Wednesday, January 23, 2013

THE FUTURA GOLD : episode 03



Here's the latest episode of The Futura Gold. This is my new typographic animation series in which all the characters and backgrounds are made from the letters, numbers and symbols of the Futura typeface. If you like this stuff, you might like to head over to the TheFuturaGold facebook and twitter pages too.

Friday, January 04, 2013

Student animation from Alghero

A couple of posts ago I mentioned my December trip to Alghero Sardinia to host some animation workshops for the Masters Students there. I've just seen that the short films made by the students have been posted on to YouTube, so you can see them here. With only three days, the 20 students split up into 4 groups, spending about a day on each project; they turned in some really interesting and experimental work.


To the students from this workshop and the staff of the University too for making my stay both enjoyable and inspirational... Grazie mille!

Wednesday, January 02, 2013

2013

HAPPY NEW YEAR! to all readers of this blog both new and old...

I've had a site of some kind on this here internet since around 1997. Back then I was learning all I could about HTML and doing it all by hand (Does anyone remember The Tall Story Hotel?).
I first registered the chrisgavin.com domain back  in 1999, and have been using this URL for the various iterations of this site since then. www.chrisgavin.com is therefore a surviving relic of the first dotcom boom.

This site is mainly a place for me to promote my various commercial and personal film and animation projects and occasionally opine about related topics; mostly in the realms of animation, film-making,  photography, and image-making in general. If you're looking for information about TXT ISLAND or THE FUTURA GOLD, then you've definitely come to the right place. If you've never heard of these things, I hope you'll still find something here of some interest or value to you.

I plan to keep on blogging here, I enjoy having my own space to do this, and I do welcome comments on these posts. Although it may not be obvious, you can click on the little 0 comments button under any post here should you wish to do contribute your thoughts too.

I look forward to continuing to post here throughout the upcoming year and wish all readers a happy and healthy 2013.

Monday, December 17, 2012

RIP Kodak 100D Reversal Cine Film

Very strange behaviour from Kodak. They announce a NEW type of Super 8 film (50D negative) then the same day they announce the scrapping of 100D reversal (the most-used and affordable cine film; their only remaining colour reversal film) Nooooooooooooooooo!  :(

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Return To Alghero III

This weekend, I've just got back from Alghero Sardinia where I've been teaching a three day animation workshop to students on the Masters course.

Thanks to Prof. Ceccarelli for inviting me back (for the 3rd time!) and to all of the students and other staff too for making me feel very welcome.

I'd devised three new projects for this workshop, using stop-motion techniques to bring typography and some 'found objects' to life. Thanks to the dedication of the twenty students we saw some strong short films/exercises; the groups spending a (long) day on each project.

Once again I was really inspired by the inventiveness of the work and how effectively the students worked together to make these films.










Monday, December 10, 2012

THE FUTURA GOLD : episode 02



Here's the second webisode of my new web series THE FUTURA GOLD. If you like this, then head over to The Futura Gold's very own FaceBook page join up for behind the scenes info. and news of future releases etc.

Tuesday, December 04, 2012

FUTURA GOLD in Creative Bits & TypeSpec

Another nice write-up, this time (completely with lots of lovely links) from creativebits.org












Oh and another one from typespec.co.uk

Thursday, November 29, 2012

FUTURA GOLD is 'awesomeness'

One of the first web reviews of THE FUTURA GOLD has come in, and it's a good one...
 from Mike Rankin of www.creativepro.com

Friday, November 23, 2012

3 New Simon's Cat Films Today

It's been a grand day for Simon Tofield and the Simon's Cat team, with THREE new short film released to YouTube this evening. The many fans of Simon's Cat eagerly await the release of each new animated episode and  Nut Again will surely not disappoint.

The animated cartoons are the main event of course, but I'm very happy to have helped out Simon's Cat Ltd. by making the two supporting 'Behind The Scenes' videos also released today. Simon Paints 'Catnip' and Simon Draws 'Squirrels'.



For Simon Paints 'Catnip' we screen-recorded Simon Tofield as he digitally paints one of the pages of his new book Simon's Cat vs The World.  Simon is seen colouring one of his book illustrations in Photoshop CS3 using a Wacom tablet and pen. I shot some cutaways and book-ended the piece (ahem) with shots of Simon's sketch books and the final image as a page of the resulting full-colour book (Available now!)
Of course the action is somewhat sped up; I edited the piece to compress a day of Simon's work down  into three minutes. Music is by Russell Pay of Shrooty.


Simon Draws 'Squirrels' is the ninth video in the series of drawing tutorials released online so far. In this episode, the talented Mr. Tofield shows us how he draws his squirrel characters. We've got a slightly slicker method of recording these now. The first few were recorded with a separate audio recorder 'double system' style, but recording the screen drawing and voice together in Quicktime X on the iMac in real time saves a lot of subsequent editing time. Music and sound mix is again by Russell Pay of Shrooty.


Thursday, November 22, 2012

THE FUTURA GOLD: episode 02 preview

 Here's a little preview/trailer for episode 02 of THE FUTURA GOLD series...


Wednesday, November 14, 2012

THE FUTURA GOLD : 1000+ Hits!



Nice to see that my new animation short THE FUTURA GOLD : episode 01 has now clocked up over 1000 views since its YouTube debut on October 26th. Viewers are subscribing to the channel too, which bodes well. I'm also pleased to see that the FaceBook page I set up for the project is shaping-up nicely.

