A quick update on the progress of The Hungry Corpse, now screening at festivals around the world! We have two new dates for the diary:
We're proud to promote director Leo Bridle's experimental, interactive, and immersive film for iPhone and exhibition In Limbo. Set in an airport waiting lounge, an iPhone user is able to spin around at will, zoning in on conversations taking place between in-transit passengers, where not everyone is what they seem…
A technical experiment in code, image and sound, In Limbo is FREE to download from the AppStore, and is also showing as part of this year's Digital Shoreditch, running from 24th-31st May. So do take an investigative, interactive look!
We've just finished work on a new clip for the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. 'CE100' is a concept that will help engage businesses in EMF's ambition to create a Circular Economy, and the animated viral will be used to promote the idea all around the world. Our latest signing, Mighty, designed and directed the piece, delivering a bold graphic based on characters and concepts. It's streaming now from EMF's website here: http://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/business/ce100
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A while back we began working with the late Run Wrake on a project for Amnesty International, U2 and the Hard Rock Cafe.
Produced by Treatment Studios it was to be Run's final project, giving flight to the guitar-bird logo on U2's Amnesty T-Shirt and celebrating 50 years of the organisation. We helped him to get the project moving by co-animating the first half of the film, adding particle effects to the chalk lines. It was certainly an honour to work with Run, and Sam from Treatment, on the project, and we were just gutted he didn't make it through to the end.
To be clear, we didn't animate all of this film, but we certainly helped to shape it and create the first half along with Run. So here, dedicated to Run, is the final clip:
We're delighted to present the brand new trailer for our short film 'The Hungry Corpse' featuring voices by Bill Nighy and Stephen Mangan.
Created for Rankin's 'Collabor8te' scheme, the film was written by James Pout and directed by our very own Gergely Wootsch.
Also up today are the website www.thehungrycorpse.com where you can learn more about the origins of this dark but exquisite film, and a less dark facebook page - www.facebook.com/thehungrycorpse!
Delighted to say we're featured in an article from Shots magazine this month! It's all about our short 'The Hungry Corpse' and director Gergely Wootsch.
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We were given a lovely name-drop from Andrew Billen in The Times yesterday for our titles to 'Heading Out'. It's not often the first part of a TV critic's review is about the titles, so we're amazed and delighted here… Just a shame he didn't like the show much! Can't win them all..
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/arts/tv-radio/reviews/article3700081.ece
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Yay! We have a copy of 'A Liar's Autobiography' DVD in our possession.. It looks good, and heck it even smells good, so go grab one today! In addition, we were delighted to receive a present from the producers wrapped in brown paper with an amazing hand-drawn print of Graham Chapman, detailed with all the insults levelled at him in the first minute of the film! Genius.. (apologies because we don't know who to credit for the image, but will update this post once we do).
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Almost forgot – we're heading down to the Rich Mix in Hackney/Shoreditch tonight for the animator-friendly screening of 'A Liar's Autobiography'! There's a Q&A afterwards, and even a bar*! (*totally not free…).
Come on down. But buy a ticket first! tinyurl.com/bvuuxg5. Oh, and be quick – starts in 1.5hrs!!!
Meantime, here's our guest director and chum Daniel Chester speaking about working on 'Epistle' – one of our two sections of the film: http://www.directorsnotes.com/2013/02/25/a-liars-autobiography-epistle-to-the-new-zealanders/
We're thrilled to announce that Beakus director/producer Steve Smith has provided the title sequence to Sue Perkins new comedy series for BBC2 'Heading Out'.
The show stars Sue as a 40-year-old vet for whom life is a constant confusion of mistakes, blunders and mishaps. Plus, she's never told her parents she's gay… Written by Sue Perkins, we were approached to create the animated titles, which feature a caricature of Sara (Sue's bumbling vet) and a crazy number of animated pets. Director Steve Smith designed the sequence, which was animated by Maki Yoshikura and Robert Milne.
The series goes live on BBC2 on Tuesday 26th February at 10pm.
Learn more here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/mediapacks/headingout/sueperkins.html
We'll post up the titles once they've been broadcast!
Delighted to report that the whole section of 'A Liar's Autobiography' directed and designed by Daniel Chester for us, called 'Epistle to the New Zealanders' is online for the first time! It's beautifully hand-drawn and animated, taking us on a bizarre journey inspired by the ramblings of Paul the Apostle's concerns about New Zealanders..
Beware though, it features Jesus in a gay bar, and God making rude gestures…. It's also very very funny, and sits smack bang in the middle of the feature 'A Liar's Autobiography' as a kind of insane interlude..
Take a look here:
A few photos from the premiere night of Collabor8te and our short 'The Hungry Corpse'. Including powerful portraits of James Pout (writer), Gergely Wootsch (director) and Steve Smith (producer) by Rankin's assistant Trish Ward.
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Here are a few designs created by Gergely Wootsch for a recent pitch. Thought their grotesque blackness should see the light of day!
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We're quoted in Computer Arts this month, in an interesting article about character design. Mr Binns' work for An Idiot Abroad is pictured too! http://www.computerarts.co.uk/features/commercial-character-design
For Steve Smith, of London-based animation studio Beakus, connecting with your target audience is about believability. “The most bizarre, badly drawn, or simplistic character can still be a smash commercially, provided it’s created to be believable within its own world,” he says. “But you need to remember who your audience is. Ultimately they are the ones who will decide if it’s a good character, not you.”
From a production point of view, if a character is going to be animated you need to know at the design stage how it’ll be done, as Beakus’ Steve Smith explains: “It’s important to know how a particular character will be animated technically and, as producers, we need to know about its personality and the types of movements it will make. Of course, everyone we work with here at Beakus designs specifically for animation purposes, but still, to believe in a character it needs to move authentically to its original design,” he continues.
The title sequence for a new comedy show, designed and animated by director Steve Smith.
The feature 'A Liar's Autobiography' is screening at these select cinemas from TODAY!
08-Feb Curzon Soho, London followed by Q&A with Carol Cleveland, the directors + Andre Jacquemin (sound producer)
08-Feb Empire Leicester Square, London / Irish Film Institute / Showroom Sheffield
12-Feb VUE CINEMAS: Apollo ALTRINCHAM / BARROW / CARMARTHEN / LEAMINGTON SPA / STROUD / TORBAY / BIRMINGHAM / BRISTOL LONGWELL / BURY / CAMBERLEY / CAMBRIDGE / CHESHIRE OAKS / CROYDON GRANTS / EDINBURGH OMNI / EXETER / FINCHLEY NORTH / FINCHLEY ROAD / FULHAM / HALIFAX / HAMILTON / HARROW / INVERNESS / ISLINGTON / LEEDS LIGHT / NEWBURY / NEWCASTLE-UNDER-LYME / NORWICH / OXFORD / PLYMOUTH / PORTSMOUTH / READING / SHEFFIELD / SOUTHPORT / STIRLING / STRATFORD / SWANSEA / THANET / THURROCK / WATFORD / WESTFIELD
15-Feb Cambridge Picturehouse / Cornerhouse Manchester / Curzon Wimbledon / QFT Belfast / Tyneside Newcastle / Watermans Brentford / Watershed Bristol
20-Feb Warwick Arts Centre
24-Feb Nottingham Broadway
01-Mar Borderlines Festival – Courtyard Hereford
06-Mar Torch Milford Haven
24-Mar Eden Court Inverness
26-Mar Riverside Hammersmith
28-Mar Dukes Lancaster
29-Mar Stamford Arts Centre
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Beakus are delighted to announce the arrival of not only a new director but a whole studio for representation! Mighty are a Mexican animation studio based in Guadalajara who produce the most amazing 3D CGI animation as well as classical 2D hand-drawn and digital animation. They excel at technique and creativity, moving seamlessly from commercial to corporate work through music videos and short film work. Their passion for the craft of animation is obvious, and it's something that makes us feel we must have been separated at birth… Take a look at their work below, and on their director's page: www.beakus.com/blog/director-mighty |
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Now that 'A Liar's Autobiography' is playing in UK cinemas, we are delighted to be able to show this montage of our animation for the feature film..
Two styles, two directors, and over ten-minutes of animation, we provided scenes of Monty Python's Graham Chapman hallucinating at an LA party, and Jesus being caught out in a gay bar… The final film is in stereoscopic 3D and so well worth catching at the cinema.
The nice guys at Skwigly have written up a post about our rather explosive start to 2013.. We're three years old today, and have had three projects launch in 2013 so far. Not a bad start! Take a peek at their blog here.
Indeed we are 3 years old today..
But we're also mature beyond our years, like a fine cheese. (We're good with biscuits too..)
To celebrate we're sharing with you this virtual Numtum's cake, because you're worth it. But please note – the original, and let's face it better, Numtum design was by Matthias at Beakus!
Happy Birthday To Us!
Finally, 'A Liar's Autobiography' is being released in UK cinemas! The feature film about Python's Graham Chapman, animated by 14 different studios including Beakus, receives it's official UK premiere TONIGHT at the home of film, the BFI. We animated 10-minutes of the stereoscopic 3D film, using a mix of hand-drawn and cut-out artwork, and the film is an eclectic mix of styles that really have to be seen to be believed.
The film is launching the LOCO Film Festival, and will be introduced by Terry Jones and the directors, with a Q&A afterwards that includes the fabulous Rebecca Front! There's also some LIVE animation going on, and an exhibition of artwork from the film. Tickets are available, we believe, here.
We can also announce that the film will be released on DVD and Blu-ray soon after, on 18th February. So get down to HMV and bag a copy!!
Here's the lovely poster for our latest short 'The Hungry Corpse', voiced by Bill Nighy and Stephen Mangan, directed by Gergely Wootsch, written by James Pout, and produced by Steve Smith.
We're delighted to bang on about a new project, hot off the animation press, from director Mr Binns, for the Ellen MacArthur Foundation!
The Foundation is promoting a new way of thinking about the ecology and economy of our planet under a methodology called 'The Circular Economy'. In a nutshell they hope that businesses will adopt a circular, over a linear, style of manufacture whereby products and materials they use and sell are re-generated, adding value to the commodities themselves and longevity to their lifespan.
It's a bold initiative, so we developed a bold graphic style for the 3-minute piece that goes way beyond a simple info-graphic animation. We have charming, rotund worker-bees acting out the potential in a circular economy world, and smooth 3D vector shapes that zing within a harmonious colour palette. It's beautiful to watch, and hopefully you'll get sucked right in!
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On Boxing Day the new DVD for series 3 of An Idiot Abroad was released, and it features menu's drawn from the pre-titles animation by Mr Binns! Go get your copy here.
For the latter half of 2012 we were hard at work on a new series for CBBC through the wonderful Dot to Dot. 'Totally Rubbish' is a ten-part series that transmits after 'Horrible Histories' at 5.45pm from tomorrow, Tuesday 8th January.
The show is a 'make show' about creating artwork from discarded materials, which is why it's 'Totally Rubbish'… But it's totally NOT rubbish! It's brilliant! And it features lots of animation by Beakus director Leo Bridle. He and the team brought to life 10 life-stories of famous artists, from Warhol to Van Gogh and Damien Hirst using cut-out animation and photographic backgrounds. They also created an array of animated graffiti and stop-motion graffiti'd bins, as well as the show graphics and titles.
Do catch it on CBBC, Tuesdays at 5.45pm. If, like us, you're at work in the afternoon, you can watch some lovely clips on our site over the forthcoming days.! http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01pz8s8
Thanks to Tim Fehrenbach and Eleni O'Keeffe who alerted us to the presence of some great Numtum Graffiti in Elephant & Castle, London.. It's brilliant! Especially the way it's behind rainbow bars….
Director Gergely Wootsch and writer James Pout talk about their collaboration for Rankin in this month's Dazed & Confused.
Merry Christmas from Beakus!
You know that snowman and snow-woman from the recent John Lewis ad? Well, we felt inspired to create this animated homage!
We asked the obvious question – what happened next?
Enjoy, and Merry Christmas!
