Happy Christmas

Happy Christmas to you all. This was our card we sent out to people. The concept was by Mr Paul and was executed by Miss Leah. See you next year.

Group Shot

Good Morning. Here is a recent line up with just some characters we have worked with over the years. That was quite a hectic day in the office when they showed up let me tell you.

Story Board

Here is a page from one of the Storyboards from Driver Dan's Story Train. These are done by Mr Phil. Each episode has two weeks for storyboard, that's one week rough and one week clean up, typing out, corrections, making sure all the characters are the right hight to each other, adding a few extra panels for clarity of action etc. adding back ground detail, making sure the staging is right etc.

Concept Art

Here is just one of the many concept art pieces being done at the moment for a project of ours. Miss Susanne did this. We love it.

Robbie Viking

Here is one of the Vikings that were in the flash back bit in Robbie and the Vikings. Mr Paul did this section as cut out in after effects. The characters and BG's were designed by Mr Tim and drawn by Mr Gary . Click on the Robbie Tab to see the other pictures.

Simmo

Hi good afternoon. Here is a picture from a few years ago of a pilot we did about football. It was called Simmo. The kit looks a bit like Bristol City doesn't it? It was in no way intentional.

Flash Library

  "This morning I was doing something with Flash using an old library. This was the library for a series we did called Dusty and Musty. I decided to open this up and see how extensive it is. As you can see it's full. This is everything you need for the 6 main characters. Turnarounds, walk cycles (for every angle), run cycles (for every angle), lipsync (for every angle, happy AND sad) and everything is in twice as one has the shadow on and the other doesn't. This was library version 53 and was what was ready for the start of production. It was constantly updated with reusable animation in and more props etc.
So much work by so many people, there was a lot of heart put into this project. I discovered I was capable of 46hr shifts. We became a little family for those 18 months." *genuinely wiping away a little tear.
- Jane

The picture shows the library in sections and the long thin pic on the right is how it looks un-sectioned, quite long isn't it.

Ink Dot

It's a new Ink Dot exhibition next month and 2 of our Directors got in (Mr Paul and Miss Jane) as well as one of our freelancers Mr Mathew! Go see it if you have the chance. Buy some of em too. Especially Miss Jane's (she paid me to say that).

Encounters Trailer

Here it is then, the trailer for this years Encounters Festival in Bristol. Once again Directed by Mr Paul. Animation by Miss Jane, Miss Kirsten and Mr Chris.

Children In Need

Here is Driver Dan practicing the routine with Cerrie for the Children in Need dance. You can watch it here.
Mr Matt also helped Dan with his moves.

Team

Here are the team for Driver Dan's Story Train. Don't they look happy.

Encounters Trailers

Leading up to the point when we can show the new Encounters Film Festival trailer we have done this year, here is a place where you can see all the previous years trailers. All in one place. It's Mr Pauls website. He has made them all from the very beginning.

Art Briefs

 

 Here is a picture of all the finished art briefs for the storybook art for Driver Dan's Story Train series two. 

City

Morning. We are just finishing off a new short for the 21st Century Learning initiative. Here is a still from it. I will post up a link to it soon.

Dusty Hat

Hello, here is a model sheet for a pirate hat for Dusty in an episode of Dusty and Musty. It was quite a big hat as you can see, it also was quite a complicated shape too. Not much fun to animate in 2D.

Driver Dan

Look who came into the office today! Choo Wooooo!!

More Jobs

Click on the picture to see it clearly. Need some more animators so send us your showreel links and CV's via email.

Class Reunion

Here is a storyboard page for the new short for the 21st Century Learning Initiative. You can see the short here.
The style had to move on a bit from the first one as the characters are talking a lot and talking to each other so there was a need for more expression. So then if you make the faces more realistic you then need to add hair and clothes, otherwise it just looks a bit wrong.
Again Damian Lewis does the voice, this time with Alex Kelly (she does some of the voices on Story Train). Board by Mr Dave, animation by Mr Rob, Mr Ollie and Mr Dan. Directed by Miss Jane.

This Years Encounters, an Image.

Hellooooo, apologies for lack of blogging, it's been very busy here. Anyway, exciting image here of the new Encounters trailer and ident for this years festival. Ooooooooo look at it's lovelyness. Mr Paul and Miss Jane delivered this yesterday so the branding and things for the festival can be tied in.
Mr Paul has outdone himself, this one is quite epic. Animation by Miss Jane, Miss Kirsten and Mr Chris. Everything else by Mr Paul who is very clever. He doesn't like it when I keep telling him that.
I will link it soon when it's online.

Job Advertisement

Morning, here is a job position that is now open. Click on the picture to see in detail.

Story Train Shoot

Today we shot a new title sequence for Driver Dan's Story Train. Look there is the book.
On the frount row is Miss Maggie, Miss Brooke, Miss Suzanne, Mr Elliot, Mr Sai, Miss Dot, Miss Tia, Miss Ella, Mr Caspar and Miss Helen. On the back row is Mr Gary, Mr Stan and Mr James.

The Village with Three Corners

Here is a link to The village with Three Corners which was a Stop Motion and 2D film we did back in 1995. The round tree you may recognise from Mr Paul's toy shelf and the Tweenies picture. Mr Phil, Mr Nigel, Mr Gary, Mr Andy, Miss Theresa and Mr Lee worked on this. I'm sure Mr Mark did something on this too.

E4 Sting

Here is another E4 Sting this time by Miss Jane. Mr Chris helped by doing the compositing.

