News!
11th August 2010 Afro Goblin and the Cheesemen at the Portobello Film Festival! I sent my short animations to the Portobello Film Festival this year and was extremely happy to find out that not just one but two of my films have been picked for screening yay! : ) "Afro Goblin and Chums The Movie" will kick off the animation segment at 6:30pm on Friday 17th September! "Cheesemen The Movie" is also showing in the animation section that evening which runs from 6:30pm-8pm I believe it is showing at the "Pop Up Cinema" which is in a tunnel underneath Waterloo train station! A map can be found by clicking here if you are interested in having a look at the animations http://www.portobellopopup.com/about/ Unfortunately I can't make it to the screening but if you see my films there please let me know what you think of them, I hope you enjoy the show! "Afro Goblin and Chums The Movie" is also listed on the "Video Cafe Menu" which sounds like a sort of jukebox of films that you can pick at the Westbourne Studios Bar! It's listed as No.400, if you fancy watching it and helping Afro Goblin to get famous then please select it and I would be extremely grateful! : ) ____________________________________________________________________ 22nd July 2010 Cheesemen at "The Big Chill" music Festival! After "Cheesemen The Movie" was shown at Glastonbury I had an email from the organisers who kindly let me know that "The Big Chill" festival in Herefordshire was also looking for short films to be shown on their big screens too! I sent my films in to them but I'm not sure which one has been picked. If you see a secret agent goblin with an Afro in a disco suit or mischievious Cheesemen causing chaos please let me know and enjoy the festival if you're going! ____________________________________________________________________ 8th June 2010 Cheesemen The Movie at Glastonbury! I recently received an Email newsletter from Animation Forum West Midlands which said that the West Midlands Culture Programme for 2012 were looking for short films to be shown on large screens at this year's Glastonbury music festival. The films had to be made in the West Midlands and I made my animations at University in Stoke-on-Trent so I thought I would send them in. I was over the moon when I got a call to say that "Cheesemen The Movie" had been picked for screening! If you're going to Glastonbury this year keep an eye out for the mischievious Cheesemen on the big screens, they are around the "Village Screen" section. According to the programme "Cheesemen" will be on around the following times: 5:05pm on Wednesday 23rd June 10:30pm on Thursday 24th June 8:35pm on Friday 25th June 2:05pm on Saturday 26th June If by any chance you happen to take a photo with the Cheesemen on the screen in the background of your picture please let me know I would love to see the Cheesemen at Glastonbury but can't make it to the festival! Also Cheesemen might be coming to a big screen near you! As part of the Culture Programme for 2012 my film might be showing as part of the "BBC Live site" programme. If you have one of the BBC big screens in your town keep your eye out as the Cheesemen might be invading your neighbourhood soon! ____________________________________________________________________ 14th September 2009 I took a little break from "Cheesemen the movie 2" and coloured in this action shot of Afro Goblin and his fellow "Stupid agents!" Why not brighten up your Computer background with this action packed funky background? Click on the picture below to view it full size, then right click "Set as desktop background" and voila! It's 1280 x 1024 size but if your monitor is a different shape or resolution then feel free to email me on my contact page and I will be more than happy to resize it for you if you would like to use it on your computer! :) 
Sorry I haven't put much up on the site for a while, I've been a bit busy over the Summer exploring a few career paths but I can assure you there is more to come and I have been hard at work on "Cheesemen the Movie 2" which is going well! ________________________________________________________________ 5th March 2009 Animation work on the new "Cheesemen" cartoon has begun! "Cheesemen the movie 2" is go! Stay tuned for updates! :) _______________________________________________________________ February 2009 "Stoke your fires" Animation festival I went to the annual animation festival in Stoke on Trent where I went to University. I got to meet Mr.Cosgrove and Mr.Hall who created "Dangermouse!" They were very nice and signed my "Dangermouse" DVD box set for me! I gave them each a copy of my "Afro Goblin and Chums" animation I had made and told them that it was inspired by "Dangermouse!"    