Producer & Director Steve Smith
Animation by Rob Thomson
Music by Tim Goalen
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We are delighted to have provided the image for day 7 of Skwigly's 2012 Advent Calendar. It's a slightly grumpy snowman, but it is hellishly cold out there, so we all know how he feels… Happy Christmas..? www.skwigly.co.uk/advent-calendar/day-7-beakus
We just stumbled upon this on vimeo… Snippets of some amazing animation artists talking about their experiences, including our very own Gergely Wootsch!
We're very excited to have played a small part in the forthcoming third series of Ricky Gervais and Karl Pilkington's globe-trotting epic for Sky, 'An Idiot Abroad'.
Our latest signing, Mr Binns, created beautiful pre-titles for the show, which sees Karl joined by eternal optimist Warwick Davis to follow in the footsteps of Marco Polo and travel from Venice to China. Our pre-titles introduce the concept, picturing Marco Polo on his journey.
The graphics were so well received that we were asked to adapt them for the forthcoming DVD release too, acting as on-screen menus! The series itself begins tomorrow night at 9pm on Sky HD. It's genuinely hilarious, and to prove it here's some humorous banter between Ricky, Karl and Warwick at the press screening we were fortunate enough to attend the other day: http://sky1.sky.com/an-idiot-abroad/an-idiot-abroad-3-ricky-karl-warwick-press-q-and-a
We'll be posting up our animation here on Monday….
Daniel Rieley recently created for us this serene 4-screen wide looping presentation movie. It's for the National Maritime Museum, to promote their exhibition of American photographer and environmentalist Ansel Adams (http://www.rmg.co.uk/visit/events/ansel-adams).
Taking footage from a BBC documentary, and quotes from the great man himself, the movie currently sits above the museum's reception desk in Greenwich Park. Sadly, one screen can't do it justice, so get down to SE10 for the full monty, and a great exhibition.!
Last month saw the release of a wonderful app by children's book publisher Nosy Crow called 'Animal SnApp: Farm', and Beakus is proud to have provided the animation – our first time for an app!
According to Nosy Crow, 'Animal SnApp: Farm' "…features six stories, each with stunning animation by Beakus, lively child narration of rhyming texts, text highlighting, sound effects and music."
We worked with original artwork by Axel Scheffler (The Gruffalo), where the priority was to retain the magical hand-made charm of his idiosyncratic illustrations. Director and animator Gergely Wootsch did an amazing job breathing life in to the animals and their environment, making the app an attractive purchase for parents.
“The process of creating the art for these stories was refreshingly different from the way I create art for a picture book,” says Axel Scheffler. “The quality of the animation is excellent, and it’s great to see my work brought to life in this innovative way.”
Digital Storytime's review says the app includes "… animations that are top-notch" (http://digital-storytime.com/review.php?id=665)
For a montage of our animation, watch the video below:
Oh, here's the app's trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=cHp1IS9eWvU
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Beakus director and children's picture book author and illustrator Leigh Hodgkinson is taking part in the 2012 Stars on Canvas auction! http://starsoncanvas.org.uk/portfolio-item/leigh-hodgkinson/
Stars on Canvas is an art project created by hundreds of well-known names from the worlds of art, illustration, sport, music and entertainment. These include Reece Shearsmith, Terry Jones, Mike Leigh, and Peter Firmin. All canvases will be sold online in aid of national charity, the Willow Foundation, that helps seriously ill 16-40 year-olds.. They will also be exhibited at Maddox Arts – a London based gallery, with the eBay auction following on the penultimate day of the public exhibition.
Well, it's not a glowing review, but it does show lot's of delicious clips of the film! Plus there are insights in to the reason the film was made, from three pipe-smoking directors – one chatty, the others not so much…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-19981808
Recognise the little chap at the bottom of the Lille Fete de l'Anim? Yes, it's the boy from Gergely Wootsch's short 'This Is Not Real'!
Out over the weekend is this exclusive clip from our section of the feature 'A Liar's Autobiography'! http://youtu.be/blgGUsHQ_YQ
In the clip we see Graham Chapman struggling with his inner demons, and trying to get over his obsession with name-dropping. Directed by Matthias Hoegg for Beakus, the full feature will be in cinemas in the UK from January, and is having it's European premiere tomorrow at the London Film Festival. Oh, and don't forget that the feature is in stereoscopic 3D, so this youtube clip looks AMAZING on the big-screen!
Quick update of Beakus and animation related news today..!
We're proud to see that director Gergely Wootsch's fabulous graduation film 'This Is Not Real' has been selected for Pictoplasma in NYC! It will screen in Program 1, 2nd & 3rd November. Pictoplasma is one of the most intelligent and cutting edge character design festivals in the world, so well done Gergely! http://nyc.pictoplasma.com/screenings
We are currently on the look-out for XSI character animators to help Gergely with his latest short, being made for Ian Rankin as part of his Collabor8te new filmmakers scheme. If you are a great animator at a loose end between jobs do get in touch with us, because what we lack in cash we more than make up for with style and profile – the character's voices are from Bill Nighy and Stephen Mangan! To learn more about his film, check this: http://collabor8te.com/view/productions/the-hungry-corpse/
In other news, the feature animation we worked on last year – 'A Liar's Autobiography' – receives it's UK premiere at the London Film Festival next week! The untrue story of Monty Python's Graham Chapman, written by the man himself, is presented in glorious stereoscopic 3D, and will be in cinema's quite near you in January 2013.
Finally, there is an interesting article on the state of UK animation in the Guardian today. Take a look to see what's happening: http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture-professionals-network/culture-professionals-blog/2012/oct/10/animation-future-studio-production-models?fb=optOut. It's a call to arms of sorts, and very welcome, but also quite frustrating to see Animate taking the lead in this crusade considering the way it had actively walked away from animators, and what we had traditionally called animation, in favour of supporting abstract video artists instead. That was in the good old days when the Arts Council funded the scheme. Now that times are hard it seems animation is actually considered worth supporting after all. Perhaps because it's seen as more commercial than video art? Whatever the reason, it's a pleasant, and welcome, return to the fold..
Proud to say the Graham Chapman feature 'A Liar's Autobiography' is screening all around the world now, and every so often we catch some publicity that foregrounds Beakus' work. The latest is an image from Dan Chester's section of the film, glimpsed in 'Folha de S.Paulo'!
The film will have it's press screening in the UK on October 16th ahead of it's cinema release. If you haven't seen the trailer already, it's HERE.
A new interview with director and picture-book author/illustrator Leigh Hodgkinson features on the excellent (if dryly titled) blog 'Two Writing Teachers'. It delves deeper than most in to her idea generation and creative process. Well worth a lunchtime read!: http://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/2012/09/07/goldilocks/
In honour of the film's release to the public – especially for it's premiere at the Toronto Film Festival – here is an extract from Skwigly's clever round-robin of Q&A's between all 15 animation studios involved in the Graham Chapman feature, 'A Liar's Autobiography':
From A For Animation to Beakus: As fellow animation geeks who spend their days in darkened rooms eating biscuits and drinking cups of tea how did you go about researching and recreating LA party scenes which we know nothing about?
Beakus: We prefer to think of ourselves as nerds, but I’ll accept geek … However, we don’t have curtains so lighting can be an issue, and tea just doesn’t cut the mustard with us – coffee is our preferred toxin (we have a mini-bar bottle of Whisky on stand-by but the whole studio has amazingly refrained so far). It’s true we didn’t know much about the LA Party scene of the late 70’s, early 80’s, but drink and drugs (and their effects) are something our recent RCA graduate directors do have in common with the period. If anything, ‘animation’ is now our drug of choice, though strangely Graham didn’t abuse that one whilst in LA… (He left that to Terry Gilliam, ha ha!). On a practical note we’ve had much guidance from one of the film’s directors Jeff Simpson and a book called ‘A Dose of Rock ‘n’ Roll’…
Oh, and here's the poster! With Matthias' design of Graham Chapman sitting on a recliner next to the word 'Liars'… Not sure if that's a comment on us…?
We are reaching out for XSI Animators right now.. It's for a super-low budget, but incredibly exciting short film, so would suit someone with high ambition who is between jobs! We need your time from now until November, or as long as you can give us. Lovely characters to work with, ready-rigged, and great voices recorded already.. Plus a great director to lead and inspire! Please get in touch ASAP through studio@beakus.com
We're delighted to announce the completion of two new projects for Google!
Working with our latest director signing, Mr Binns, we created two equally stylish yet completely separate spots for YouTube. The first, 'NextUp' lays out the details of YouTube's competition to find high potential YouTube partners to accelerate their careers and grow their YouTube channels. To this end, we created and animated a small-time movie-maker before showing him a taste of the good times, courtesy of YouTube. Design and direction is by Mr Binns.
The second spot is for Euronews Business, and their quest to find business stories that are succeeding online, and hand them a prize.! Mr Binns designed a more business-like environment in which iconography blends with vector graphics and neat transitions, and the spot was co-directed with Steve Smith.
It's been a while since we posted, which is because we're too darned busy!
So here's a selection of behind-the-scenes photos of what's going on today..
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… and here's one that might need some explaining…
The masterminds behind 'A Liar's Autobiography', the stereoscopic 3D feature we animated on last year, have launched a new competition called 'Animated Chapman' to coincide with the cinema release of the film.
Budding animators (yes, you, me, all of us) can download the CS6 trial along with audio clips from the film and animate their own design of Chapman, then pit their creation against everyone else.! The prize? Not only do you get aforementioned CS6, but your work will also grace the DVD when it's released, and feature on the various Monty Python streams across the web. Not bad! And hell, we will all feel ashamed if your animation is better than ours….
So pick up a wacom and get doodling. http://www.animatechapman.com
A lovely article on Leo and Amael's viral-busting 'Olympic Vermin' courtesy of Motionographer. The clip has now been watched by 120,000 people on vimeo!! So it's great that Motionographer picked it up so early and decided to include some fun behind-the-scenes footage – including that 5-metre pole in action..! Check out the interview here: http://motionographer.com/2012/07/25/leo-bridle-amael-isnard-olympic-vermin/
News just in that the feature we worked on last year 'A Liar's Autobiography', about Monty Python's Graham Chapman, sees it's long-awaited premiere at the Toronto Film Festival: http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2012/liarsautobiographyth
This should kickstart screenings at festival all over the globe, so catch it when you can – it's an ecstatic animated collage all based on lies…
We've been working on a short film inspired by the forthcoming London 2012 Games. Co-directed and animated by Leo Bridle and Amael Isnard, with sound by Aaron Lampert, the short beautifully shows us what's going on down the backstreets of London during the build up to the Games, where vermin are also inspired to take part.!
Shot around London, sometimes from the top of a 5-metre pole, and featuring an array of messed-up animated vermin, the film pokes fun at the Olympics and it's so-called 'inclusivity' dogma.
Watch the film here…
| Director/Animators: Leo Bridle & Amael Isnard |
| Produced at Beakus |
| Sound design & Music: Aaron Lampert |
| Electric Guitar & Bass: Theo Lampert-Crook |
| Thanks to: Chris Corbishley, Guillemette Faure, Charlotte Milner-Barry, Steve Smith, Margaux Tsakiri-Scanatovits, Harry Wormald |
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We're currently looking for great, talented XSI or Maya modellers and animators for a short film our director Gergely Wootsch is creating here for Rankin.
Unfortunately money is dead tight, but it's a lovely project and a nice experience for new graduates or experienced animators fed up of commercials! And, you get to shadow Gergely himself!!! What more could you want people?
Apply within (studio@beakus.com)
Did we say we're making a film for Rankin? Directed by Gergely Wootsch, the animated short is deep in to production at Beakus. Today we had a read-through of the script with script-writer James Pout, sound designer Joe Tate, producer Steve Smith, and director Gergely Wootsch. We snapped a few shots to document the film, which will soon be featured on Rankin's Collabor8te website: http://www.collabor8te.com
More on the film's development later…
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| James Pout | Gergely Wootsch |
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| Joe Tate, Gergely and James | Gergely and James |
Here's a nice interview with Gergely Wootsch via Skwigly:
Q. Can you describe your short and what is it about?
The short is about Charley, a young boy, his chimerical journey to conquer the Himalayas and an eventual all-defining conclusion.