A Production Still

Hello! Sorry I haven't been posting much lately, everyone is ever so busy here and it takes up a lot of my time to crack the whip about!

Here is a picture to show one of the frames of notes for the animator from a scene from a new short we are doing for 21st Century Learning Initiative. Here you see the models of each character put in to position (not poses correctly or started animation) and the prop of the table and punch bowl. You can see some notes from the Director (miss Jane) who would have put notes all the way through the Flash file at certain points to let the animator know what should be happening and when.

You can also see there is the QuickTime of the animatic, this play's inside the FLA to give the animators extra info of what should be going on. Anyone using Flash will know that for some unknown reason in the newer versions of Flash you can't import QuickTime’s. It's very inconvenient.

Vote!

Mr Chris has entered an E4 sting! Watch it and vote for him here.

Look At Our Big Sister!

Who woke her up? www.aforanimation.blogspot.com

The Stay Puft

Here it is, The Stay Puft trophy. Present holder is Mr Peter, this is on his desk. You get this when you win 10 - 0 on Table Football

Table Football Rules

Here is a link to a page of Mr Paul's new web site that features the A Productions Table Football rules! We take it quite seriously you know.
Here is Mr Pauls site.

A Lovely Gift

Here is the commemorative gift given to us for being commissioned to do a section on a new feature film! Miss Jane and Miss Leah brought it back from London. It's very exciting. It's going to mean not much sleep over the coming months. But Miss Jane is used to that quite frankly. I will give you more info as we progress along with it all.

Pedro Still of High Detail

Here is another still from Pedro and Frankensheep. Look at the detail!

Table Football

Here is a picture of our table football er....table. It's a good way to blow off some steam.... and the opposition!!! grrrr!!.... I'm rubbish at trash talking!

Animation News

Oh lookey here! It's an article about us for the Born to Learn short we did for The 21st Century Learning Initiative. Animation News is a new animation website about animation and stuffs.

Born to Learn

HERE is a link to watch a short we did for the 21st Century Learning Initiative. It was voiced by Damian Lewis and animated by Mr Rob and Miss Jane with Compositing by Mr Paul and boarding by Mr Phil. There are 3 other teasers you can watch.

Pedro

Sorry for being away for a while. We are all busy picking up all the currant buns that Jeff dropped. In the mean time here is a picture of Pedro.

Mischievous Mirrors

Morning. Here is a link to watch a short animation by Mr Owen who is one of our animators. He did this years ago and has only just now rendered it properly. Naughty Mr Owen.

Damian Lewis

Here is a picture of Mr Damian Lewis (he is on the right) and Mr Mark from a sound record for a short we are finishing. I will let you know more about it soon. Oh and Mr Mark assures me it was Mr Damian who suggested they both smile like loons.... but Mr Mark was the only one doing it.

Lomo Wall

Here is a few snap shots of the studio. It's a Lomo wall.

The Green Screen Shoot

Here is another wrap around Mr Paul did of the green screen shoot for the kids in Driver Dan's Story Train. If you find the right path you can see a very big close up of the camera. Oh can you find Stan Cullimore in this picture?

Our Building

Mr Chris was looking at some pictures and came across this one of our street from 1906. You can see the comparison from the street view pic in the corner. Our building is the one with the poultry sign on. You can see a new street light on the new pic, that only went up about a year ago. It is very bright in Mr Paul's window at night.

A Tour Around Mr Paul's Shelf

CLICK HERE TO SEE

Ooo fancy.

I had to remove the embedding as it was slowing down the blog. Click on the link above and you can see it at better rez on a new page.

Creamy and Crumbly

We recieved a misterious package in the post last week. In it contained this cheese and a note about an absent-minded inventor and his companion.
Well the cheese has gone now, omn nom nom. We will find out who the funny so and so is. Oh yes we will.

The Ink Dot Pictures

As earlier promised here are the two pictures from our Directors Mr Paul and Miss Jane that got into the last Ink Dot comp. Click Here for Mr Pauls ace picture and Here for Miss Janes picture.

Moving Rooms

Here is a random picture of some of our computers. We are busy rearranging rooms at the moment so it is quite a mess. Don't they look nice all lined up!

A Snippet of Preproduction

Hi, here is a screen grab from some pre production we are doing for a short. You will be the first to know any further details on this. Well it has to be done in 6 weeks from now so wait a bit and you will be able to see the whole thing.

Storybook Brief

Here is one of the pages that is given to the artists for the artwork for the storybook. This is an indication where elements should go for each page, normally drawings are not given but sometimes it is best to do for clarity. When we get the roughs and then the finished artwork I will show you them on here so you can compare.

Story Corner at the RWA

Here is a picture of the opening night of the Jamacia Street Artists exhibition at the RWA on friday. Here you can see their very own Story Corner including looping video of Miss Leah, Mr Tom and Miss Serena storybook sections from Driver Dan's Story Train. The books in story corner are a selection of all the illustrators various children's books that have been published.
It was a very successful opening night as one point there were over a hundred people queuing to get in. I also noticed that the Matisse rooms were somewhat empty in comparison!

You can see the show at the RWA in Bristol (BS8 1PX) until the 8th Feb

Jamaica Street Artists

Happy new year everyone. Here is an image for an exhibition at the Royal West of England Academy (BS8 1PX) by the Jamaica Street Artists which we use from time to time.

It runs between the 8th Jan til the 8th Feb. If anyone fancy's going along to the private view on Friday 7th (6-9pm) then go along. Tell them Tom Mead sent you via this blog.