_______________________________________________________________ November 2008 "Bangimation" Animation festival again! 
I had another of my animated films shown on the big screen at Nottingham's Broadway Cinema! "Afro Goblin and Chums Episode 2" is the conclusion to the first animation I made about 2 secret agents and their pignapped pigs. It was shown as part of the bi-annual "Bang!" film festival in the animation category called "Bangimation!" This time I was invited to have a look at the films that had been sent in and help choose them with the organisers which was a special "behind the scenes" treat! I wasn't allowed to vote for my own animation of course but the rest of the panel wanted to show it! ;) I wasn't expecting free popcorn like last time as we are in a "credit crunch" but once again organisers Max and Donna threw out packets to everyone in the audience, it was organic popcorn too if I remember rightly yum yum! The animations kicked off with a beautiful CGI film called "Falling" which was about a meteorite who came to life and had some fun while burning up and getting smaller and smaller in the earth's atmosphere! You can watch it here if you like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XX2teWwenpg It looked really nice on the big screen! Another film which stood out for me was a beautifully animated French music video called "La Chambre Renversee" which featured a gaggle of fun looking characters and the tune was very catchy too! You can watch it here if you like, I guarantee it will put a smile on your face!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4anzia_Zsg One other animation that was shown that I would like to mention was "The Tiny Fish," from Russia. It was a very cute cut-out animation which was apparently made on the computer, but it looked completely traditional! Please check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Hb7UbM1Ycs Watching this on the 30th November with all the snow in the film was lovely and made me look forward to Christmas! It was a very charming film and I think it warmed everyone's heart in the audience on that chilly evening! I think my film was the penultimate one in the screening, they saved it until near the end!    (Above) Once again, images from the films were projected on the walls of the Broadway's groovy bar after the screening! Here are some stills from my car chase sequence in "Afro Goblin Episode 2" on the walls! _______________________________________________________________ October 2008 "Flip" Animation Festival, Wolverhampton I entered my films in this year's "Flip" Animation festival but they didn't get picked. One of the organisers offered me a place on the "Portfolio review sessions" though which was taking place as part of the festival. You had to get up on the stage, introduce yourself and then they would screen your 2 minute "showreel" of work on the cinema screen! Afterwards a panel of industry veterans would give you feedback on it! _______________________________________________________________ May 2008 "Afro Goblin and Chums" wins 1st Prize at "Animation Bites" Festival!  It was the Annual Animation festival in Stoke on Trent again, hosted by our University! I entered "Afro Goblin and Chums Episode 1" into the competition category and it won first prize! I also entered episode 2 for screening, the film wasn't finished in time to send off to the judges but it got shown in the non-judged section of the show. It all took place in the film theatre on a nice big screen! Tom, Rob and Claire did a great job raising money for the event and organising it. It took them a long time to edit all the short animated films into one long reel for screening, with title screens with each film maker's name on featuring crazy pirate characters designed by Tom Parry! You can view his work on his gallery webpage here: http://halosoul.deviantart.com I brought his 2D fish pirate designs to life in 3D as my job helping out with the festival was to make the trophies! Here they are below:  (Above) From left to right: 2nd Prize trophy featuring "Captain Clawhammer," 1st Prize trophy featuring "Oliverpuss," and 3rd Prize trophy featuring "Swobby." Captain Clawhammer was originally going to be the first Prize trophy as he is the captain, but then we realised that Oliverpuss is a golden orangey colour so he could be first Prize, Captain Clawhammer is grey/silver so he is second prize and the deck-hand Swobby is a bronzey sort of colour so that's the way we chose which plynths to glue them on! I made them out of Fimo clay, a modelling clay which is a type of plastic I think. I baked them in the oven and painted them with my old Games Workshop acrylic model paints and washes!  It was funny receiving one of the trophies I had made, it came back to me! 3rd Year Bethan won 2nd Prize for her beautifully atmospheric CGI film "The Golem" and James of 3rd Year and Matthew of 1st Year won joint 3rd Prize for their respective animations "Suitable for Vegetarians" and "The Woodlander's Educational DVD Introduction." The films were judged by Professionals from the Animation industry, Jonny Duddle (Illustrator, Sony Games) and Jack Williams (Head of Design, Mocha Productions.) _______________________________________________________________ April 2008 "Afro Goblin and Chums" on the Big screen! 
