Posts tagged "animation"

el macho animation

Feb 24

First Post

Hello,

As this is my first ever post I will tell you a bit about myself.

I’m a director and animator. 

I was born in Maracaibo, Venezuela and after living in Curacao, Florida, Holland and Spain, I finally settled in England. I completed a Foundation course in art and design at Kent Institute of Art and Design, and went on to do a BA in Illustration and Animation in Kingston University. I specialized in animation, but still pursued illustration in my spare time.  After graduating I went straight on to the NFTS to do a Masters in Animation Direction.

During my time at the school I have directed and animated several short films whilst working in a range of techniques, although my preferred medium is traditional hand-drawn animation. When I graduate I would love to make animated commercials and music videos, as well as animated shorts.

 I’m happy to say that I am finally graduating tomorrow! Once I am officialy made a ‘master’, I promise to upload my newest showreel and trailer for my graduation film ‘El Macho’. But for now, you get a sneaky preview still of the film…


animation chickens concept design illustration illustration

Mar 05

These are some concept designs for a short animation I worked on a while back. They’re inspired from Marina Lewycka’s “Strawberry Fields”. It’s a novel about Ukranian immigrants who come to England in the search of a better life, and the disillusion they have to cope with when they are faced with the reality of the life of migrant workers. 

These were referencing a part of the story where one of the characters has to work in a chicken slaughterhouse. The chickens live in a packed barn, walking over each other constantly. In the animation I compare it to the cramped living quarters that the migrants live in, a small caravan on top of a hilll where they pick strawberries. Despite the bleak subject matter it is an incredibly funny book, I promise!

For the finished exercise click here.

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el macho trailer animation NFTS grad film

Mar 15

El Macho trailer is here!

Technical issues sorted- we have a trailer! This is the trailer for my graduation film from the NFTS, ‘El Macho’. It took 6 months of preproduction, 7 months of production and post, and endless midnight microwave dinners with my fellow animation directors at school as we worked through the night. Enjoy!

Synopsis:

Carlos yearns for order and calm amidst the chaos of his loud family of women.
The arrival of Alfonso, an energetic poodle puppy, shatters any dreams he had of peace and quiet. Soon it’s even too much for the women. Something has to be done…

Technique:

Traditional 2D with silkscreen printed backgrounds.

(Source: vimeo.com)


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showreel el macho animation

Mar 17

Finally: my online showreel. Below is a list of the films in this showreel, their techinique and my role within them. The music is by Jon Wygens.


‘El Macho’- Director, animator, story. Traditional 2D with silkscreen backgrounds

‘To Fly’- Director, animator, story. Traditional 2D with oil pastels and colour pencil.

‘Gin’- Director, animator, story. Cardboard puppet under camera.

‘And/or Book Awards Trailer’- Director, animator, story. Stop motion/pixellation.

‘Pinata’- Director, animator, story. Traditional 2D, crayons, collage, rotoscope


animation experimental london sinfonietta synesthesia

Mar 31

This is a shot from a collaborative animation project with Marie-Margaux Tsakiri-Scanatovits, Stuart Patience, and Ben Weller. We worked with the London Sinfonietta and had the work exhibited at the Queen Elizabeth hall.

We took inspiration from the abstract music of a composer with synesthesia, and based our designs on anatomical drawings to do with the senses. This one is from a cross section of an eyeball, sculpted from wire, then lit whilst being animated stop-frame by taking long exposure stills in the dark.


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animation london sinfonietta synesthesia concept design

Mar 31

London Sinfonietta- Synesthesia



Research sketch for the Synesthesia animation (clip in previous post).



Layout sketches for the Synesthesia animation.





Still from final film.







The film was exhibited with live music at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London.


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LIAF animation sketches illustration

Apr 14

LIAF

I am currently making a short animated trailer for the London International Animation Festival. It is one of the three that the festival will have this year. Check out the LIAF website to see more about the festival and the directors of the two other trailers. I’ve started making some rough sketches of my main bird character for the trailer- here they are!
















el macho grad film trailer animation

May 03
'Ochoa Offers El Macho Trailer'

Woohoo Aaron Simpson has posted ‘El Macho’ trailer (my NFTS graduation film) on lineboil.com! Click on the heading above to see it.

Aaron Simpson the founder of ColdHardFlash.com and Lineboil.com , is an Emmy-nominated Producer of Coconut Fred’s Fruit Salad Island, a Flash-animated series for Kids’WB! In addition, at Warner Bros., he produced over a dozen development shorts and developed Johnny Test for the 2005-2006 season.Prior to Warner Bros., Simpson was Senior Producer of Original Content at Sony, where he helped architect a forward-thinking entertainment portal, Screenblast. Simpson has also held the position of Vice President, Animation at JibJab Media.


El Macho gradfilm animation stills

May 19

El Macho Stills

I’m in the process of sending out my NFTS graduation film ‘El Macho’ to festivals. Fingers corssed I’ll have some good news to post in the future! In the meantime, here are a few stills from the finished animation.


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animation cutout London International Animation Festival LIAF

May 23

LIAF- work in progress

Currently I’m still working on the cutout animation trailer for LIAF. Here are a couple of work in progress stills, made with tracing paper, ink and acetate.































The picture above is the makeshift multiplane set-up I’m using to shoot the trailer on.



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