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..!
Does the mother-in-law have a pattern? I would love to get my mum to make one. Maybe she could adapt it to make Super Numtum!
Hi there, can I buy one of your stuffed numtums?!
Can you please advise when the numtum toys will be available to purchase. My 22 month old son loves numtums and won't watch anything else. Its his birthday soon and I would love to be able to buy him one.
My wife and I just saw a note on your website about the lovely Numtum stuffed toys and wanted to ask how (or more importantly, if) we could get one made for our Numtum-mad little boy, Dexter? He's a massive fan of the show and gets incredibly excited when it's on – especially when Super Numtum makes an appearance. And it's Super Numtum that we would love to get for him, if at all possible. I can only imagine you're inundated with requests and poor Lorraine is being worked to death – but if I didn't ask I'd never forgive myself. Please let me know what we can do, if anything, to help bribe you all.
How much would it be to buy a numtum number two?
Could you please advise me if and where i can buy Numtum toys, my 18 month old son loves the numtum programme.
These are fab my daughter loves numtums. Will these be available to buy?
We love numtums and want toys..
I'd be interested in buying some numtum toys if possibile as my two year old son is mad about the numtums :)
My children and I are huge fans of the Numtums. Congratulations on creating such a fantastic show. I think that the Numtum toy that Lorraine made are wonderful, and I was wondering if there were any plans for more Numtum toys in the pipeline? Would it be possible to commission Lorraine to make two more, and how much would that cost?
Hello. Please tell me if you're going to sell Numtums toys… My daughter is absolutely nuts for them! If you are planning to put them into production, please put something online.. I personally know at least 10 kids who'd go mad for a whole set!
Hello, I am wondering if I can purchase a Numtums felt soft toy from your fantastic childrens programme. I am hoping you can give me more information as to were I can find one!
I saw in your blog that you're starting to produce Numtums soft toys – do you know where and when they'll be available as my daughter Grace is obsessed with them (and it's her birthday next Friday 27th – she'd love me if I could get her one!)
hi my son is 3 and loves numbers an so loves the numtums, he is fixed on the games on cbeebies website and the program i have entered in to google for toys an book as little figures would make great a great counting aid, but all ive found are your fantastic stuffed toys and wondered if i could buy oneor maybe two or even more so he has 1 to10 his fave numtum is 10 so thats what we'd start with
hi there where can i buy a numtum number 2 please my daughter loves this?
Would love to purchase the Numtum plush toy/range if possible for my little boy, he loves that programme and it will aid with his number learning as he learns more, visually.
Desperate parent here??? Are you making or know anywhere that sells Numtum teddies……You'd make a fortune if like my little girl they want all 10 teddies!! Please let me know your plans ….Thank you.
I was searching online to find when a Numtums dvd may be due for release and was directed to your site as a point of information….are you able to tell me when this may be released as am very keen to buy a copy asap for my little daughter!
my daughter s 4th birthday is on the 16th and she absolutely fell in love with the numtum characters! any chance of purchasing one of the soft toys?
I read an article saying you had a go at making the Numtums toys. Just wondered…. can I buy any anywhere?
My little boy of 7 adores them and his younger brother is learning all the numbers at the age of 3. Please help.
My two year old daughter has been addicted since the first airing and can now recognise all her numbers and count to ten. Even when Numtums isn't on the tv, she is asking to watch it on the BBC I player.
Are the any plans for any merchandise, as she would love a number 5 teddy? Thank you so much again, keep up the good work!!!
My daughter and I love the show, the animation, the music the content is just fantastic. We would really love to get some numtum toys. Where could we purchase them from and how much are they?
My daughter has just turned two and is beginning to learn her numbers (she can count to thirteen as that is the number of stairs we have!). She loves cbeebies and we have been watching Numtums – will you be making more of the delightful felt dolls for retail in the future? Also, can I suggest a set of little plastic figures with the numbers so small kids can use them to count as I think they would sell really well.
Are there any sets of ten soft by tum toys? I would love to get some for my 2 year old daughter …..
Will there be toys available to buy, and if so when? They would make my daughter very happy indeed!
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'.
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.
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!
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.
Google
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'!
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…
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.
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)."
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/
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."
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.
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!
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…
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/
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.
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!
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.
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."
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)…
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.!
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!)
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)
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..!
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…
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…
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.!
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 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.!
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…
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…'.
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…
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.
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.
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…
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…
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!
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…
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!
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…!
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'.
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/
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.
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.
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/
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
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
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…
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.
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…
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…
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!
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.”
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!
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!
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!
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.
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…
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
'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
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!
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:
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!
We recently completed work on a new viral for Google, and the TrueView Instream advertising product. Working with the talented Ross Phillips on design and animation, the viral explains why TrueView is so important for advertisers, and us.
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:
Welcome to our September newsletter! As Summer draws the shutters we're happily holed up in our studio continuing to make top-notch animation… Several projects were delivered this month including some clever tattoo animation for a lustful Durex commercial, two virals for a big finance company, and two pieces for the BBC's Rogue Traders, the first of which is on Watchdog, Thursday 30th September, at 8pm on BBC1.
Also fresh out is a brand new episode of 'Day In The Life' for BBC History. 'Evacuee' stars our 10-year-old animated boy Eric, voiced by Daniel Roche (Outnumbered), who travels back in time to WWII. Eric deals with being sent off to the countryside, rationing, a spot of pig farming, and avoiding those pesky Messerchmidts…
The series was created to accompany a major new BBC series ‘Hands On History’ and the animations encourage kids to find out more about historical periods through the BBC’s website. 'Evacuee' was co-directed by Steve Smith at Beakus and Dave Hodgson at Pesky, with the animation being made here in the Beakus studio. To watch the animation click on the link or the image below:
Our directors have been busy as usual and are contributing artwork to an exhibition at The Print House Gallery in Dalston, running for a month from 15th October. Featuring artists and designers who've frequented our lovely host-studio 'Happiness at Work' it promises to be a fascinating and diverse collection.
Leigh Hodgkinson is celebrating the release of TWO new picture books this month! 'Limelight Larry'is about a show-off peacock, who wishes his book was reserved just for him… Also out is 'Scrummy!'- about a little girl called Sunny McCloud and her unique, sandwich-filling family. Check out the review of 'Limelight Larry'here, or go buy him here and 'Scrummy!'here! You can also watch animation Leigh made to accompany these books here or visit her blog at leighhodgkinson.blogspot.com
Beakus directors are also currently travelling the globe with their films – Bristol's 'Encounters' Festival (starting on 16th November) is screening both 'Train of Thought' and 'Thursday'. Leo's film is also hot-footing it to Kyoto (after an amazing festival in Hiroshima earlier this month), and to Bradford.
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.
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'.
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.
Eric is voiced by the talented Daniel Roche, from ‘Outnumbered’, whose idiosyncratic delivery helped to develop Eric’s character.
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.
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."
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.
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…!
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:
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!
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..!
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
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:
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!
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'.
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.
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…
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.
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…
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.
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!
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.
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.
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:
We produce top-notch entertaining and eye-popping motion graphics and animation for the media industry!
We work in Commercials
And in Titles
Idents
We make bespoke broadcast animation for Channels and Production Companies
We create music videos!
We develop shorts for adults and content for kids
We are also adept at creating comedy series and one-offs
And we can create animation of all kinds for the web
Animation is a complex thing. Just so we're all absolutely sure, we can create animation in:
High-end or lo-fi Digital 3D
Digital or Hand-Drawn 2D
Puppet or Stop-Motion
Cut-Out
Sand
Pixillation
Hand-Drawn
Post-Effected
… and even combine all that with live-action!
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…
