Rooster Annie Nominee

The short film I spent summer 07-summer 08 working on with Pádraig Fagan (with assist from Orla and Eamonn) "The Rooster the Crocodile and the Nights Sky" has been nominated for an Annie Award. There is talk of us going over for the ceremonies in February, hopefully with some Culture Ireland support. Fair play again Fagan.

In additional Rooster news: I'm giving a talk at Ballyfermot tomorrow, let's hope it goes well, despite the tiredness I feel now and will continue to feel tomorrow morning.

Here's an updated pencil test with the finished animation. Comping and background jiggery pokery soon.

The Saga of Larsktur Larason

(The following is a short translated excerpt from the first saga in the grand tale that is Larsktur Larason’s Saga.)
In the middle of Norway, there once lived a brave and mighty warrior named Bjørn; he was the son of Leif Vidarsønn. Leif had been one of the Jarl of Lade’s men and a very bold man like his father, Vidar of Verdal. Bjørn was an impressive sight and the strongest man in the village. After long service to the jarl, he acquired a large farm and married a very beautiful wife. He also had a son, of whom this saga is concerned.
Lara was a man of insignificant ancestry that lived outside Tronnem with his wife. He was quite feeble and made a living begging in the streets. He was also without a child, so one day he went to Bjørn’s farm and bought young Larsktur, Bjørn’s son, while his father was out in the fields. And thus he raised Larsktur. Poorly. Several winters went by until Larsktur became a grown man. His wild hair framed a clever face. He worked as the village lumberjack and was equally skilled in cutting his axe into a skull as a tree. The bold skald, Håvard the Silent, son of Flosi Haraldsbane, was his companion and the two often left the village to go adventuring in the surrounding area. It so happened that Larsktur was smitten by the fair Gertrud Gerdsdotter. Unfortunately there was another in the village who had eyes for the beautiful maiden; Håvar the Lame. He was not, as his name might suggest, physically debilitated. In fact he was always out practicing his athletic talents. He was the best in the village at running and riding and was also an acclaimed fighter. His name came from those in the village that disliked his conduct.
Thus it came to pass that the two met with Oddgeirr, Gertrud’s father. Oddgeirr, son of Nidulf of the fjords, was an old man, quite near-sighted and had a bad hearing. Gertrud was his only child with his late wife, Gerd. Håvar was let in without question, despite his somewhat unattractive looks. When he was to ask for Gertrud’s hand, Larsktur said the following:
“Your beautiful face fills me with such exuberance I cannot fathom how I could live without you by my side. Give me your hand and I will be faithful to you forever, for I cannot think of life devoid of your fairness. I will give to you all the gold and riches I own if you will only choose me instead of this dim-witted oaf.”
Håvar the Lame answered thus:
“Ah can dance.”
And so Gertrud was promised to Håvar the Lame.

I have a feeling that the aspect ratio is gonna be wrong as soon as this finishes transcoding so I may have to redo the fellla at 1.0 square pixel.
-UPDATE-
Square Pixel 1024x576 + fixed some timing things and rain bits that were annoying me. The next step begins.

frag

Here's a frog I made (photos taken by the ever-divine Ciarán Duffy). I tried making one for my mate Shane's birthday a few months ago and then I realised I'd never drawn a frog before and well that didn't end well. In any case, I went in to this one a bit less unprepared (not necessarily more prepared though) and I think it worked out okay. He is detacheable and his limbs and head are moveable thanks to the magic of butterfly pins. One of those till 5am this morning finishing it jobs again though. Tired now. Bye.
<---DELIVERED--->

Rooster hits Berlin

To celebrate our upcoming trip to Berlin here is an experiment I made during preproduction in 2007.
Images Copyright Barley Films

Sketchbook 7

For some reason it makes more sense to me for the months to go anti-clockwise. This always take longer than I expect to bloody scan and resize and level adjust and upload shit, not that it makes a difference. Feb-Nov 2009. Lots of Rubbish.
Off to Berlin next weekend for the Britspotting Film Festival, who were kind enough to put myself and Pádraig Fagan up for a few nights and cover half of our flights. Bangin'.