Q. Who or what inspired you?
When studying my BA I was living in Middlesbrough, a post-industrial town in North-England. It is heavily industrialised but surrounded by the beautiful Yorkshire landscape. I think this experience had to do with making This is Not Real. When developing the script I looked at photographs I took there and also other narratives I liked, such as Ken Loach’s Kes and Schlesinger’s Billy Liar (there is even a still from Billy Liar there if you look closely!).
Q. Your work has some similarities to David O’Reilly’s work. Was this intentional?
Uh..oh… Yes and no. The look is surely more similar to David O’Reilly’s work than I would have liked it to be. If I was to do it again, I would draw a bigger contrast. However, the choice of style and look was always a conscious decision to reinforce the protagonist’s world, that stripped down digital look felt appropriate. As it happens, David O’Reilly is very good at giving you just that. Also cutting rendering out from the workflow enabled me to deliver a 7 minutes long computer animated film.
In the end I don’t mind think I mind the comparison.. I always had a grudge against polished CGI.
Q. How long did it take to create?
Around 9 months all in all.
Q. What software did you use to create it? Describe the process.
It was all animated in Softimage, and composited in After Effects.
Q. How many people were involved in the project?
There were many great people at the Royal College of Art who provided valuable feedback throughout the making of the film. I also had the luck of having a talented and enthusiastic sound designer working with me, and a few people helping me with the animation (thanks Eamonn, Vincent, Ben!).
Q. Has it won any awards?
- Best Sound Design – British Student Film Festival, 2012
- Paul Berry Animation Award – Exposures, 2012
- Best Animated Film – Norwich Film Festival, 2012
- Animation Runner-Up – Anchorage Film Festival, 2011
Q. What are your next plans?
I’m currently working on another short film due to be finished this November this year with Beakus.
We're delighted to announce that Lauren Jones has been awarded the Beakus Prize at Plymouth College of Art!
Lauren will be stationed at Beakus over the Summer and we're really excited to welcome her. She was awarded for her 'all round contribution to class dynamics, and the production of work of a high quality' – which is actually an understatement. Lauren draws and designs fantastically well, with a great eye for colour. Take a look at her college blog: http://sloeq.tumblr.com/
Gergely Wootsch's amazing short 'This Is Not Real' has finally been released online for the first time. The film, which won Best Animation at the Norwich Film Festival and the Paul Berry Award for Best Animation at Exposures Film Festival, is a fabulous mix of strong design, sensitive storytelling, and well-executed animation. We urge you to watch it here: http://beakus.com/blog/this-is-not-real/
Beakus director, and picture book author Leigh Hodgkinson is running a workshop at this year's Hay Festival on Sunday (3rd June)! It's an amazing literary festival, with other workshops by the likes of Michael Morpurgo, Jacqueline Wilson and Cressida Cowell. Leigh's creative workshop, about her book series 'Magical Mix-Ups!', is SOLD OUT!
Here are the details anyway… http://www.hayfestival.com/p-4329-leigh-hodgkinson-and-you.aspx
Quick shout out – ITV1's 'This Morning' is going to feature a clip from our 3D Canaletto painting for the National Maritime Museum's 'Royal River' exhibition. Wow, that was a mouthful…
It will screen between 10:30 and 12:30 tomorrow morning (1st June 2012). They plan to have a spot about the Jubilee pageant on the Thames this weekend, during which our animated version of Canaletto's river view will be screened! Saves a trip to the museum I guess, though it's honestly well worth a visit…
Here's the movie for those who can't watch morning TV.
It's so nice and sunny, we're re-located outside the studio today – in the back yard!
Note the lack of computers too…
Last week HRH The Queen visited Greenwich and the National Maritime Museum's new exhibition 'Royal River: Power, Pageantry and the Thames'. We like to think she paused and took a long, spellbound look at 4 screens above the reception desk on which looped our animation of a Canaletto painting…
The painting itself 'London: The Thames on Lord Mayor’s Day, looking towards the City and St. Paul’s Cathedral' lives in Italy, and this is the first time in over 260 years it's been seen on English soil. The exhibition charts the royal use of the Thames over centuries, and brings together rarely seen artifacts, paintings, and photographs in a grand display curated by David Starkey. Running until 27th September, we can thoroughly recommend a trip to Greenwich http://www.rmg.co.uk/visit/events/royal-river. But, if you can't make it to South London, here's a sequence from the movie.. As it's over 5000 pixels wide, we've created a more screen-friendly edit, complete with some 'behind-the-scenes' footage! www.beakus.com/blog/nmm-royal-river
The immersive painting shows a busy boat-filled Thames in the mid-1700's, brought to life by clever projection mapping and 3D CGI animation rendered over 5000 pixels wide. The intricate painted waves swell and ebb, flags billow, and canon's fire smoke across the water… As an introduction to this major new exhibition, the animation certainly sets the scene.
Beakus brought together talented director Leo Bridle and top CGI modeller Phil Norman to create the looping film. 118 layers of boats, rigging, flags and surrounding buildings were cut out from the painting, and patches painted in their stead. When we made the digital version of his Thames view, we were astounded to find that it perfectly married his original hand-painted version – because, after all, Canaletto was a master of perspective. He painted in 3D…
We have another collection of animated movies on display at the museum, but to see them you'll have to pretend to be 15 and studying, get your hands on one of their new tablet PCs, and take a photo of specific objects in the museum's collection! Carrying tablet PCs around the museum is a great way for young history students to access more in-depth and specific information about what they find there, and Beakus have created 5 object-specific animated movies on subjects ranging from the growth of British trade across India, to slavery and the use of ships to transport goods. Fortunately, we've put them on our website here: www.beakus.com/blog/nmm-mobile-learning.
Since posting about the one-off Numtum toys we made to celebrate finishing the series production, we've been inundated with emails asking how to buy them!
We're thrilled to see Numtums is going down so well, but want to re-iterate that the BBC are solely responsible for making and marketing Numtum toys, so it's very much up to them. At Beakus we designed the Numtums, and created the animation, but the concept came from the BBC, hence it's up to them when, and if, any Numtum toys will be made. Sorry!! But, to speed things up, read on…..
Dear BBC – as a subtle nudge for you to start making Numtum toys, here is a selection of requests we've received from desperate parents over the past two months..!
We've just found some early designs for Steve Smith's Channel 4 short 'Eating For Two' (2002) lying digitally around the studio.. Over 11 years old, but still a charmer, you can re-visit the film anytime here: http://beakus.com/blog/eating-for-two-2/, and these designs show the raw materials of paint and line, that went in to the film's seaside surrounds.
A new interview out today, with Beakus producer Steve Smith, director Matthias Hoegg and the creators of 'The Beautiful City' courtesy of Digital Arts, neatly titled 'Animated films explore the dark side of Madchester with Steve Coogan'.
http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/news/?newsID=3354350
We've been working hard these past few weeks on a 5000 pixel-wide moving painting for the National Maritime Museum's amazing new exhibition: 'Royal River, Power, Pageantry and the Thames'.
The looping animation adorns 4-screens above the museum's reception desk, and was visited by the Queen this week! We like to think she stood awhile and reflected on the mastery of our digital trickery…. but we can't be sure.
We turned a Canaletto painting, 'London: The Thames on Lord Mayor’s Day, looking towards the City and St. Paul’s Cathedral (circa 1750)', in to a 3D environment which we explore. The water ripples, canons fire and flags billow in a truly immersive experience. The painting itself is on loan to the National Maritime Museum and this in England for the first time since it was painted, over 260 years ago!
Curated by David Starkey the exhibition runs from now until 9th September, and we can well recommend a visit! And we'll post the actual animation up here soon!..
There's new work on our site! A superb music video aimed squarely at kids and created for top musician Alan Gregg. Called 'Elevator Up, Elevator Down' and directed by Matthias Hoegg, the video entertains a child's imagination of where a lift might take you, and who might be in it. Our hero encounters strange worlds on each floor, led by a kindly elephant lift attendant! So catchy it'll have you whistling before the second chorus, this is intended as the first of a series of videos to accompany Alan Gregg's witty songs.
Check it out here: http://beakus.com/blog/elevator-up-elevator-down
Matthias has curated File Magazine's online screening for April, featuring a mix of short films and promos. To watch the reel click here (involves a free sign-up): http://tv.file-magazine.com/login/
We are excited to announce a new partnership with UK-based creative consultancy Machas. Beakus will be represented for commercial and corporate animation through Machas, joining their small but perfectly formed roster of international artists, photographers and illustrators.
All enquiries should be directed to: Valentina Guarneri or Rita Comi via sayhello@itsmachas.com.
Machas writes: "We are very excited about this new entry in our team and not just because it’s a BAFTA-nominated studio who produces fascinating animations and masters an impressive amount of techniques – they are genuinely nice people!"
Joining Machas is like finding a kindred spirit. We click. Our aspirations are very similar – to make amazing, unique, and beautiful work. At Beakus we live and breathe animation and see it as an art-form, not just a means to an end. We’ve had an incredible couple of years, and created some memorable projects for big named clients, so we’re looking forward to working closely with Machas to deliver bold, inventive animation that hits the spot every time!
Onwards…!
It's been a while since we summed up all the fab work going on here, so here's a few bullet points -
The Beautiful City
Matthias Hoegg created a cinematic teaser for 'The Beautiful City', voiced by Steve Coogan, by bringing his film 'N77' up-to-date with moody rain and a dark, oppressive ice-cream van. The teaser, which is currently trailing Michael Winterbottom's latest feature 'Trishna' in UK cinemas, is a pre-cursor to a whole series of animated films to be released online and featuring narration from luminaries such as Kathy Burke and Keith Allen. Watch the teaser here: www.beakus.com/blog/the-beautiful-city.
BBC2 The Charles Dickens Show
Beakus provided a number of short animated inserts for this BBC Learning programme, broadcast a couple of weeks back. The series of 4 x 20-mins spoofed chat shows by placing Dickens himself as host, interviewing the likes of Florence Nightingale and Dr.Barnardo. Our animation helped to illustrate un-filmable facts, such as the amount of poo generated by Londoners in 1800… We used period-style cross-hatched artwork animated with cut-outs. Take a look at our quick montage: www.beakus.com/blog/the-charles-dickens-show.
We have been continuing to work with Google, creating 2 x 2-min info-virals for their latest high-end cross-media products. Director Leo Bridle designed simple but stylish motion-graphics to illustrate the technical information, seamlessly blending 2D and 3D animation via a strong, clearly-identifiable colour palette. Sadly, as these are for internal presentation only we can't show you the magic… Boo hoo!
Nosy Crow App
Working closely with children's book publisher Nosy Crow, we created animation for their forthcoming app 'Animal SnApp'. It was Beakus's first foray in to apps, but the process just required a slight adaption of our technique in to small loopable chunks. The app is illustrated by a giant in children's books, Axel Scheffler (The Gruffalo, Pip & Posy), so it was important to get the animation just right. Fortunately we had new director Gergely Wootsch at the helm, who did an amazing job with Axel's artwork. The app itself won't be out for a while, so we can't show you much right now, suffice to say the animation is beautiful!
National Maritime Museum
We're delighted to have continued our working relationship with NMM, after 2010's virals for 'Old Weather'. Leo Bridle created 5 x 1-minute films that will sit on tablet PC's and be used by kids as they scour the museum for interesting objects and artefacts. Slavery, trade, and civil war all feature in our films, and we used a variety of techniques including 2D and 3D animation, and for the first time, projection mapping. With this technique we turned a flat Canaletto painting in to an immersive 3D environment. We're also using this technique to bring another immense painting alive across four screens above the museum's reception desk! The deadline for this is set by the Queen herself (she visits this month…), so we're pulling out all the stops! Sadly can't show the clips just yet, so more on these later…
Future Film Festival
Director Leo Bridle recently created the trailer for the BFI Future Film Festival. It's a fun, bizarre journey through film genres using only hands…! Watch it here: www.beakus.com/blog/future-film-festival-trailer.
Other News
Of course there's lots more going on at Beakus. Our series of 25 x 5-mins for CBeebies, 'Numtums', has had it's first run on the channel and is now repeating daily on BBC2 at 8.45am – catch it if you have kids, or are partial to silliness…
Meanwhile, Gergely Wootsch picked up best animation at the UK-wide celebration of student films 'Exposures', and was interviewed in 'Take One'. Director Matthias Hoegg was nominated for a 'British Animation Award' (sadly he was pipped to the prize), and Steve Smith featured briefly in the first 'Skwigly podcast'!
