Horses for courses

It's true that time speeds up as you get older.

We have a couple of new things going on at Mannimation. One is that I've been testing a CGI horse rig to use for Gilbert's War. We've only just started with that, and the rig will need some amending but it looks very promising. WW1 was the last time that cavalry was used in battle so horses form a major role in any battlefield on the Western Front.

The other 'new thing going on' concerns a film project by a friend of mine. It's a low-budget feature film and we start two weeks of principal photography in a week's time. I said I'd help in any way I could - so I'm performing 1st AD (Assistant Director) duties on days that I can. That involves organising everyone on location and more or less getting everything where it needs to be - in front of camera for the director. I'll be doing some animated work for the film too. More about that later.

The filming schedule means that I may be out of touch for a while - but hopefully I'll be able to find time to let you know how it's going.

Otherwise, everything else is ticking along here at Mannimation. We go to St.Ives for the Celtic Media Festival as soon as I've finished the film shoot - so that will be a nice break before diving back into the fray.

That's all our news so see you next time!

Gary at Mannimation.

Must...Type... Faster...

I've just done two art sessions at the Family Library to help celebrate 100 years of Brownies (girl guiding - not baked goods!) We had a 40 strong class on the first evening, and 70 on the second! There are more planned including some structured groups of classes for all ages in the near future and I'd like to thank Mary and the library team for their support and enthusiasm.

Work on Gilbert's War and the visuals for Douglas Market Hall continues and we're progressing on a couple of as-yet-secret projects too. It's confirmed that I'll be attending the Celtic Media Festival in April along with the insanely talented Manx language officer Adrian Cain.

Saturday sees the start of a fantastic free-to-join initiative called Code Club which, although not directly connected to animation is a great opportunity for kids (and adults) to get used to programming on a computer. Any serious digitally based animator needs a basic knowledge (or at least an awareness) of scripting/coding for their chosen animation program.

EDIT: Great news from Culture Vannin today (Tuesday March 4) the second half of our two part special Manannan web cartoon episode 'Come Dine With Us' is now live on YouTube.

That's about it for now. Till next time!

Gary at Mannimation.