2016 is nearly over! Bring on 2017!

2016 has been a dark year. Even the most positive of optimists (and I include myself amongst them) can't fail to see how this year has proven to be the most miserable in at least, the last 10, if not more years.

We lost a great deal of talent. A very sad loss to their industries and fans - David Bowie, Victoria Wood, George Michael, Caroline Aherne, Alan Rickman, Carrie Fisher and Prince amongst those who left far too young. We also lost some who had a few more years on them, but will be still missed by many, including Terry Wogan, Carrie Fisher's mum Debbie Reynolds.

It was also the year anniversary of one my best friends passing.

In the political world, we lost a young politician, mother and wife, who was brutally killed for just doing her job, Jo Cox. Not forgetting the many victims of terrorism and violence - Aleppo, France, Belgium, Turkey, Germany, as well as the countless shootings in America from Orlando, through to Ohio State University. When will the USA ever tighten up their gun laws?

We had Brexit. The less said about the better...unless anyone can give me any actual facts, about what 52% of the UK voted for. Even still, no one knows what "Brexit means Brexit" means! We have a new Prime Minister, put in place after all the politicians responsible for the referendum and the scare mongering of the nation, did a runner!

We have Trump. Some how he became President of America. The chaos of the US election puts even more people into a greater state of WTF-ness. Things might not be so bad, if someone could just deactivate his sodding Twitter account!

2016 also saw random crazes like the Mannequin Challenge, Killer Clowns and the bonkers Deconstructed Coffee...and of course, who hasn't heard the mighty power of Pokemon Go!

Looking on the positives...I got engaged (I become a husband in 2017, how cool is that??)...and I finally got to see long awaited stage "sequel" to the Potter books, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. I worked on 6 projects with Blue Zoo, became a BAFTA guru-pro and finally got to go Annecy Animation Festival. So, although 2016 was crappy for many, it wasn't all bad.

Wishing everyone a very successful 2017! Although its unlikely we'll get a BrexitEXIT, or a DumpTrump, I hope all your wishes for the new year come true.

Cheers
Marc x

3 Recommended Books for Animators (...not including the Animator's Survival Kit)

Anyone who has trained to become an animator, will have encountered Richard Williams go-to book, the Animators Survival Kit. It's excellent, and often revered as a bible for any self respecting animator. I like it, it's a very useful book, but there are other books too, just as worthy of high acclaim.

There are three in particular, that I've found just as invaluable. Funnily enough though, not so much for when I was doing homework assignments/training... these are the books I have on hand at work, in the studio. They are my go to books if I need to remind myself of certain techniques and they all help me to become a more accomplished animator.

1) Character Animation Crash Course by Eric Goldberg

I came across the first book, Character Animation Crash Course, whilst I was a student, but it really came into its own when I was at work, trying to create strong cartoony animations. Eric Goldberg is the genius behind bringing visual life to the Genie in Aladdin, and also features as an animator in Disney's Moana. When I was working on Tree Fu Tom, we introduced a new character, Muru, who was very zippy in motion. NOt that I ever had any shots with him, but this book really helped break down for me the best way to make a convincing smear and jump across the screen. I mean, you couldn't be in better hands than with a Disney legend like Goldberg. Highly recommended.

2) How to Cheat in Maya (various editions)

The second book is How to Cheat in Maya (using the right edition for whichever Maya version you are using). Firstly, this title is really misleading, it isn't about cheating at all. The title gives a stupid suggestion that you'll find out how to take a short cut in animation technique to make substandard work or something, but it's not. It's more like an easy to read, "help" window in Maya. It explains how to use elements and tools that you might be unfamiliar with. For instance, one of the most simplest things I found out was the "select by type" feature within the Graph Editor. For instance, when I'm using a rig but only intersected in Y translates, I can easily see every one of the selected joints, neatly arranged together in one easy display. Admittedly I don't use it a lot, but it has certainly saved me time by quickly working out why I might have a glitch in some of my curves. This book sits on my desk at work, and will probably stay very close by me whenever I animate! It looks like there's a 2017 version available here too.

3) Cartoon Character Animation with Maya by Keith Osborn

Lastly, Cartoon Character Animation with Maya: Mastering the Art of Exaggerated Animation. Similar to the first book, this book is great if you're looking to improve your character animations, adding a polished cartoony feel. Full of examples (and links to get a pretty sweet rig) it shows you ways to push your poses and how to stretch your work (literally and figuratively) to achieve the desired cartoony feel. Easy to read and follow, very recommended again.

I'm sure everybody has their own go-to books, to keep on hand and refer to, but this little selection would certainly help start a decent library of animation guidance and tips, that would help you with your characters. Do you know better and more useful books too? Drop me a tweet (@animatormarc) to tell me, or leave a comment...let's share the knowledge!