Director Leigh Hodgkinson's new children's picture book, 'Goldilocks and Just the One Bear' was reviewed in the Sunday Times this weekend!
Take One, the website of the Cambridge Film Festival, recently interviewed Gergely Wootsch about his work and recent win at the Norwich Film Festival.. Makes for a nice read. He even says "As of 2012 I joined the the superb team of Beakus…". What a good guy…
Take a look here: http://www.takeonecff.com/2012/nff2012-interview-with-gergely-wootsch
Here's the text:
Gergely Wootsch‘s THIS IS NOT REAL was the “Best Animation” winner at this year’s Norwich Film Festival. We spoke to Wootsch about his influences as a scholar of the obscure, and his plans for the future.
Rosy Hunt: Can you tell me a little about your background?
Gergely Wootsch: When I was younger I wanted to be a pianist but one day I woke up and I found myself immersed in the world of the computer generated. I’m not sure how or when that happened. I did my BA in Computer Animation and went onto do a masters at the Royal College of Art in London in animation. I had a really great time there, I tried to spend my two years at the RCA the best I could to push myself into uncharted territories. I also wanted to make a short film, which resulted in THIS IS NOT REAL.
RH: Could you let me know what your artistic influences are, old and new?
GW: I guess it is a really mixed bag. Both of my films I animated so far are rather sombre, I realise, and it surely has to do with the fact that I love the work of David Lynch (TWIN PEAKS, ERASERHEAD and LOST HIGHWAY, not necessarily in this particular order). Hal Hartley’s TRUST is one of my favourites from my teenagehood, alongside Spielberg’s EMPIRE OF THE SUN. Then there are the likes of Don Hertzfeld, The Brothers Quay, David O’Reilly, or Sean Pecknold… or Adrien Merigeau… To be honest, I always found it a bit overwhelming the sheer amount of greatness out there to admire.
RH: What plans do you have for your next work?
GW: As of 2012 I joined the the superb team of Beakus, a London production company as a director. I also have a few pending projects, amongst them hopefully another short film which I am currently developing.
RH: Finally, what advice would you give to a young person starting out in animation?
GW: You have to invest a lot of time and effort into animation, it is such a slow process! So make sure you are really willing to devote to it. And if possible, try to get some industry experience, it is really invaluable.
Last minute news – we have some clips of animated historical figures in a show for BBC Learning, 'The Charles Dickens Show'! – and they're being broadcast at 3am on BBC2 tonight! So set your Sky box…
It's a spoof daytime show in which the celebrated author interviews A-list guests like reformers Lord Shaftsbury and Dr Thomas Barnardo, introduces a gritty video diary made by a youngster whose home is the workhouse, and vents his spleen on the issue of child labour. Meanwhile, in the kitchen Mrs Beeton is on hand to rustle up the finest Victorian cuisine, and even Her Majesty Queen Victoria and her Consort Prince Albert take their places on Charles' sofa of historical chat to discuss Christmas.
Live from the nineteenth century and packed with insight into Victorian life that is either hilarious or poignant, The Charles Dickens Show will leave young viewers speechless. Apart from the words, "I want some more."
Our animation, created as cut-out animation of hand-drawn cross-hatched illustration, is sprinkled throughout the four shows… We'll put some clips up soon.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01fhp7l
The first Skwigly animation podcast is out for all to hear! It's a great, hefty chat stream about what's new and exciting in the animation world. It takes in Aardman's new 'Pirates' feature, and a big section on the tax break announced in the budget.. Which includes a mention of Beakus (oh yes) and our comments on the tax relief. Download and rush through to 50-minutes in! http://www.skwigly.co.uk/animation-podcast/
As you may know, there's a small thing called a Budget being announced today… And animators, and animation studios, have a vested interest in it's outcome, as we have been lobbying the government for several years about tax breaks for the animation industry.
In a nutshell tax breaks (such as those enjoyed by the film industry) would allow us to compete fairly with overseas companies who can recoup a large percentage of their budgets through governmental tax breaks and thus make the work cheaper than we can.
So fingers crossed here for this afternoon. And a big thanks to the team at AnimationUK who have campaigned so hard for a long while – hopefully your time has come!
To highlight the issue, here's this week's Broadcast Magazine's banner, with our little Numtum 3 on the far right!
We've been working quietly on a short clip, narrated by Steve Coogan, to promote a new narrative project called 'The Beautiful City'. Director Matthias Hoegg created the animation, which is now showing as a cinema trailer before Michael Winterbottom's new feature 'Trishna'.
We urge you to go visit www.thebeautifulcity.co.uk where in future months there will be more episodes to view, voiced by the likes of Kathy Burke, Keith Allen and Howard Marks…!
"As law-abiding straight members descend on a jaded red-brick metropolis in search of sex and drugs and rock and roll, another world exists unseen in the shadows surrounding them. Populated by the shady, the sly and the double dark, this is the world of the citizen; this is 'The Beautiful City'. '99 John' is the eyes and the ears of 'The Beautiful City'. This diminutive unfortunate sells pills all night and every night to the punters for the clubs from a dilapidated ice cream van. But while seeing all and hearing all, being mute, he can tell no-one of what he witnesses.
A blur of fact and fiction, the tales of 'The Beautiful City' are being adapted as a series of short animations that will be available as a free download later in the year. A live action feature film is also in development, to be produced by Revolution Films (Trishna, The Trip, 24 Hour Party People)."
Here's Empire magazine spilling the beans: http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=33377
We're delighted to report that new director Gergely Wootsch's graduation film from the Royal College of Art has grabbed the coveted 'Paul Berry Award for Best Animated Film' at this year's Exposures Film Festival. The trailer for this excellent short 'This Is Not Real' can be seen here: http://beakus.com/blog/this-is-not-real/
http://www.exposuresfestival.co.uk/news/exposures-2012-award-winners
Incidentally, Paul Berry was a masterful, Oscar-nominated animator, who died tragically young from a brain tumour. His fabulous film, 'The Sandman', was a great influence on the filmmakers of his generation, and beyond.
The excellent 'bookbabblers' has reviewed our director and picture book author-illustrator Leigh Hodgkinson's latest gem 'Goldilocks and just the one Bear'.
An excellent write-up, including the words: "This is a great twist on the classic story tale and it is superbly written with brilliant quirky illustrations."
Leigh is also the bookbabblers March author-in-residence, and there's an interview with her here: http://bookbabblers.co.uk/2012/03/interview-with-leigh-hodgkinson-author-of-goldilocks-and-just-the-one-bear/
A rare interview with Numtums designer Matthias Hoegg about the production process and his influences, courtesy the great Skwigly Magazine!
http://www.skwigly.co.uk/matthias-hoegg-beakus-and-the-numtums/
Our producer Steve Smith was recently interviewed for top blog site It's Nice That, and the article has gone live today.. Take a look:
http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/beakus-numtums
We thought we'd beat the rush and make our own Numtum stuffed toy!! Well, actually we asked our producer's Mother-in-Law, Lorraine, to painstakingly hand-stitch it from different cloths (as we're all digital people, see?). She did such a wonderful job that the BBC asked to use the toy in their introductions to the Numtum broadcasts!! Below is a clip taken from the 1pm transmission on 27th February…
Below that are some lovely pictures taken before the fame went to it's head… But also a felt version our lovely solo-sweat-shop created soon after to augment the growing brand. All enquiries c/o Beakus: studio@beakus.com.
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A small selection of photos from the Numtums wrap party, hosted by the BBC last week. It was like a 4-hour pat on the back for us, so well worth the trip to White City! Now we're all just hoping the audience figures agree and the show's a bloomin' HIT!
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A new article on 'Numtums' in Animation Magazine! http://www.animationmagazine.net/tv/numtums-count-down-to-cbeebies-premiere/
Director Leigh Hodgkinson has been beavering away on new kids books lately for fabulous publishers Nosy Crow. Fresh out is 'Magical Mixups – Birthdays and Bridesmaids', a novel in pictures for ages 7+ that features bonkers beasties, Emerald the Witch and Princess Sapphire.
And we blogged this before, but it's worthy of another shout – Leigh's highly original take on a classic faery tale, 'Goldilocks and just the one Bear' is out shortly and available via Amazon (http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0857630431). The gorgeous book takes the original story of Goldilocks on a few years to see what Little Bear, and Goldilocks are up to now. Leigh's also made some amazing A2 prints, available from her soon-to-be-launched online shop! Check http://leighhodgkinson.blogspot.com for updates…
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We are happy to announce broadcast dates for 'Numtums', a brand new CBeebies series we have been busy animating!
From Monday 27th February 2012 'Numtums' will be broadcast twice a day, at 9am and 1pm on CBeebies as part of the 'Love To Learn' cluster of shows. The animation was produced and directed at Beakus by Steve Smith, designed by Matthias Hoegg, and created in an unusual technique developed by Sylvain Magne that combines 3D and 2D elements.
This is Beakus’ first broadcast series, commissioned by CBeebies. 'Numtums' is a multi-platform 25×5 minute series that gives young children a foundation in basic numeracy all wrapped in a fun, energetic and irreverent format. Combining a troop of animated Numtums, live-action children and sing-along songs, the series starts with the basics of numeral recognition and then gently moves on to counting objects and identifying amounts in a variety of fun and bonkers scenarios. It’s a fun, fast, and bright series, which the BBC has begun to trail: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01cyy9b, and blogs are already picking it up: http://rightfromthestart.wordpress.com/2012/02/17/love-to-learn-on-cbeebies/
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Beakus director Matthias Hoegg is short-listed for the British Animation Awards 2012 'Best Student Film', with his enigmatic futurist tale of digital over-saturation 'Thursday'. The awards take place on 15th March, and the prizes feature artwork by animators past and present.
http://www.televisual.com/news-detail/British-Animation-Awards-finalists-announced_nid-1232.html
Matthias' film was also BAFTA nominated last year.
First press about our forthcoming series, 'Numtums'… Lots more to follow!
Delighted to say that Beakus' own Steve Smith is heading to Devon to take part in a seminar (on finding a career in animation, oh yes!) at this week's 'Animated Exeter'…
He will be part of a panel session called 'The Pitch' at the Exeter Phoenix, on Friday 17th Feb at 10.30am, hosted by Saint John Walker of Skillset. Come along if you can – other panellists include a member of new funding body Creative England, Marion Edwards of HiT Entertainment, and representatives from MPC and DNeg… Should be fun, and illuminating!
http://animatedexeter.co.uk/programme/4/events/38/event-careers-event-the-pitch
Director Leo Bridle has just finished the trailer for the BFI Future Film Festival 2012.. It's an 80's tinted 'hand'made clip, made with the 'handy' help of young film workshop attendees at the National Film Theatre last month.
To learn more about the festival click here: http://www.bfi.org.uk/futurefilm.html?q=futurefilm.
A fantastic video from the Chapman feature wrap party the other day.. Including footage of the fabulous Beakus crew rocking out (?) to gynaecological tunes.. Take a peek: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPJ91cNPQwI
It's alive on the Chapman blog, which is a great read that has charted the creation of the stereoscopic 3D feature right from the start…: http://www.projectchapman3d.com/blog/?p=1196
We are thrilled to announce that Matthias Hoegg's RCA graduation film 'Thursday' has been awarded Best Student Film at the 'Short Of The Week Awards'!
Here's why: "There’s a delicate beauty in the rhythms of Thursday—whether it’s the images inspired by Native American quilts or the editing cuts timed carefully to the beat of the score. The RCA thesis film made Matthias a hot ticket at agencies on both sides of the Atlantic. He later joined the London studio, Beakus."
