HAPPY HALLOWEEN...

Happy Halloween blog viewers...

GK

MTV - SONY VIDEO WALKMAN

A few months ago we completed a promo spot for MTV celebrating the release of the Sony Video Walkman, a video player so small you need a magnifying glass to see stuff! Personally we prefer a 120" Plazma screen HDTV with a cinema surround sound system. Somehow I don't see how you'd carry all that lot without falling over or getting robbed!

The spot shows an 'urban fellow' strutting through his streets listening to his music and watching his favourite videos, every time he changes a track a bubble pops out of the Walkman, inside that bubble are his memories, the places he was when he first heard the track.

We had fun working on the spot and it was a good chance to do something a little different visually. Above are the concept backgrounds that were produced in different mood colours. The client loved 'em so much they wanted to use them in the actual spot - good for us cause we didn't have to remake anything!

The spot will be available on GreyKid's new website which launches very soon.

GK

HOORAR FOR NICKTOONS!

It"s good to know theres a network you can take an idea to, no matter how small, pitch it and have it given a budget and a schedule.

NickToons UK have just comissioned one of our ideas, given it a workable budget and the creative space to see if we can make it 'grow'.

We can't really so too much about it at the moment (other than thanks a lot!) but rest assured, once things start rolling this will be the first place we speak about it.

GK

BACKGROUND ART 01

Just a quick one.

Thought we'd upload a piece of background art without the animation - sometimes that stuff just gets in the way!

Enjoy!

GK

TEA TIME ON NICKTOONS

Currently on air in the UK on NickToons are seven bumpers that we produced for the segment called 'Tea Time on NickToons"

The bumpers advertise various toys and game products from Rubik's Cube to a set of Horrid Practical Jokes (whoopee cushions ahoy!). The main character in the bumpers is a waiter who gets into various situations as he tries to take a customers order. Above are sketches from the design phase right up until the digital asset building. The bumpers were produced entirely within E-Frontiers Anime Studio Pro (Moho to us old school folks!).

We worked very closely with the guys over at Nickelodeon UK to get a style that resemble a hand drawn, scribble 70's look. It was a great project to be involved in - we had a riot animating the waiter being electrocuted!

So if you have Nickelodeon/NickToons tune in around teatime and check 'em out. We'll hopefully be able to upload them soon to show the whole world!

GK

TREES!

Some foliage designs from one of our projects - are you a tree hugger? whats your preference? Birch? Oak? Pine?

Love the smell of damp wood and the touch of bark beneath your fingers?

We love trees so much we chop 'em down, slice 'em up, pound 'em, pulp 'em and then draw funny pictures of trees on 'em... now that's tree sadomasochism! (technically we know these were drawn digitally but before computers we did it for real!)

GK

THE WONDEROUS MR. KNUNK

Just who is Knunk?

A question everyone has asked no doubt, is he some Scandinavian/wierdinadian pop group like ABBA or AHA?

Does he croon like a god and have chiseled, masculine looks?

Do women (up the north of England) throw themselves at him with great passion?

Can he leap tall buildings in a single bound? - NO, But he can bloody draw!!! (and so yes women do throw themselves at him around Christmas time when they need an 'artistic' favour!)

Above is just a sample of this mans large talent (arrgh!)

May he continue to bless GreyKid's portfolio with his greatness!!!

GK

BUNNY LOVE

Hi guys,

Before we start a job we usually produce a concept image to give the client a better understanding of how we'll approach the production. This can range from a simple sketch to a fully comped, illustrated image. We are also required, sometimes to produce a little animation test to show exactly what kind of motion we will use - thankfully, nowadays we get asked less and less to do this kind of thing - though occasionally, if it's needed we'll step up to the plate and try and hit a home run.

With Bunny Love the idea (style wise) came to us out of the blue (or pink) - at first though the idea for the video was a little different - originally we were going to have a group of friend bunnies getting ready to hit the forest club and boogie all night - the end of the video was going to be the beginning of the final piece we have now, all the rabbits dancing together. The main story in the first idea was a continuous travel shot of bunnies joining in the journey to the club - we were going to use a split screen method to show the bunnies getting ready for the big night and finally joining the big march.

Then we got the song!

Although it has a lovely summer feel it didn't really gel with this idea. That's when we followed the lyrics and came up with the story that is in the final video - the band loved it and its one of our personal favourites - hopefully we'll get to make the sequel soon...

Not much was needed for this job, the client had seen our previous work and was impressed enough to give us full control - a term we artists love! - we just provided an image so they could see the final style of the piece - the process of which is below...

First we sketch our idea, with Bunny Love it was there from the get go...

We like to produce as much artwork (for concepts) in Flash - this is the line work pass...

After the line work... the colour! The art direction on Bunny Love needed to be bright and bubbly - like the songs music - the nightclub and night time setting posed no problems in the final film.

The final concept image - we add lighting and shading onto the artwork. With a concept image you are looking to present a piece of artwork that will resemble the final film as much as possible.

More soon...

GK