I entered my next film "Afro Goblin and Chums Episode 1" into the "Bang!" short film and animation festival at the Broadway Cinema in Nottingham and it got chosen! I was very excited. I wasn't sure if they wanted to show it because it is only part 1 of 2, with a cliffhanger ending. I thought they might want to wait until I had finished episode 2 but they wanted to show it! It looked and sounded really good on the big screen. The little details showed up really well such as the tiny pigs moving in the distance in the very first scene! People in the audience laughed at all the funny parts in my film which was a great feeling. Quite a few people laughed near the start when they heard the bull character speak on the phone "ja eets me" and realised it was Arnie! The Broadway also picked another of my films to be shown which I wasn't expecting as I had not filled in an entry form for it! I had sent them a DVD with all of my animations on but they must have looked through all of them and also wanted to show "The little bomb who didn't want to." This is a film I made in a group at University which didn't quite go to plan and is rather funny! Once again we had free popcorn which was very tasty, all in all a fantastic evening and I can't wait until the next "Bangimation" towards the end of the year! 
_______________________________________________________________ October 2007 "Cheesemen the Movie" showing at Nottingham's Broadway Cinema! 
I entered my 2nd Year animated films "Cheesemen the movie" and "Gunslinger Gibbon" into the "Bang!" short film festival which takes place at the Broadway Cinema in Hockley, Nottingham and "Cheesemen the movie" got selected for screening! I couldn't believe it when I got the email saying my film had been picked for the big screen! I have never had my films chosen for a festival before! My film was shown in the animation category called "Bangimation!" When we sat down in the cinema the organisers Max and Donna opened big boxes of popcorn and Haribo sweets and threw them out to the audience which was really nice! I got free tickets for my family and friends because my film was showing and the popcorn was free too! It was brilliant seeing my film on the big screen! It was shown alongside some very professional animations from all over the world. One which stood out for me was "Pyrates" by students from the prestigious "Gobelin" school of animation. You can watch it here if you like! http://www.gobelins.fr/galerie/animation/gen2006-3.htm It is a very slickly produced action pirate animation with some very dynamic shots and a little CGI subtlely blended in to great effect. This was the first film which kicked off the animation section of the festival with a bang (no pun intended hehe!) and got everyone's attention. Then all of a sudden my film came on! I was very surprised, I had a programme which told you all the films that were showing and my film was further down the list so I thought it would be on later! It was a great honour to have my film shown alongside this great pirate animation, and I felt very humble! Another film which stood out was this music video if you would like a look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUJ7WaHs3BM It was very good on the big screen, and I enjoyed the bit at the end with the snow as we are arriving into winter, there was something quite cosy about watching it when it was cold outside! After watching all the films (I think it was about an hour and a half altogether!) we went to the bar in the Broadway which is very stylish! They projected still images from all the films which had been showing as part of the festival on the walls and all of a sudden a big picture from "Cheesemen the movie" appeared on the wall really big! I was really suprised and took a photo! I think they showed about 3 different stills from my film on a random slide-show.  (Above) A still of Swiss from my film "Cheesemen the movie" projected on the wall in the bar after the screenings was cool! A couple of weeks after the evening I got a DVD of the whole show sent to me by the Broadway to keep so I can re-live the festival again which was very kind of them! _______________________________________________________________ May 2007 "Animation Bites" Festival at Staffordshire University. I entered my 2nd Year film "Cheesemen the movie" into the Annual Animation Festival in Stoke on Trent organised by our University and it won second prize! I have never won a prize for my animation before it was a great feeling and makes me want to make more films, trying to improve on each one. 
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