And here's the evidence: http://www.shortoftheweek.com/2012/01/30/best-animation-short-of-the-week-awards-2012/
Meanwhile, the film has also been short-listed for the upcoming British Animation Awards 2012.. You can see 'Thursday' here: www.beakus.com/blog/thursday
Thanks to all the Liar's crew for a raucous evening filming the credits for the forthcoming Graham Chapman film, thinly disguised as a wrap party… Clips of the film were screened, and the range and quality of the animation styles is something to behold, a real smorgasbord of techniques and visions. Just watching this film should convince anyone that animation, in all it's forms, is alive and well in the UK. Here are some pics from the event (apologising for the poor shots)…
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| Beakus prepare for singing duties | The massed crew take to the stage |
… and the hymn sheet
Something rather nice, and very shiny, popped through the letterbox today! A book celebrating Ditto's campfire sessions from 2011… Amongst many other interviews and insights is a page about Beakus producer Steve Smith's talk back in July. Lovely! Thanks Ditto.!
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As a young studio, we've been pretty busy over the past year.. So we totted up just how many frames of animation we've created. Watch the video to find out!
(spoiler alert: it's over a quarter of a million frames, or 10,600 seconds, or 170 minutes, or 2 hrs 50 minutes!)
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We are thrilled to sign new director, and wonderfully named, Gergely Wootsch to our roster of animators!
The Royal College of Art graduate has impressed us greatly with his visual flair and art of storytelling in two films – 'Ordaemonium' and 'This Is Not Real'.
Born in Budapest Gergely is a natural animator and visual artist. He was introduced to Beakus when he came to animate our CBeebies series 'Numtums'. Clearly adept at 3D and 2D animation, and with a fresh, vibrant and deeply digital aesthetic, we are delighted to have Gergely aboard.
onedotzero founder recently suggested Gergely was one of the top artists and designers working in animation today:
"Some of the top artists and designers we should be looking out for are Quayola, Field, Anti VJ, RVA (Russian Visual Artists), Kimchi and Chips, Joon Y Moon, Robert Siedel, Max Hattler, Gergely Wootsch, Lucy McCrae, Julia Pot and Canada." (http://www.glassmagazine.co.uk/forum/article.asp?tid=3474#title)
Take a look at Gergely's work here: http://beakus.com/blog/director-gergely-wootsch/
Here's a collection of all Matthias Hoegg's wonderful CBeebies seasonal idents, created throughout 2011…!
News just out – our fabulous director Leigh Hodgkinson's latest picture book: "Goldilocks and just the one Bear" is available to pre-purchase on Amazon! http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0857630431
It's a cracker of a read, a beautifully subverted fable, which we'll post more on soon..!
Here's a shot of Leo Bridle on his shoot for a new 360 film set in an airport lounge.. You tell them Leo!
Our Christmas Card for CBeebies has been blogged all over, and now on creativetimes.co.uk: www.creativetimes.co.uk/articles/we-like-beakus-christmas-2011! Merry Christmas!
Our 2011 Christmas card has made the grade as far as 'Motionographer' is concerned.. It's one of a select few featured in their round-up, which you can see here.! Well done to Matthias, Eleni, and Amael. And you can see our card at www.beakus.com/blog/happy-christmas-2011.
We have a brand new clip for CBeebies from director Matthias Hoegg! It's airing on the channel from today, 12th December 2011, and twice daily until 2nd January 2012.
Broadcast times today are 9.30am and 5pm (after the excellent DipDap).
Catch it if you can, and check back here tomorrow, as we hope to get it online…
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As it's Christmas (nearly), we thought we'd bring out this gem from the Beakus cabinet of forgotten fun….
Just click the image below, and happy holidays!
After a small sabbatical we've put together a summary of the animated magic flowing from Beakus towers: http://mim.io/8dc402
More to follow before Christmas too!
We had a fantastic wrap party for two major projects last week. Having completed 10 minutes of beautiful animation for the forthcoming stereoscopic feature 'A Liar's Autobiography' with a super team of freelancers, and then nudging closer and closer to the finish line of our 25×5-mins CBeebies series, a drink was certainly in order…
May we say a big thanks to the talented folk who helped make these projects fun, painless, and eye-catching! Here's evidence from the soiree…
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Get this: a frame from Matthias Hoegg's fab work for CBeebies gets chosen for the upcoming onedotzero festival header logo!
His work is also heavily featured in the viral promo for their upcoming 'Sprites' screening. Take a peek here:
Our fab director Leigh Hodgkinson, who is also an esteemed childrens book author and illustrator, is up for this years prestigious Roald Dahl Funny Prize!
The presentation takes place later today in London.. So good luck Leigh, and good luck Limelight Larry.!
(www.booktrust.org.uk/Prizes-and-awards/Roald-Dahl-Funny-Prize)
We are delighted to announce that two of our CBeebies films have been selected to play at the upcoming onedotzero festival here in London and around the World!
Onedotzero is arguably the most highly acclaimed and selective digital media festivals in the World, and this year runs from 23-27 November at London's BFI Southbank with a host of eye watering screenings. Beakus director Matthias Hoegg's design-rich spring-themed films for CBeebies are playing their part in the fest. If you can't wait till then, come see them at http://beakus.com/blog/cbeebies-spring-george/ and http://beakus.com/blog/cbeebies-spring-ollie/.
We're turning in to a right posh little studio!
We here in London were treated to a tiny article about the animation industry in our morning commuting newspaper, The Metro.
It reflected briefly on the new initiative to protect the home grown animation industry from unfair worldwide competition – www.animationuk.org. In a nutshell, animation series producers are finding it tougher to compete with other territories and make cost-effective animation because of unbalanced tax breaks. But we have a tremendous track record and experience in creating ground-breaking entertainment here, especially in the children’s animation series sector. So, AnimationUK is gathering support for a parliamentary re-think… Which we feel is way overdue.!
We're chuffed to have a brand spanking new studio reel! It's bang up to date, and includes work for Nickelodeon, CBeebies, The Science Musuem, The British Library and many, many more.. Take a peek!:
Late call, but at 3pm today Steve Smith will be speaking all about a career in animation at Ravensbourne… Come along if you can. The aim is to inspire and empower.!
Our latest instalment of the BBC's 'Day In The Life' animated series is online now!
Go see it at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/handsonhistory/vikings.shtml
Featuring Daniel Roche (Outnumbered, Just William) as the plucky time-travelling ten-year-old Eric, and Corinna Brown as his sister Mona, the series gives kids an entertaining glimpse in to life a long long time ago. This time it's Vikings! Eric is looking forward to some serious English (or Angles) bashing, but discovers a good punch up is not the only way to introduce yourself to the natives…
Enjoy!
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Beakus has moved from tranquil Wapping to a rather more happening Waterloo! A stone's throw from the station, we have taken over a bijou shop on famous Lambeth Walk. Yes, Lambeth Walk, as in 'doing the…'.
If you have spotify, here's Duke Ellington's version: DUKE ELLINGTON – Lambeth Walk (08-09-38)
And, for comparison, here's Norman Wisdom's: Norman Wisdom – The Lambeth Walk
We have a new phone number: 0207 8207627
And the new address: 67 Lambeth Walk, London, SE11 6DX (google map here)
Some kind words posted up on the Chapman Project blog about our involvement…! http://www.projectchapman3d.com/blog/?p=860
Which reminds me – we are 90% there with our 10 minutes of film-res stereoscopic animation.. The last push is like mountaineering when the peak always seems the same distance away. But we will get there, by hook or by crook, or by cake…
Thumping their way on to Nick Toons this week are a series of 6 action-packed bumpers for Weetabix. Directed by Leo Bridle the 10-second bumpers and 5-second cut-downs cram in what happens when you eat their new 'spoonsize' cereal. Explosive transitions result in high-octane sports such as jet-pack skating, snowboarding and power-boating…
You can see all six at http://beakus.com/blog/weetabix-bumpers/, or tune in to Nick Toons…!
Eric is back for a fifth installment, along with his little sis' Mona. The BBC asked us to animate another two episodes of 'Day In The Life' following the success of the first four, and 'Victorians' is the first off Beakus' production lines. In fact, we emulated the Workhouse ethic, in which Eric and Mona find themselves, to make this animation at breakneck speed!
Put to work in the cotton mills, down the pits, and up the chimneys, life for Eric and Mona is a little rotten. Especially having to eat gruel and rock-hard bread.. But it's a learning curve, and of course it helps them appreciate what they have in their real, present day, lives.
You can watch 'Victorians' on the BBC's website at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/handsonhistory/victorians.shtml, or below!
[media id=141 width=800 height=450]
We are delighted to present two new clips for CBeebies focussing on Summer, and what it means to two kids – Kaysie and Sam.
After the success of our Springtime animations earlier in the year we were asked to create two new movies that illustrate the beguiling voice-overs of two very different kids. Matthias Hoegg and Sarah Orenstein again stood up to the plate and directed Sam and Kaysie respectively. Sam spends his Summers on the beach near his home, playing with his brothers and his toy boat, whilst Kaysie enjoys messing about with her little brother in a paddling pool.
You can see the animations below:
| [media id=139 width=400 height=225] | [media id=140 width=400 height=225] |
| Sam | Kaysie |
A video of producer Steve Smith's talk at the June Campfire session for Ditto has gone live. Steve takes us through a potted history of his career to date and of Beakus as a young studio, with clips, and some stray hair…
The new film we're helping to make, all about Monty Python's Graham Chapman is all over the news!
BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-13939238
Market Watch (?!): http://www.marketwatch.com/story/epix-announces-the-start-of-production-on-graham-chapmans-a-liars-autobiography-2011-06-27?reflink=MW_news_stmp
NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/27/movies/graham-chapman-tribute-from-monty-python.html?_r=2
BBC America: http://blogs.bbcamerica.com/anglophenia/2011/06/28/new-animated-graham-chapman-biopic-announced-and-yes-its-silly/
http://mim.io/768931: Our June newsletter is out now, and includes new work for Monty Python, BBC History, and news of trips to Annecy and the Campfire – plus a Soho Shorts nomination!
Beakus seeks an enthusiastic, fast working storyboard artist who works straight to Flash and can create an animatic with our Directors instruction.. Plus, we need an experienced script writer. BOTH are for a kids series. Please write to studio@beakus.com with examples of your work. Thanks!
A successful Campfire in Norwich tonight, where Steve Smith presented Beakus’ work, past, present and future, alongside legendary filmmaker Don Boyd. The event launched this years Sunrise online festival, which focusses on NUCA’s graduating students of animation and film, and many were in the audience. Photos and video from Steve’s talk will be online soon…
The fourth installment of our 'Day In The Life' saga, starring time-travelling ten-year-old Eric (voiced by Daniel Roche, 'Outnumbered' 'Just William') is on the BBC's History webpage now! Animated by Tomasso de Sanctis and directed by Steve Smith and Dave Hodgson, we find Eric journeying back to Roman times where he is the son of a tax collector (boo hiss). Eric has to cope with homework-eating pet duck 'Quakus', avoid eating boiled pigs udders, and navigate an over-sized toga, before enduring a long spell of nudity…
Take a look at the movie here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/handsonhistory/day-in-the-life_romans.shtml
A Beakus contingent are in Annecy for the World's largest animation festival. Director Leo Bridle and producer Steve Smith are supporting Matthias Hoegg's short 'Thursday' which has been playing throughout the week to audiences in the Bonlieue. The festival is an opportunity to celebrate animation, network and make new friends… Or pretend you're in Cannes…
We are delighted to announce that Leo Bridle's amazing multimedia film for The Science Museum 'Head Room', all about James Watt's pioneering workshop, has been selected for the Rushes Soho Shorts Festival this year. Competing in the broadcast design award it will play in soho venues on 21st July before going head to head (forgive the pun) at a glitzy ceremony on 25th July for the coveted prize. A true artists reaction to the space, we are proud to see it gaining recognition. Good luck Leo!
http://quicktime.rushes.co.uk/RSSF2011/BroadcastDesign/The_Science_Museum_Headroom.pdf
Screenings are on Thursday 21st July at 6.15pm and 7.30pm in the Deluxe, Soho.
Steve will be presenting Beakus' work at Campfire, the monthly creative chow-down organised by Ditto. He will be showing some selected pieces and discussing animation's past, present and future, before chucking his bean can on the fire.
By the way, the other speaker that night is the legendary film producer Don Boyd, so well worth a look…
To learn more click the link - http://www.ditto.tv/campfire/2011/05/24/don-boyd-steve-smith/.
