Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Annecy presentation

I'm getting ready for the Annecy presentation and gathering all the bits and pieces of concept art, sketches and development designs that we will show there in a couple of weeks.
Its amazing to dig thru 6 years of development artwork and remember how far we have come....
Heres a few random bits and pieces from my trawl thru the folders... 




an page from my sketchbook from the very early days- 
when the idea of a story about Selkies was just forming...


Some splash designs by Jeremy Purcell

Some concepts of Na Daoine Sidhe by Amelie Flechais


A colour concept by Ross Stewart 


Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Studio 352

The lovely people from Studio 352 , plus me , adrien, Stuart and Fabian. Plenty of beautiful work coming from Luxembourg these days ... Thanks to you all!

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Glencolmcille

This beautiful place in Donegal was the inspiration for the part of the country where Ben and Saoirse live. This week Niklas Andersen and Ciaran Duffy have been working on the layouts for a big complicated sequence at the end of the film that takes place there , I think it's going to be a lovely part of the film . Here's a photo of me sketching there , taken by Adrien Merigeau on one of our research trips a few years ago. And also the beautiful concept piece he made after the trip.



Saturday, May 11, 2013

Facebook

Hey just a note to say that one of our lovely production team, Anne Flore, has been updating a Facebook page for song of the sea , where you can get more regular updates about the production.

If your in fb go and seek it out!

Monday, May 6, 2013

Recent adventures

Here are some iPhone snaps of my recent adventures ...travelling to partner studios and even visiting the president ...

The crew in Norlum
The animators in Noerlum are deep in production with some really gorgeous work being produced there . Fabian , Fredirik and I presented a work in progress teaser reel and discussed the coproduction so far at the Cartoon Cine conference while we were in Viborg.

Great danes
Last week, Adrien, Stuart , Fabian and myself visited Studio 352 in Luxembourg to catch up on the layout, animation and bg work presently being done there. It was good to meet the new additions to the team and to meet again with the crew who spent time with us in Kilkenny earlier in the production. I feel like it's all going really well and I'm excited to see each new scene taking shape. They have a lovely crew in the studio now , I hope to get a chance to visit them again later once they are deeper into production.

Back in Kilkenny we have been joined by another old friend from The Secret of Kells , Niklas Kragh Andersen , a great layout guy. It's a pleasure to be working with him again.
Niklas, me and Andrejz
Here's a photo from a recent "fajitafriday" in Billy Byrnes pub in Kilkenny, with myself , Niklas and Andrejz Radka pictured. It was a great night with almost the entire Kilkenny crew out to see Andrejz off. Andrejz is finished his 3 month stint in Kilkenny and will continue to animate for us from Paris. Indeed another of our talented animators , Ornelie Prioule is returning to Paris to continue to work from home as well. It was great to work with them in the studio for a few months and I'm sure the whole crew will continue to be inspired by the work they send us each week.

Gilles ,Animation Supervisor for 352 and his army issue tin mug (he really is exmiltary! )
some of the 352 crew including Nic Debray and Victor Ens who visited us in kilkenny and who are animating some
lovely scenes at the minute. 
We have over 60% of the posing completed and even more layouts done. The key bgs are finishing up this month and ink and paint is getting started in digital Graphics in Liege .

Hard to believe that , all going well, we will be almost finished by this time next year...

Oh and by the way there's a few photos from my visit to Aras an Uachtarian, where we celebrated 20 years of the Irish Film Board with President Michael D. Higgins. I'm pictured with such men of greatness as Will Collins , Nicky Phelan,Paul Young and Eamon Devalera.













The lads in the Aras


Me and the long fella.


Me, Nicky Phelan (of Brown Bag fame) and Will Collins in Aras an Uachtarain


a production flow chart i spotted in 352 - the work of Mssr.Thibaut Ruby no doubt