How to train your Dragon 2 - New Apollo platform

Good article on Animation Scoop on Dreamworks latest software platform Apollo. 

Animation Scoop - DreamWorks Demos New Apollo Platform

3000 moments - Pascal Campion - Kickstarter (Successful)

Pascal Campion's compilation of his Daily Sketches that began in 2005 into a lovely coffee table book named, 3000 Moments. Full colour, 250 pages, 9x12 Hardback.

Pascal Campion - 3000 - Kickstarter

www.pascalcampion.com - Site

Awesome post on storyboarding

An awesome post of Storyboarding, composition, staging etc.
It is a gold mine of information! Link below.

How to draw for Storyboarding

Glen Keane's "Duet"

Glen Keane's "Duet"

If Game of Thrones characters were drawn by Disney

So if you missed out on Game of Thrones this week check out Fernando Mendonça fantastic illustrations.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 - Spider-Man Animation Shot Build

Big Hero 6 Teaser Trailer

21 Draw - Indiegogo (Finished & Successful)

100 (maybe more) artists showing character design, poses, hand and face poses. 

Each artist will supply 1 character in 2 reference poses, 3 action poses, 3 facial expressions, 2 hand poses.

Totalling 400 pages!

21 Draw Project

3D Total - Anatomical Female figure - Kickstarter (Finished & Successful)

3d Total are launching a kickstarter for their 2nd anatomy reference figure. You can also pledge to receive their previous male figure too. 

Female Anatomy Figure

Design Unscripted - Kickstarter (Finished & Successful)

Artists from Ringling College of Art and Design (students and alumni) are releasing "Design Unscripted", a collaborative art book filled with creative designs such as character, props, environments, vehicles, etc. 

Design Unscripted - Kickstarter

March of Robots - Kickstarter (Finished & Successful)

Last few days of this kickstarter to anyone who likes robots or design.

March of Robots - Kickstarter

Super Anatomy - Kickstarter (Unsuccessful)

Kickstarter campaign for anatomy reference book.

Book will contain 100 poses of live models shot from 24 different viewpoints. It also comes with a disc with all the photos. 

Should be pretty useful for any artists that use human figures. Hopefully there is some really dynamic poses, I think it will be a great reference for 3d animation. 

Super Anatomy Kickstarter

Peanuts Teaser Trailer

Incredibles 2 & Cars 3!

Disney have confirmed that they are planning a sequel to The Incredibles and another Cars Film.  Bob Iger (CEO) made the announcement during an annual shareholders meeting. It has been said that Brad Bird is working on story for the The Incredibles 2 but there is  no confirmation on who is directing it just yet.

IGN-Disney Officially Announces The Incredibles 2 and Cars 3 Are in the Works

Animation Backgrounds is back!

Rob Richards great blog site Animation Backgrounds has returned after a long hiatus.
Check it out!

Animation Backgrounds

Simpsons couch gag gets the Chomet treatment

Sylvain Chomet, director of Triplets of Belleville and The Illusionist has recreates The Simpsons couch gag!
The piece was animated by Neil Boyle and Peter Dodd (along with the rest of the crew at th1ng) under  the art direction of Kirk Hendry. 



For a making of go to Neil Boyle's blog here

Birdbox (Friday Animation Fun)

Since I left you with some very disappointing news about XSI Softimage yesterday, I thought it would be a good time to introduce you to BirdBox Studios! And hopefully brighten up the moods!
They are a great studio based in London which create very funny animation shorts. I really love their framing and timing. Simple but extremely effective and well executed.
Two of my favourite pieces by them are below. Enjoy!







Bird Box Site

Sad Day for XSI Softimage

Softimage XSI's final release will be the 2015 edition which should be available this April.

Incredibly sad news to see a truly great piece of software come to an end.
It's a great all round 3d package, clean interface (although may confuse new users), nice to model in, great for setting up multiple render passes, quick to rig and of course has the brilliant ICE system.
Such a shame that the end is near.

Softimage Final Release

...and the Oscar goes to...

Yes, I am a little late...been busy...

But Gravity certainly dominated, winning 7 awards including Best Visual Effects and Cinematography.
12 Years a slave won Best Picture.
Frozen won Best Animated feature and Best Song.
In fact, that song contains my favourite piece of animation of 2013!
Happens between 2:55-3:06

Full list here
Oscar Winners

 "Let it Go" - Frozen


Gravity VFX breakdown

Oscars Nominees 2014!

The Nominees have been listed!
Animated Features are Frozen, The Croods, Despicable Me 2, The Wind Rises and Ernest & Celestine.
American Hustle and Gravity leading the award nominations with 10 each.

Full list here:
Oscar Nominees 2014

Frozen wins Golden Globe

Frozen has beaten The Croods and Despicable Me 2 in the Golden Globes for Best Animated Feature. Congratulations! 

For a full list of Golden Globe winners see below:
Golden Globe Winners

We will begin with a quote!

“The rules are simple. Take your work, but never yourself, seriously. 

Pour in the love and whatever skill you have, and it will come out.” 

-Chuck Jones

Spring cleaning & new site

So I have just deleted all my past posts and decided to have a fresh start!

(Can't remember where I found this image but I like it!)

I am considering keeping this site alive just as a blog site.
Working on a website (or rather a wordpress site) which is still under construction.

Kevin Hickey Animation

In the future I may decide to move everything over there but for now I shall leave my blog separate and thus cleaner for my site. This blog will have some work in progress, updates, news and generally stuff I like....so yeah...a blog site!

(New logos etc shall come when I get a chance)