And here’s an exclusive interview with Steve ahead of the event:
We're so proud of our spanking new Zalman 3D monitor we took this photo… But Matthias got in the way.
Beakus is proud to announce our involvement in the production of a new animated feature film 'A Liar's Autobiography: The True Story of Monty Python's Graham Chapman' all about one of the most creative (and messed up) members of Monty Python.
We will be creating about 9 minutes of the feature – 7 of which will be designed and directed by Matthias Hoegg, and a further 2 minutes by guest director Dan Chester.
It's a mouth-watering and mammoth undertaking, and as if this weren't enough the entire film will be in stereoscopic 3D! Truly mind-bending… We'll update on our progress as we go but in the meantime here's much of the crew from our first creative chin-wag:
Oh, and here's a nugget about Mr.Chapman in case you've been dead for the past 40 years…
"Who is Graham Chapman?? Graham Chapman was one of the members of Monty Python. If you don’t know who Monty are then google them, watch some videos then come back here. Chapman played Brian in ‘The Life of Brian’, was Arthur in ‘The Holy Grail’, and widely lauded as the silly one in the group (it was he that suggested a dead parrot would be funnier that other deceased pets). His life was one of contrary faces. He was a manly sportsman and mountaineer, founding member of the dangerous sports society and the very embodiment of an English Gent. He was also an alcoholic homosexual with a ferocious sexual appetite. He was right there in the public eye though at the same time an utter mystery to those around him. Before his death, Chapman recorded his memoirs in an LA recording studio, and this will provide the narration for our film from beyond the grave."
We were interviewed for Uncle Shriek's World of Idents blog last month.. Take a read here: http://tiny.cc/6u2it
Or, get the gist below:
"Recently my attention was drawn by Matthias Hoegg’s BAFTA nominated film – Thursday, which has already has been screened widely across Europe, Asia and the Americas. So I decided to go to the Beakus animation studio in sunny Wapping to see what was going on.
I was met by Matthias and owner of Beakus, Steve Smith. Although it is a relatively young company – Steve learned his chops at Trunk before he set up on his own.
They showed me their latest commissions for CBeebies – 4 x 60 second spring-themed animations. I advise caution when you are watching them as they are all super cute and you will want to watch them all a few times!
I think one of the reasons they have proved so popular is that the audio consists of children speaking, unscripted, (Creature Comfort’s style) and Matthias has animated some beautiful interpretations of their imagination. He also confided in me that he had been influenced by legendary Russian animator Yuriy Norshteyn – amazing guy, a must for animation fans. Each one took 3-4 weeks to make."
http://mim.io/6a0d01 – Our April newsletter is out now, and includes new work for CBeebies, B&Q, Science Museum, Computer Arts magazine & British Library!
Matthias Hoegg's 'Thursday' was recently picked as 'Short of the Week'! http://www.shortoftheweek.com/2011/04/10/thursday-2/
Here is the fourth of four lovely sequences for CBeebies by Sarah Orenstein. Mia can't wait till Spring, when she can cuddle up to animals on the farm, and play 'pin the snout on the pig' when the farmer's not looking…!
| Director & Designer: Sarah Orenstein |
| Animation: Tomasso de Sanctis & Leo Bridle |
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Gestalten have recently brought out a mammoth volume about modern paper craft, which includes a DVD of films where you'll find Leo Bridle's fantastic 'Train Of Thought'.
There's also work by Rob Ryan, Johnny Kelly and Mikey Please. So, well, go buy it! http://shop.gestalten.com/books/motion-graphics/papercraft-2.html
This month's Computer Arts magazine has a fantastic tutorial from Beakus directors Leo Bridle and Matthias Hoegg for 'Raster Animation', or 'Picket Fence Animation' depending on your perspective!
For the tutorial they worked up a new piece of animation that works only when you drag one part of the image over another.. To view the animation visit: www.beakus.com/raster/astronaut/
And to see their original animation, made for Beakus' 2010 Christmas greetings, visit: www.beakus.com/raster/christmas_2010/
Here are some shots of the article…
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You may have spotted a series of new commercials for B&Q all over the goggle-box? Well, Beakus provided the graphics! They were all animated on a vibrant boil in-house and to a tight deadline, where the director was Steve Smith, and the animator Dan Chester. They were produced for McCann London.
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We've been busy on several projects this month, but none as cute as this: CBeebies Spring animations, 4 x 1'15" directed by Matthias Hoegg and Sarah Orenstein.
The first two are being broadcast, probably as we write, with two more in mid-creation… For us it's almost the perfect project – as the sun finally comes (literally today) we get to apply some fantastic bright illustration to a child's weird and wonderfully creative imaginings.
Brighten your day with Ollie: http://beakus.com/blog/cbeebies-spring-ollie and Eleanor http://beakus.com/blog/cbeebies-spring-eleanor
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We were delighted to see Matthias' film 'Thursday' on the Creative Review blog, following the full film's release on the web via Motionographer this week. Go check out their kind words at http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2011/march/matthias-hoegg-thursday
Or watch 'Thursday' at www.beakus.com/blog/thursday/
Motionographer have posted up a fascinating interview with Matthias Hoegg about 'Thursday' and life after the RCA: http://motionographer.com/2011/03/30/matthias-hoegg-thursday/
For the first time ever, 'Thursday' is also available to watch ONLINE! So get over there… Or, if you're quite at home here, go see it at http://beakus.com/blog/thursday/
A British Library write-up from Televisual:
http://www.televisual.com/news-detail/Childs-play-at-Beakus-_nid-472.html
A great write-up for our Science Museum film 'Head Room' at http://www.kuriositas.com/2011/03/james-watts-workshop.html
"…Glorious animation…"
Beakus turned out in force at Square Art in Golden Square last night! It was a frankly amazing collection of artwork by creatives and artists from the London Advertising scene, and three of our director's prints were among the eclectic selection. Below are some terrible iPhone pics from the night (who said iPhone cameras are hot?) and beyond that the original artwork in case anyone would like to purchase their own – studio@beakus.com
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| Leigh Hodgkinson 'Bear' – A1 Gyclee print – £130 (unframed) | Matthias Hoegg 'Thursday' – A2 gyclee print – £90 (unframed) |
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| Matthias Hoegg 'Thursday' – A2 gyclee print – £90 (unframed) |
Just a reminder that Steve Smith's musing on the immaculate conception 'Eating For Two' is playing at tomorrow's Flatpack Festival in Birmingham as part of a show about birth.! http://www.flatpackfestival.org/event/busy-being-born
The screening is at the Ikon Eastside, 11am Saturday 26th March..
“Suggesting Londoners go to Brum for a weekend doesn’t come naturally. But the Flatpack Festival might make us break the habit of a lifetime.” – Time Out
Just a word to say that Leo Bridle's superlative film for the new 'James Watt and our world' exhibition at the Science Museum is online here: http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/visitmuseum/galleries/watts_workshop.aspx
Go see it, then get down to the fascinating exhibition! Yeah!
We were granted a fantastic peek at the new Science Museum 'Watt and our World' exhibition last night at a launch soiree! Our animation, which will be online very soon is inspired by Watt's belongings donated to the Science Museum in the 1920s, which include the world's first 3D sculpture copying machine, and his famous steam condenser that paved the way for the Industrial Revolution.
Here's a few shots from the night, including the Watt's bust that we digitally recreated in the film…
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We've put our new animated Science Museum project to bed! Leo's work is top drawer. And we can't wait for the launch tomorrow in their hallowed halls.
For the past couple of months director Leo Bridle has been creating a series of nine 40-second animations for the British Library: www.beakus.com/blog/british-library-playtimes/
A major new portal on their website, 'Playtimes: A Century of Children's Games and Rhymes', launched a few days back by Michael Rosen, aims to preserve children’s games and songs as an important aspect of our national culture and explore how they continue to be a part of the lives of children living in the age of computer games and the internet. Leo's animations form the backbone to the new web portal, illustrating all the different types of games children play.
Leo held workshops at two schools, in London and Sheffield, to brainstorm the content for the nine films, and create the artwork and soundtracks. Back in the studio we animated the kids drawings to bring their stories to life over a ten week period. To watch the nine films in full, visit http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/playground/kidszone.html.
Congratulations to Matthias Hoegg for the inclusion of 'Thursday' in this year's Annecy festival!
See the full list here: http://www.annecy.org/annecy-2011/festival/official-selection
Following the BAFTA nomination this really cements the film's credentials. If you'd like to see the film in full, drop us a line: studio@beakus.com
Here's a couple of audience pov shots from the BAFTA talk and screening, attended by all three short-listed animators, including our very own Matthias Hoegg. Sorry about the phone-quality images…
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Here's a few work-in-progress shots from the studio. There's been a flurry of activity, with lots of fantastic new work taking shape..!
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Our packed March newsletter has gone out in to the World… Featuring news of our ace new director, Sarah Orenstein, plus Matthias' near miss at the BAFTA's and a new episode of Eric for BBC History. You can have a read here: http://mim.io/a1d7e
Leo Bridle and Ben Thomas' short 'Train Of Thought' has been winning awards all over the World. Latest additions to the awards cabinet includes Best Animation for 19-25 year olds at the BFI Future Film Awards, and 1st Prize at the Kyoto International Student Film and Video Festival in Japan! Congratulations to them both. Below are the awards themselves, plus some revealing judges comments from Kyoto…
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Mr. AIUCHI, Keiji
The idea of the woman in the book and the real scene (on the platform of the station) meeting each other is a simple one, but the execution, of the train rushing towards the next station over its line constantly going strait forward, is quite successful. The presentation of the platform before departure and of the people intermingling is carefully produced and makes the movie more profound. The scene where the train sheds its walls and ceiling gives a right sense of surprise in the monotony and is a clever presentation to increase tension. Also the relation between the alternating images, of the actual props, which invoke a sense of substance, and shots which where printed out as photographs and re-filmed, where highly enjoyable.
Ms. ANDO, Momoko
The movie is produced by going back to the basics of animation, it is made by simple materials and uses the white of the paper without using any other colors, from which I got a refreshing impression. There is a consistency in the world, produced whilst avoiding doing anything unnecessary, so it does not feel self assertive and the scene of the sketch and the hand gives it something humane. It succeeds in showing something fun with just simple elements and I believe it is an universal and timeless work.
Mr. KITAKOJI, Takashi
One could say that this is another example which reminds us of the validity of the ordinary scene taken by the Lumière brothers, “L'arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat”, being repeatedly regarded as “the origin of cinema”. Movies are always a “Train of Thought”. Including the movements of characters, which seems to be an alternation on sequence photographs like that of Eadweard J. Muybridge and Étienne-Jules Marey, and other references to the origin of cinema, fulfills the intellectual aim of the movie and is backed up by excellent craftsmanship. The rail also implies film, and the changing scenery seen from the window of the train is a film within itself.
Since being nominated for this year's BAFTA, Matthias has been speaking out all around town, and the latest interview is for new animation blog 'The Dope Sheet'.
Congratulations to Ryan for setting the site up, and for choosing to open with in-depth interviews with the three RCA nominees – talk about starting at the top!
Here's a snippet (or click here to see the post):
At 27, Matthias Hoegg is the eldest of this year’s three short animation BAFTA nominated filmmakers. Let this be a reminder for those of us a bit older, it’s time to up our game. Art foundation lured Matthias from Munich in 2003 and, having fallen in love with the Kingston University Illustration and Animation course, decided to stay on. He is another 2010 graduate of the Royal College of Art, and his two films made at the college – August, and the BAFTA nominated Thursday – have been screened widely across Europe, Asia and the Americas.
Someone with such a clear pedigree must have had no trouble getting a place at the RCA, right? “Actually, I spent a long time labouring over my portfolio and slipped into the trap of reading ideas into my old work that weren’t really there when I created it. I thought that for an MA course, I had to make the work seem more profound rather than letting it speak for itself. So I ended up on the waiting list for the course, but got on when someone else dropped off.”
We don’t hear this side of the story much, and is very refreshing to know. With competition for these places so fierce, it’s no wonder applicants sweat it. But for good reason: “I think the beauty and difficulty of the course at the RCA is it’s very self-directed.” A sentiment echoed by other graduates and tutors. Apart from set workshops and deadlines, much of the production schedule is down to the individual, and it’s easy to get lost. “The best part of my RCA experience was being surrounded by a group of incredibly talented filmmakers who were always up for giving support and feedback.”
