such great music really doesn't do the music justice.

Most of all, I’ll miss working on this because it taught me so many things about animating my drawings. Of course, I look on it now and see the things I could have done better and places where I would have improved the source graphics but that’s always the case. No work is ever really finished but to carry on would have probably involved starting again with new drawings and a new approach.

So, here is six weeks work (minus the endless hours I had to spend doing other less stimulating things). Also be sure to check out the Anecdotl website which I’m told will be going live in the near future.

4 comments:

  1. Nice work.

    Keep your off-the-wall blog going, it is always a pleasure to read, even if I may not feel obliged to leave a comment.

    Belated Happy New Year, by the way.

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  2. Thanks RR. To be honest, I wish my blog were more off-the-wall than it's been recently. Unfortunately, I'm stuck doing the kind of brain-dead work that would make a saner man lose the will to live. However, comments like yours really do help me raise my chin and take time to write more. I miss the writing more than anything and I made an additional resolution today to write more starting tomorrow... Assuming I don't get hit with a load more work and I probably will...

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  3. The video is very good, yet I keep thinking that the website's name might be improved. Maybe something like "showmethefunny.com", perhaps?

    It was a real pleasure working with you on this, David. We are all quite pleased with the results. I'm sure you'll be hearing from me soon regarding your doodles, too.

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  4. It's me who should thank you, Tom. Great working with you, though I still think we're missing a fortune by not snagging 'showmethefunny.com'. When I find time, I'm determined to write you my 'falling head first in bullock muck' anecdote. It happened to me when I was thirteen and I always believe it explains why I hit six feet shortly after.

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