First blog ever! Ok, this may take a while to get used to but I’ll give it a shot!

 

The last two weeks have been mega busy for me on many levels. Firstly, Darren from Psycho Styrene magazine kindly asked me to write an article on building an Armature FX armature complete with pictures. I’ve got to admit, it took me quite a while to get around to doing but I’m glad to say I finished it last weekend. Hopefully it will feature in the next issue of Psycho Styrene. Check out Darren’s great mag here:

 

http://www.psychostyrene.co.uk/thisissue/thisiisue.html

 

I’ve also had lots of artwork revisions to complete on my pre-school show Snuggles Ahoy! As many of you will not know, Snuggles Ahoy! has been a labour of love for me for the past two years – it’s been through ‘development hell’ as they say and I’ve had to substitute a pig character for a rabbit so eastern networks will be interested in broadcasting it. Mmm, enough said on that front! It now looks like Snuggles Ahoy! will be eventually made – wahooo! My co-producers have an exciting deal on the table so got to keep fingers crossed for a while.

 

And how could I forget Armature FX!? I’ve had another big shipment of parts and spent the best part of a whole day packing up kits ready for shipment. I’m really pleased as the popularity of the kit seems to be growing and no sooner do we have kits back in stock they fly off the shelf again.

 

About 6 weeks ago I supplied kits to Dallas University in the USA. They had a big project on for the ABC Network animating a piece for Extreme Make Over Home Edition. I was really pleased to see the end result, you can check it out here:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcQAxDdHIFo

 

I was also impressed to see story book writer and illustrator Nelson using the kit for illustration purposes. You can check out his great blog and pictures here:

 

http://www.animationtoolkit.com/page10.htm

 

And lastly how could I forget my real job? Yes CITV has kept me really busy as we took control of the much loved Toonattik brand, waved goodbye to Jamie and Anna and said hello to the CITV toon team. Our team at CITV HQ turned this around in 4 weeks, creating and animating characters as well as developing the brand and look. I was tasked with the precious job of creating a promotion to show off the great shows we’d inherited. I was chuffed to work with some great new material – Spongebob, Phineas and Pherb, Ben 10 and Arron Stone made for a great week of research! Check out the toon team and promo here:

 

http://www.citv.co.uk/page.asp?partid=1

 

I was also tasked with the creation of a new My Parents are Aliens Promo, which if anyone has seen the show will agree, its Friends for kids. Awesome and funny. On top of this I made a promo to advertise the British kids half term, we’ve turned this into a mini stunt but I’ve got to keep my lips sealed for now until we start promoting it. Watch this space!  

 

So all in all it’s been pretty manic. I’m currently thinking of ideas for summer and what we can create for the channel. Big meeting tomorrow in the pub to discuss (all great ideas happen in the pub fuelled by beer and crisps!).

 

TTFN

 

Wes.