BAFTA nominated director Matthias Hoegg speaks to Directors Notes about his animation career and short 'Thursday' – http://www.directorsnotes.com/2011/02/19
Steve Smith's retelling of the nativity 'Eating For Two' is being screened at this year's Flatpack Festival in Birmingham, from 11am on 26th March 2011.
The film, originally made for the Channel 4 'AIR' scheme (where the animator develops their film inside a glass booth on London's Southbank) the film has been screened at countless festivals around the World. It follows the story of Joe and Mary, chip shop owners on England's south coast, as they deal with a surprise pregnancy during a particularly divine storm. Voiced by Timothy Spall and with music by Martin Jacques (Tigerlillies) it's a memorable film, so go see it in Birmingham!
Eric is featured on the BBC's front page again today www.bbc.co.uk! The new episode 'Stone Age' can be seen here.
We've posted up a fantastic new studio reel, at the top of our home page…
It's got work by our directors swung to a hot beat, including Matthias Hoegg's BAFTA nominated 'Thursday', Leo Bridle's 'Sherie Oh', Leigh Hodgkinson's 'Smile!' and Steve Smith's 'Google'.
Plus, if you look carefully you'll get a sneak preview of a brand new director's work…… More on that soon. Enjoy!
Everyone's favourite time-travelling square-jawed kid Eric is back, this time way back in Stone Age England… Beakus' third outing with Eric for BBC History is online now at http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/handsonhistory/day-in-the-life_ancient_britain.shtml
In this episode Eric's whole family goes with him, including his unfortunate sister 'Bird Poo'… Together they travel by dugout boat to the winter camp, and Eric gets to show off his dubious hunting skills to petrified rodents!
Ah, seems like only yesterday…
Beakus is thrilled to hear that our amazing director Matthias Hoegg has been nominated for a BAFTA this year in the Animated Film category… His graphic film 'Thursday', set in a not-too-distant future, is competing against fellow RCA graduates David Prosser and Mikey Please. If you want to see the film's trailer, trip over to www.beakus.com/blog/thursday-trailer/, or contact us for a sneak at the full film.
Good luck Matthias!
Leo's 'Train Of Thought' was selected for the front page of Vimeo on Boxing Day, and quickly racked up over 72,000 hits and an admirable 1130 'likes'!
Here's a selection of comments left by adoring fans:
An inspiring film. I love it as much for the cinematic ingenuity as for the beautiful story-telling. I'll be sure to return to this. Well done!
just wonderful, I love the whole feel, especially the transitions from the 'real' world to the 'imaginary' world, so lovely.
amazing piece of art!
waoaoaoeoeaaeeeuuuuhhh! congratulations! ! ! ! ! !! ! ! ! im going o watch it again, I NEED IT!!!!!! beautifullíssimoo!!!!!!!!!!
Real nice, very very very nice, wow what a lot of work did you people invest on getting this amazing movie made … Respect!
impressive combination of techniques, inspiring.
To clock up yet more views go to http://vimeo.com/15263537
A quick post to wish everyone happening upon Beakus today a Happy New Year!
Let's hope 2011 is a healthy, happy time. We've been busy right through the Christmas break, with 3 new projects on the go, so the outlook is bright… Stick around…!
In the meantime, here's a print and fold angel our director Leigh Hodgkinson created…
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New design work from Matthias Hoegg – the album cover for CUTOFF!CUTOFF! EP 'Sing'…
A resounding success last night for the Happiness Show Private View! A plethora of guests, booze and nice comments directed at the artwork means smiles all round at Beakus this morning. Here are some snaps from the night…!
Thanks to all who came along… Remember the exhibition is running for the next two weeks or so at the Print House Gallery in Dalston – and all the prints are available for sale (ours have a limited run of 30 prints) so please get in touch if you'd like to purchase: studio@beakus.com
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Shout out for the Show: http://www.designweek.co.uk/home/blog/happiness-at-work/3019732.article
The final list of artists participating in the Happiness At Work Show from 29th October to 15th November is revealed:
Beakus, Nigel Barber, Sarah Horne, Sandra Howgate, Simone Lia, Bjarne Nørum, Fumio Obata, Christopher Parkes, Catell Ronca, and Harriet Russell.
More details here: www.beakus.com/blog/happiness-show
'Train Of Thought' has picked up an award at Georgia's TOFUZI 2010: Best International Student Film!
Congratulations to Leo Bridle and Ben Thomas! A truly deserved award. If you haven't seen the film yet check it out here: www.beakus.com/blog/train-of-thought
Matthias Hoegg takes right-of-place within the hallowed pages of File Magazine.. the artists mag of choice.
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We are proud to be playing our part in a new exhibition of artwork by the many creative folks who have resided at our Happiness At Work studios in East London. It's an opportunity to bring together a wealth of talent under one roof who have been inspired by the locale and working amongst other artistic disciplines. The fantastic Print House Gallery in Deptford will host the show which runs from Friday 29th October to Sunday 15th November.
Beakus directors will be showing their design work with A2 and A1 prints, plus a looping reel of our film work. Other artists showing include Harriet Russell and Sarah Horne.
All the details are on the jpeg below – and if you think you deserve to be at the Private View (on 28th October) drop us a line at studio@beakus.com and we'll see what we can do!
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Nice to be up there on the Televisual site, with a breakdown of our National Maritime Museum work…
"Here's three animated films that admirably show how to convey a lot of complex information in a very clear, informative and entertaining way…" http://www.televisual.com/blog-detail/Animating-a-Maritime-mission_bid-165.html
Congratulations to Matthias Hoegg for picking up the Technical Achievement Award at this year's Anifest in Caterbury, for his recent film 'Thursday'.
Leo's busy on new stop-motion work…
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We can finally come clean about a fantastic new series of films we've created for the National Maritime Museum's 'Old Weather' project.
The idea is to crowdsource members of the public to transcribe thousands of pages of ship's logs. The data will help to fill in gaps in our understanding of what the weather was like in the previous two centuries, and thereby help scientists to understand and predict what the weather will do in the future. Computers have failed to read the pages of hand-written script, but humans can interpret and transcribe the delicate type… given enough of them…
So we were asked by Mike Paterson to create three bespoke animated movies about different aspects of the process. We used a variety of techniques, 3D with motion-tracking and 2D motion graphics. Watch the movies on the following links:
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| http://beakus.com/blog/nmm-weather-reconstructions/ | http://beakus.com/blog/nmm-crowdsourcing/ | http://beakus.com/blog/nmm-sea-observations/ |
For more info on the project follow this link: http://www.oldweather.org/why_scientists_need_you
Leo's film 'Train Of Thought' is taking part in the fabulous 'Red Stick' festival in the superbly named Baton Rouge, Louisiana (10-13 November).
A competitive affair where the public first choose a shortlist, and then animation professionals whittle it down further, 'Train Of Thought' is now in the last three for the 'Best Student Film' award. Good luck Leo!
Did you see it? Did you? What's the matter? Don't you watch it? Oh… Well… Last night's Watchdog (BBC1, 8pm) had some little pieces of animation by Leigh Hodgkinson and Matthias Hoegg. But it's OK, you can watch it here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00v2nf4/Watchdog_30_09_2010/
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Congratulations to both Leo and Matthias for getting their films in to the fabulous Encounters Festival in Bristol. Beakus are planning to descend upon the city like a flash mob. You have been warned.
One of the numerous benefits of working in to the night….
Bravo to Callum Cooper for creating this timelapse over 6-months of Matthias Hoegg at work on his latest film 'Thursday'. To be honest he barely moves, but that's dedication for you!
Welcome to our August newsletter…! Beakus was a busy bee last month, completing the first of a series of new animations for the BBC – 'Day In The Life'.
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Starring Eric, a 10-year-old animated boy who can travel back in time, 'Day In The Life' was created to accompany a major new BBC series ‘Hands On History’. The animations will encourage kids to find out more about historical periods through the BBC’s website.
The first episode, ‘The Normans’, was directed by Dave Hodgson at Pesky, and animated and designed by Steve Smith at Beakus. As a Norman boy Eric drinks beer for breakfast and poos in the castle moat…. He then juggles an array of fighting implements before serving wine at a banquet.
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Eric is voiced by the talented Daniel Roche, from ‘Outnumbered’, whose idiosyncratic delivery helped to develop Eric’s character.
You can watch this first episode at http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/handsonhistory/day-in-the-life.shtml. The BBC rate it pretty highly, as the other day it featured at the top of their website!
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Lots more to come next month, but until then, have a great Summer!
Leo recently created this illustration for Exchange magazine, a wide-circulation newsletter for NCVYS that makes it’s way to youth organisations throughout the UK.
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Leo Bridle's 'Train of Thought' is battling it out for the Virgin Media Shorts competition. If short-listed it'll be screened on 35mm before selected features! The Virgin peeps seem to think it's top-drawer:
"Stunning work. Set in a world made of paper, a man’s sketches come to life during a train journey. The incredibly intricate animation is complimented by some beautiful music and a storyline that wonderfully essays romantic longing."
Visit http://www.virginmediashorts.co.uk/films/entry/342821/train-of-thought to rate the film yourself.
This week 'August' by Matthias Hoegg is screening on Cartoon Brew TV:
http://www.cartoonbrew.com/brewtv/august.html#comment-552740.
There's a nice write-up and interview too:
Continuing our Student Animation Festival, we’re proud to present August created by Matthias Hoegg at the Royal College of Art. He has created that rare student film which manages to be stylish not just visually but also through its unconventional and layered approach to storytelling. Shoot questions and comments to Matthias in the comment thread below. Here are Matthias’s notes about his film:
I made my film August whilst on my two year Masters course in Animation at the Royal College of Art in London. I started the course with a loose idea for a film based around a Japanese fable, “The Dream of Akinosuke”. In the fable a wealthy landowner takes an afternoon nap in the shade of a big tree during a picnic with friends. He has an epic dream in which he’s married to the princess of a remote island empire for several years. When he awakes shortly after his friends tell him that a yellow butterfly, a symbol of the soul, appeared to have come out of his mouth when he was sleeping before being grabbed by an ant and dragged underground. Digging open the ants nest the men uncover an entire ant kingdom, in which Akinosuke immediately recognizes a model version of the island kingdom from his dream.
I was really intrigued by the fable’s blend of metaphor and natural reality. So the starting point for my film was really to use a colony of ants activities to reflect the internal process of a human character’s mind. Looking for a more contemporary setting that would involve ants I remembered my first awkward attempts at having a holiday of my own with friends as a teenager. After making a complete tip of our campsite we had to keep moving our tent onto different spots so that the ants that we attracted wouldn’t catch up with us. Perhaps I should mention here that I am originally from Munich, Germany and if you have ever been to a German-style campsite you may have witnessed campers dedicating their entire holiday to tidying and keeping a perfect order in the great outdoors. We were clearly the weakest link in that community. In August I wanted to use the ants to create anticipation and a sense of adventure that the boys are looking for in their holiday, when in fact they fail to realize any of it on a human scale.
I started storyboarding the film in late 2008 and had finished it by early June 2009. All elements of the film were drawn digitally and then animated in a cut-out style. I enjoyed working with the constraints of the cut-out approach and the sense of awkwardness it evoked in the characters. My friend the 3D modeler Mattias Bjurstom got on board with this project and he created the 3D set for the film based on a cardboard model of a camper van and various textures that I provided him with. Most recently I have put the final touches on my graduation film at the RCA. It is called Thursday and it follows two characters through and out of the repeating patterns of everyday life, but in a future world. Its style is more simplified and graphic, using a range of patterns that were created in 2D and 3D to evoke the dazzling futuristic world that the characters inhabit. I am represented by Beakus in London, a new animation studio started by Bafta-award winner and Trunk founder Steve Smith.