Thanks
Marc :)

My Tree Fu Tom Reel

As every animator knows, every year, brings with it a new showreel! But technically, I don't really classify this as my actual showreel, it's more of a show case of my best shots from working on the Cbeebies series, Tree Fu Tom.

Hope you like it.

Thanks

Marc ;)

MORE STUFF by Blue Zoo...A Year On

More Stuff was the Short that we created at Blue Zoo, that sent the internet into a melt down of animational delight. I worked on a small section of the short and I thought I'd mark the almost-a-year-anniversary by sharing my experience.

 

Around October 2015, staff at Blue Zoo were invited to pitch an idea for the BZ Christmas short. We were all given a song, and a concept and we had to provide the rest. The song and theme was about consumerism, and all we had to work out our idea from, was that the song, More Stuff. 

Vimeo sent us these funky stickers/coasters/frizbees

Four people were chosen to pitch to the studio, me being one of them (...bloomin 'eck). After we pitched to the whole studio, the company voted. Simone and Joe's pitch won the vote, and so work began on creating models from their brilliant concept art and the animatic development continued. 

As a thank you for pitching, the studio took me off my project (Tree Fu Tom) and was I allocated time to animate on the short itself. Quite a privilege really, as this only happens with a select few from the studio, if additional people wanted to animate on it, they had to do so in their own time!

I was given two shots and had to create a selection of dance cycles. In the early stages of development, there were a couple of shots of all the elves dancing, but this got scrapped (or at least made small and not very noticeable) - and in the end, the studio used our dances for promo videos on social media, in the run up to the short's release.

Our awesome More Stuff Advent Calendars!

More Stuff was received very well, better than any of us could have hoped for, really. We've won a couple of awards at festivals across the world and were chosen as a staff pick on Vimeo - a very honorable accolade, indeed!

I really enjoyed working on the project, especially working on a Christmas themed short in the run up to Christmas itself, was really fun. The studio had lots of fun promoting it too  - from filling the studio with various elves to giving out specially designed advent calendars.

Who knows what Blue Zoo has in store for this Christmas (wink)

Cheers
Marc x

Remembering My First Art Show

Whilst sorting through some boxes I found something very cool; my solo exhibition comments book. A few years back, I had my own art show. I was invited by a gallery to host my work on their walls.

I created a concept, and got to producing many artworks. It was a brilliant, although daunting experience.

"Every Heartbeat" by Marc Godfrey

"Eve" by Marc Godfrey

Throughout the course of time my work was on show, I kept a comments book. It was really good fun to pop into the gallery and catch up on what people thought. The comments ranged from a few words to a sentence here and there...then there was Jenny. God bless, Jenny. She left an epic, six page essay for me. I love that she took the time to write so much, and I'm happy to have inspired so much opinion in her.

Here is her comment.

19th September – I’m writing this w/ my left hand since my right is currently occupied. Side note, I’m training myself to become ambidextrous…it’s coming along quite nicely – but you probably don’t believe me judging from the handwriting alone. So I didn’t read your entire description of the exhibit (short attention span…) but I just wanted to contribute this thought (I put down what I was holding…my L hand was makin’ me crazy…)
LOVE IS FREEDOM.
There are so many notions of what love is in this world, and I’ve only met one person who I actually understands what love actually really really is: Thank God he’s my boyfriend, right?..................
So many people think that love is giving or showing that you care or sharing or doing things for someone else. While you may do all of that BECAUSE you want to – that’s not love.
LOVE IS LETTING GO.
It’s letting everyone be themselves and letting you be yourself. People say ‘I love you’ as if it’s some kind of reward, and they say ‘but I love you’ like it’s a stipulation. Love is not a term reserved for the person you have sex with and marry. Love is for everyone.
I LOVE EVERYONE ON THIS ENTIRE PLANET.
I even love you. Not because we’ve had an intimate connection, but because if I were even to meet you, I’d accept you as you are and let you be you and me be me. There’s no such thing as ‘unconditional love’ because there’s no such thing as ‘conditional love’. I feel that so many people give their love under certain conditions – in which case, it’s not love at all. It’s slavery. It’s rewarding behaviour that you want to see. Like I said…
LOVE IS FREEDOM.
Be free, and you will love and be loved. I hope that this all makes sense. It’s kind of foreign to some people – they just don’t understand and that they’re actually destroying their boyfriends by trying to force them to quit smoking (like I did, for example) I finally read some books by Miguel Ruiz and discovered that love is something quite the opposite of what everyone I see does. Sorry to sound harsh – it’s just how I feel. OK, I’m wrapping up now. I hope this becomes good fuel for thought and perhaps comes out somewhere on the other end. I just don’t get a chance to tell people this because they just don’t get it. But I felt comfortable here because
1) I wrote it out
2) The exhibit is about love
3) I thought I should speak out how I truly feel about the topic.
…sorry it turned into a novel…it’s just that love is so important – it deserves as many words.
Jenny

Half way through my month's run, the gallery extended my residency by another month. As I had sold some pieces, this meant I had gaps to fill. Luckily I had sketches and other paintings planned out, so this wasn't a problem.