It's always great to get some online coverage for the launch of my project too. Thanks especially the fine typography website FontFeed.com

Wednesday, November 07, 2012

Enfield on Super 8 film : Reel 04

I just got the fourth roll of super 8 footage back from 18 Frames in Germany this week as HD .avi files from their Muller scanner. Keen followers of this blog will remember that over the last year or two I have been out and about in my home town shooting lots of super8; old-style home movies on analogue film with my 1970s era Nizo camera.

Some of this footage will ultimately become part of my Enfield: My Kinda Town project, but in the meantime, here are some new stills.









Thursday, November 01, 2012

FUTURA GOLD is TANDEM 'Short of the Month'

TANDEM films (the studio that represents me for commercials Directing work) has just selected THE FUTURA GOLD: episode 01 to be the 'selected short' for the month of November.

This means my film will feature on the front page of the TANDEM website for the next 30 days.

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Saturday, October 27, 2012

THE FUTURA GOLD : episode 01

Okay, here it is, my first new animated film in a while. This is the first episode of what may become a new epic series. The Futura Gold develops the ideas and techniques of my short film TXT ISLAND a little further, but this one has an open-ended storyline which I hope to add to if there is sufficient interest in this.

Thursday, October 25, 2012

New Animated Film (Coming Soon)

For anyone still waiting for a follow-up to my 2009 short film TXT ISLAND something animated is coming soon just for you... The new release wont be a new short film; rather a pilot episode for a new series of shorts!*

The tantalizing two minute first episode of The Futura Gold is pretty much ready apart from a few sound tweaks, so should be coming soon to an online video platform near you...

Oh alright then, here are a few stills from the new work...

* Potentially.

Saturday, October 20, 2012

3D Printing The Future...


3D printing seems to big news at the moment. 'One day...' they say, 'we'll all be downloading our shoes from the internet.' The idea of little domestic robots manufacturing stuff for us is certainly intriguing, so yesterday I made a trip to the London 3D Print Show to find out more...



Makerbot were promoting the UK launch of the Makerbot Replicator 2, and had four of the machines in action. This device (like most of the entry level 3D printers) uses extruded molten plastic to 'draw' the image layer by layer. The Makerbot 2 uses PLA plastic which has a lower melting temperature than other plastics, PLA is sourced from corn and is claimed to be biodegradable too.

The UK price of the Makerbot 2 will be £1800. Makerbot seem to be the most-established of the pro-sumer level 3D printer firms, and this could be the release which begins to capture wider public awareness of 3D printing. 

Around the halls, there were many other 3D printers on show of course, and there are many smaller operators in this field hawking their contaptions too. It'll be interesting to see if the larger printer manufacturers (HP, Epson, Canon etc.) ever decide to bring this technology to the mass market, or if it remains something of a niche technology served by smaller specialist suppliers.


Many exhibitors had 3D printed samples on display and in some cases it was great to be able to pick up and handle the objects.

 Most of the exhibitors were showing plastic objects, but certain machines offer the possibility of working with resin materials with ceramic or metallic finishes too. 3D printed models can also be used as moulds, so even bronze sculptures can ultimately be cast from your 3D data.

For those looking to get something printed but not ready to buy into the hardware, there are many online service facilities available, and these were represented at the show too. Companies such as  Sculpteo will take your 3D .stl files, print them on their machines and send you back your model through the post. You can even create your 3D model using simplified online software like Tinkercad and Sketchup.







As well as 3D printing, some vendors were showing 3D scanning technology; the ability to scan people or objects and instantly create detailed CGI models from the captured data. Europac 3D had a scanning tent which included four DSLR cameras for capturing human subjects from every angle simultaneously.


Another impressive scanning system comprised of a laser scanner mounted on a jointed robotic arm which could capture 3D data and instantaneously add this to a CG model in real time; great for scanning hands and car tyres :)

Combining the 3D scanner and 3D printing technologies obviously leads us to the 3D copier; a device for replicating things...














3D printing is already proven as an invaluable prototyping tool for product developers, architects and model-makers, but will this ever become a consumer-level technology?

I got the impression that this is an industry on the cusp; offering interesting creative possibilities to design professionals, whilst not quite ready for mainstream use just yet.



Like personal jet-packs and moon holidays we could be waiting a while longer for the promise of 'home manufacturing' to fully materialize... But I can't help thinking there is potentially something in this for some of my projects.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Modelling The Old Cinema

Here's the old cinema building again; but this time a CGI model of the façade I've built in Maya.

For reference I used the architectural plans I found in the CTA archive and some photos I took on-site. This is early work really, and the model certainly isn't as accurate or detailed as it could be.

I've not got into any materials or texturing yet either, but next I'd like to try projecting some photographs of the real building onto this model.

Monday, October 15, 2012

DVD 'Extras' for Simon's Cat Ltd.

As of today, YouTube phenomenon Simon's Cat is now available for the first time for purchase as a DVD release. The DVD Das Beste von Simon's Cat has received its first distribution in Germany and is available from Amazon.de as well as other good retailers of course.

Simon's Cat is the creation of Simon Tofield, the UK-based animator whom I've had the pleasure of working with for several years now. The DVD includes all 23 of the Simon's Cat animated short films and inevitably quite a bit of 'DVD Extra' content.

I am proud to say that I've Directed/Edited the extra video content on this DVD release, that's 12 episodes (12x3:00) of Simon's drawing tutorials Simon Draws, the 5 minute documentary Simon Talks and a charming 2 minute photo montage Simon's Real Cats. Much of this video content is exclusive to the DVD release and not available on the web, so order your copy now!