Matthias Hoegg and Leo Bridle are featured in SohoSoHo's news this week! Go read it here: http://www.sohosoho.tv/news.pl?news_id=231
Our July Newsletter is out, running around the interweb like a headless chicken. Here it is in brief:
This month we’re proud to present Matthias Hoegg’s new film ‘Thursday’. It’s a beautifully composed story that takes place in the near future where a technologically-managed world can’t prevent real humans from getting together. Designed in mesmerising digital patternation with stylish animation and sound, ‘Thursday’ is a fine complement to Hoegg’s previous short ‘August’. You can watch the trailer by clicking the image below, and if you’d like to see the whole film just get in touch…!
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In the studio this month we’ve been animating tattoos and that little boy who travels back in time for the BBC.. We’ve also re-discovered a neat typographic viral about ‘Nudism’ by Leo Bridle. Taking text from the excellent advice on wikiHow.com it's an indispensible guide to 'getting away with it'…Watch by clicking on the image below:
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Remember – give us a call if you’d like to see Matthias Hoegg’s short ‘Thursday’ in it’s entirety. We’re sure it’s going to grab a lot of attention and we wouldn’t want you to miss out!
Until next month….
We have made a bespoke reel for our broadcast animation work for kids!
[video src_mp4="http://beakus.com/mp4/reels/littlebeak_reel.mp4"; width=800 height=450 poster="http://beakus.com/stills/reels/littlebeak_reel.jpg"]
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A quick mention to The Reel who made Leo their 'One To Watch' in May (PDF here)! Leo follows fellow Beakus director Matthias Hoegg, who was their 'chosen one' back in May (PDF here). Well done guys..!
Leo is also off to Annecy this week to support his amazing short 'Train Of Thought>' in the graduation films competition! See below for a list of screening times and locations. And of course, do say hi to Leo if you see him – he might even hold some brand new Beakus reels upon his person..!
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FE1/191 FE1/192 FE1/193 FE1/194 |
Tuesday 8th June, 11pm Wednesday 9th June, 2pm Thursday 10th June, 9pm Friday 11th June, 4pm |
Grande Salle, Bonlieu Salle 2, Decavision Salle Pierre Lamy Petite Salle, Bonlieue |
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And don't forget Steve Smith's 'Leap of Faith' is also screening as one of 50 films chosen to illustrate the history of animation! 'Don't Blink!' is being shown at the following times:
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Tuesday 8th June, 9pm Wednesday 9th June, 9pm Friday 11th June, 6pm |
La Turbine Salle 2, Decavision Petite Salle, Bonlieue |
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Leo Bridle's fantastic 'Train of Thought' has just been awarded a special jury mention at the Czech Republic's 'AniFest' celebration. It will also be screened at this year's Anima Mundi in Brazil…
Looks like there's plenty of stations left on this train's whistlestop tour of the planet!
Well done No Fat Clips! They've beaten us to our own scoop…! Leo Bridle's spot for the Dorito's contest 'Love Triangle' is available to watch online, at http://dekku.nofatclips.com/2010/05/doritos-love-triangles.html. We'll get it up here soon.. It's a short slice of food fetish, enacted by a pot of sauce and some fried crisps, shot in stop-motion and live-action by Leo last month. Enjoy – and eat up!
SCRUB THAT – it's on our site here: www.beakus.com/blog/doritos-sharing-feels-good
It's not every day your work is shown next to the likes of Jan Svankmajer, Norman McLaren, Oskar Fischinger and the Brothers Quay… But Steve Smith's excellent short 'Leap Of Faith' is taking it's rightful place amongst these big-hitters in a special programme in the Annecy International Animation Festival this year. To celebrate it's 50th anniversary Marcel Jean has compiled a programme titled: 'Don't Blink! The History of Animation in 50 very short films'.
Screening dates are:
8th June, La Turbine, 9pm
9th June, Decavision 2, 9pm
11th June, Bonlieue Petite Salle, 6pm
To discover more, click http://www.annecy.org/annecy-2010/festival/programmes:201042
Congratulations to Matthias Hoegg for the inclusion of 'August' in the inaugural Cartoon Brew TV Student Film Festival!
Exclusive online screenings will take place on www.cartoonbrew.com from 17th May.
This tops a good festival circuit for Matthias, whose latest film (also his graduation film from the Royal College of Art) is due to be released later this month.
To read about the festival, click: http://www.cartoonbrew.com/shorts/official-selections-for-cartoon-brew-tvs-student-animation-fest.html
Beakus is delighted to welcome the fantastic Leo Bridle to it's ranks for director representation in the UK.
Leo is a young but incredibly talented and ambitious director whose work has already made a big impact – a million views on You Tube can't be a fluke, right? Even before graduating from the Arts University College Bournemouth with his beautifully crafted short 'Train of Thought', Leo had created the multi-faceted promo for Emily Loizeau 'Je Suis Jalouse', a viral sensation 'Web 2.0' for 'The First Post', and the short 'Still Life with Flowers'.
'Train of Thought' went on to feature in over 25 festivals worldwide, not least the British Animation Awards and the London Short Film Festival. In a few weeks time it'll be competing in Europe's premiere animation competition, Annecy International Animation Festival. Using a highly delicate stop-motion technique that combines paper cut-outs and photographic prints, the film certainly carves a niche of it's own, and you can watch it right here.
So Beakus are thrilled to sign Leo up, and we can't wait to set him down to work…
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Big apologies to all who've tried to watch our work on this site recently.. We were the unwilling recipient of some large-scale phishing, leading to the site being temporarily suspended, after which we discovered none of our movies played!?
Don't you just love the web, and all the splendid hackers out there just itching to make your life a misery?
Well, we're up-and-running again – all except those who browse in Google Chrome, who might find their movies are just a white blob… Sorry, and yep, we're working on it.
Try Firefox instead..?
Beakus is getting a lot of attention in the blogosphere, naturally… Here's a pick of the reviews:
http://dekku.nofatclips.com/2010/04/beakus-galore.html
http://www.animationblog.org/2010/03/steve-smith-bluna-beakus-stuffed-mtv.html
http://coldhardflash.com/2010/03/beakus-breaks-out-with-bbc-series-stuffed.html
http://dekku.nofatclips.com/2010/04/psapp-side-dish.html
http://motionographer.com/2010/03/03/new-animation-studio-beakus/
http://www.directorsnotes.com/2010/03/08/a-new-animation-studio-beakus/
http://www.cpluv.com/generic/mainitem/34767
http://dekku.nofatclips.com/2010/04/steve-smith-leap-of-faith.html
http://lineboil.com/tag/beakus/
Also in the press is an article Steve Smith wrote for Design Week about what inspires him each and every day. If you subscribe to Design Week you can read the article online at http://www.designweek.co.uk/inspired-steve-smith-beakus/3011278.article, but if you don't we'll be posting it up here quite soon for your delictation!
A quickie, as we're knee deep in boxes, but Beakus are settling in to our new studio! Just a stones throw from St.Katherine's Wharf, near the Tower of London, and in a converted pub, the studio will house our productions and directors.
Run by the lovely 'Happiness at Work' and also home to a plethora of talented illustrators, the studio sits above a very nice cafe 'The Turks Head' and is a lovely walk along the river from Tower Bridge.. Need any more excuses to come visit?!
Beakus director Steve Smith's anarchic comedy 'Stuffed' has launched on BBC Comedy Extra. The first of five episodes is ready to view, so we recommend you go see it now here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/extra/video/p0070lb6
Or, if you're lazy, you can watch the first episode 'Lady Bear Bear' below, but do please give it a rating (5 stars is a good round figure) so the BBC know you liked it.
The synopsis for 'Lady Bear Bear' reads - Brat brings a new playmate into The Shed – the voluptuous Lady Bear Bear. The woman is quite literally filth on a stick, but somehow projects that beautiful innocence only found in the eyes of your new puppy as it defecates in your favourite slippers. Bear is of course thrilled with this coquettish addition to the shed, and turns on a bit of special. Personally, having met Bear, I find he has the charm of a damp tweed suit, but perhaps when he switches it on, he turns flip mode squad and hooches like the best of us. Well that is unless Brat has his wicked way.
Amazing new work from Bluna this week..! Three idents for MTV (Argentina) made entirely in 3D around the themes of Friendship, Fun and Dreams. They're a colourful, neon-lit smorgasbord of adventure, with cute characters and surreal environments to explore…
Watch them here.
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A new range of cards – if Beakus bumps in to you, nab one…
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This had been buzzing around. So we burnt it's eye off…
Just spotted something on Hear No Evil about a competition being run by Sesame Street. It brings us back to the argument against 'Live Music', whereby animated in their scores (pun intended) rushed to animate scenes of a feature film in the hope theirs was chosen, for which they received a small sum of cash and a 'prize'.. Imagine X-Factor for animators…. Well.. Seems everyone wants something for nothing. Here's the open letter, and follow this link to join the debate: dear sesame street
Dear Sesame Street,
We, the undersigned, would like to register our concern over the contest you are now conducting with Aniboom. We are concerned that your contest includes a solicitation of original design concepts, characters and content to be produced on a speculative basis by cartoonists, artists, motion designers and animators.
This approach, requesting new and original work to be created in competition, is one that we believe seriously compromises the quality of work that is entered into “competition” and is questionable, at best, for a reputable organization to request.
Sesame Street has long been a highly esteemed provider of educational programming for children. From its inception, it has shown respect and support for the independent animation, film, and design communities. Artists have responded by creating lasting work – that is as valuable for children and adults today as when it was first created. We applaud that work, and hope that Sesame Street will continue to push the fields of animation and film-making. As such, we also think that Sesame Street should uphold the ethics and professional behavior we’d like our own children to grow up with. Is the education we want to pass on to them that artists’ and animators’ work is not valuable? That the only way to ‘make it’ is through winning a contest?
There is a more appropriate way to explore the work of various artists. A more effective and ethical approach to commission new work is to ask a pool of talent to submit examples of their work from previous assignments as well as a statement of how they would approach your project. You can then judge the quality of the artist’s previous work and her way of thinking about your project. The artist you select can then begin to work on your project by designing an original solution to your criteria while under contract to you, without having to work on speculation up front.
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We're on the front page of Motionographer! Well… our logo is… but click through and maybe the points will add up and we can get that job lot of iPads we've been coverting..? thanks Motionographer.!
Beakus director Steve Smith has just put finishing touches to a new mini-series of 'Stuffed', his dark comedy for 'just older than kids', commissioned by BBC Comedy. The series will air exclusively on BBC's comedy website from February.
Smith created 5 sadistic, yet hilarious scripts which were animated by a small team at Trunk. Voiced by Simon Greenall (Alan Partridge, CompareTheMeerkat.com) the sharp, acidic tales take the dastardly red-headed boy and his put-upon Bear in to sickly uncharted territory!
Check back soon for release information.
Steve Smith will be popping along to the NFTS show at the BFI on Friday 26th Feb to get a ganders at the new crop of directors facing up to life outside of the college bubble. He's very much looking forward to it – and if you spot him do say hello?!
Spreading our wings on the hinterweb we've signed up to Facebook and Twitter. Click the logos below to pay them a visit.
Ooh, and don't forget you can sign up to our RSS feeds (giving you all our new postings as they happen) using the link 'Subscribe to Beakus News' at the bottom of the page.
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Beakus is delighted to sign up soon-to-graduate Royal College of Art MA student, and all-round lovely guy, Matthias Hoegg. We'll be shouting about Hoegg alot over the forthcoming months as he takes his first steps in to the limelight, shepherded by Beakus' producer Steve Smith. Have a look at his first-year RCA film 'August', which is full of a beautiful melancholia. Hoegg specialises in seamlessly mixing 2D and 3D, and is keen to stretch himself through working on music videos and commercials. Drop a line to studio@beakus.com if you'd like to hear more about Hoegg.
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Hello, and welcome to Beakus!
We're a brand new animation production company based in London.
Although we're new, our team has amassed over 20 years experience between them in the field of animation production.
Here are a few things we most definately do:
Animation is a complex thing. Just so we're all absolutely sure, we can create animation in:
Our mission is to keep pushing back the boundries of what animation can do in this digital era. We want to surprise, wow and impress through a steady focus on strong design, inventive creativity, emotive and affecting characterisation, and the highest production standards.
Take a look around and see what we can do for you…
Subscribe to Beakus News (RSS) / studio@beakus.com / Beakus' website runs on 100% wind power