"All You Need Is Love" by Marc Godfrey

"Bette" by Marc Godfrey

"Jenny" by Marc Godfrey

At the end of Jenny's comment, she left a funny symbol of a heart with a cross shape, a bit like the "ban the bomb" logo inside. As I inspired something in her, I decided to use that symbol to inspire me, and so I created an extra piece. Here it is...

When I was studying art at university, I was always conflicted with my style. I have always loved graphic based work, but I also really like more expressionist and experimental art that played with colour and texture. So, for my art show, I presented a juxtaposition between graphical art and expressionist colour treatment. Both related to the theme of love. The show called A condition of Absolute Value, and played with images and symbols that different social groups, cultures, myths and history have used to repesent love.

If you like what you see, maybe share this post and add another comment below...the comments book may live on once more :)

Cheers
Marc x

Follow Your Path

My friend posted something on Facebook which not only made my little animation heart smile, but also made me reflect a bit. It's about following your own path. This is the post, by artist Lily Williams

There is Only One You. Follow Your Path.

I think it speaks to everyone, on some level, but it definitely speaks to me as artist working in a CG environment. I feel that we're constantly being barraged with success stories from our peers of their new independent short film, indie games and all sorts of other creative work. Whilst this is a lovely thing, and gives you a feeling and sense of inspiration and brings you a little extra creative spark... sometimes, it also leaves me with a feeling of inadequacy and mental turmoil of "why aren't I spending every spare second I have making more animations or creating my own artwork".

And the truth is, after a long day in the studio, sometimes the last thing I want to do is stare at another screen doing more animation. And that's ok. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. That's ok.

I like the mantra "comparison is the thief of all joy", and in these sort of scenarios, it's true. Just because someone else is churning out brilliant work, like a machine, doesn't mean that you're going to be judged any less for not doing the same.

Enjoy the work others create, celebrate it, share it...but don't feel ashamed or guilty for being far from the finish-line (or start, for that matter) of your own personal project. Take your time. Enjoy your life. Follow your path in the speed and effort that's right for you. It's your journey, do it however you see fit.

For more of Lily William's brilliant art, check out Lily's website, or her Facebook page.

Cheers
Marc x

Sausage Party Gate - Were the Animators Treated Fairly?

A hot topic amongst animation type social platforms have been the reports from the animation crew on Sausage Party, not being paid fairly, and not getting credit in the end titles. Check out the comments section of this report from Cartoon Brew to see what I mean.

I have so many mixed feelings on this. My first reaction was "gahd, cry me a river" and then, my reaction changed more towards a "gahd, that's terrible".

Having managed my own team of staff (sometimes up to 40, as well as being a manager of managers) for a considerable time, I know first hand how difficult some staff can be when things don't go how they feel it should. The work place can become very toxic, once people start feeling entitled, and let their ego over take their professionalism. I guess, what I mean to say is, why is it so important that your name isn't at the end of a movie? Sure, it's a lovely to see your name in the credits, but if it's not there, that doesn't take away from the fact that you did it. It also doesn't mean that you can't include the work you did on your show reel to show future employees. It's just an ego thing right?

If staff are being over worked, and under paid, then that's not good. However, if you're employed to deliver a service (which let's face it, is what every animator is), then bloody do it, and don't whinge about it. Put your head down, and deliver. Of course, easy for me to say, as I'm not in their situation, but I have read anonymous comments from animators who didn't suffer any stress or pressure to deliver their shots on time. It reminds me of a story a senior animator told me a while back, at their studio, the staff more or less went on strike as they were "made" to work until late to get their work done. When my friend was asked why he wasn't striking too, he simply couldn't, because he left eh studio at 6pm every day and.he.delivered.all.his.work.on.time. I wonder how many of those whingy Sausage Party worked spent most of their working day on facebook or youtube, instead of prioritising their work?

So, yeah, I guess I come from a place of bias, when I hear moany staff, to lean towards the side of the employer. However, of course, there are always employers who take the piss. It's finding that balance, I guess. Either way, I bet the Sausage Party studio are LOVING all the free publicity this controversy is getting them.

What do you think about it all?

Love
Marc x