Rainbow Dragons and Key Frame at the FTI

I was able to develop the Rainbow Dragons through the FTI's Key Frame program. Although I find it hard to watch (because of listening to myself) the FTI made this little piece on me and Rainbow Dragons in which I explain the concept and the Key Frame program;
http://www.fti.asn.au/make/made/keyframe/91
The Key Frame project has just opened up to applications for projects for 2008.

The Sounds of the Rainbow Dragons

The Rainbow Dragons (about whom I have often written) do not appear to have voices in the promo. But they do have them! The voices, although recorded, did not fit into the promo for one reason or other. They do not speak a known language but are expressive enough to be understood. The stories and games always have a helpful narrator who is a sensitive translator and commentator who talks to the dragons and the audience without taking the initiative away from the Dragons themselves as they seek to solve problems both practical and social in their activities. So here are the voices of excitable Tina, ponderous Rhomby and bossy Goo. There is more from the numeric Oobly Dooblies and shapely Fijity Wiks and there is also the sound of the Scatterbats - the whirling force of interruption whose arrival is often heralded by their distinctive sound and so can be acted on, if they are heard and there is some quick thinking.

David Pye put his percussive talents to the Oobly Dooblies and Fijity Wiks. The sounds of the Oobly Dooblies and Fijity Wiks provide the basis for a computer game where children can create rhythms and music by arranging Oobly Dooblies and or Fijity Wiks as David has here, albeit with a few extra instruments.

The voice of Tina and the Narrator are supplied by the multi-talented opera soprano Penny Shaw (who can also be heard in the theme tune of Jelly Jym which she and Richard Seale improvised one evening at the FTI. ) Check out her real work at the Daisy Productions website (and try to spot my work there!?) Rhomby was voiced by the guy who modelled and animated him - Dave Ronnert. The energetic voice of Goo was supplied by Eileen Glynn who has lots of voices!
To find out more about The Rainbow Dragons project see previous posts on this blog or watch the promo on the Jelly Jym on BlipTV channel linked to from this blog.

WAM BAM speed animation competition

I recently organised a speed animation competition for WAnimate. Teams of animators had to create an animation from scratch drawing on three words for inspiration. The final animators blew all of us onlookers away. The films had everything, character, location, story, humour, soundscape.... It reminded us just what animation talent there is in WA. Check the vids out on the FTIs site or through WAnimate website. Here's a pic to wet your appetite.

What are your Oobly Dooblies called?

The Oobly Dooblies are part of Rainbow Dragons. They are jumping, bumping, squeaking, sneaking, grooving 'things' of different colours and textures. They are a device for representing number. Without ever mentioning one, two or three young children will literally 'see' (and 'feel' if they have the toys) numbers in action solving everyday problems during Rainbow Dragons stories. The kids can manipulate these creatures with their hands or in a virtual space to get a better understanding of them and put their very own dressed up set into action for them in many different puzzles and games . The kids may even incorporate the Oobly Dooblies into their mental mathematics (ie what is worked out in their heads.) Here is my Oobly Dooblies T-shirt. (And no I don't know what an iron is. My passion for the idea gets the creases out when I wear it!) For the record MY Oobly Dooblies are called:
Bop
Squeak
Iggle
Bounce
Squiffle
Bummy
Rolley
Orange
Pearly
Long Tall Sally Yellow

To name yours watch the Rainbow Dragons promo (scroll down the posts or go to Jelly Jym at BlipTV .)

Gracie Lou

Last week I contributed to a workshop for the development of a pre preschool series - Gracie Lou. Gracie Lou is originally the creation of Graphic Designers Helen and Darren Simpson. They made it for their daughters. When they teamed up with Two Camels Music in London they ended up with animated nursery rhymes which are being distributed by the ABC. Darren has now teamed up with kids TV producer Susie Campbell to develop it into a series.
The show is aimed at kids aged 0-3 years old. This is a potential new growth area, as baby TV channels spring up all over the world. Whatever you may think of children this age watching television, they are watching this young, so it would be better if what they were viewing was aimed at them. There are a number of preschool shows that arguably children grow out of, or get bored of, by the time they are three anyhow. Zero to six is a big age range for children that are going through such massive development so it is actually great to be able to focus in on the delightfulness of three year olds or two year olds or even one years olds (and having one of those myself at the moment I am particularly focused on that.) The workshop was a great excuse to explore these age groups. I am quite inspired to explore aiming younger with some series concepts myself. I was particularly impressed by our visit to Nedlands School of Early Learning and the woman behind that Sarah Lovegrove.
Gracie Lou has a very simple graphic look and animation style, check it out, I have linked to it. I will keep you updated as to it's progress but it is not up to me to tell you the great ideas we came up for for it except to say it celebrates everyday achievement moments of three year olds!

funding frustrations

I have had several months now of attending courses and doing research and posting videos and blogs to develop the potential of my projects. I think I desperately need to do some writing or creating.
Last time I wrote a script it was the short film "Visious Cycle." With the help of Alan Murphy we very quickly crunched this into a cracking final draft ready for a funding application (link funding through the FTI.) Last week we were shortlisted and this week I had the interview. Unfortunately I was unable to convince them that we would be able to make this, ambitious stop mo/puppetry/flash modern re-telling of the Elves and the Shoemaker, within the allocated time and within budget. Unfortunately the animations that have gone before me for this funding have not delivered on time.
Animations are at a disadvantage with this type of funding as the funding is not enough to employ people full time and animations require full time work by several individuals or take a very long time. I will have to spend more time on the producer aspects of the application next time around (its too good a script to bin, as Alan says maybe we need to do something smaller first) Ie Full on schedules and contracts signed in blood before even a whiff of money. Ah well such is this film making life. The interviewing panel were very complimentary and encouraging about the film and concept!
So like I said it is time to do some more creating.

Back in my first post I talked about how there were only a few places that I found myself in my life in WA. Well two elements of my life here collided last night when I attended the launch of the WA animated series Dogstar at Scitech Discovery Centre. The launch was put on by Screenwest where my friend Hilary Lambert is now working. We worked together at Scitech years ago. Also at the launch were friends from the FTI and of course WAnimate and the animation community - it's a very small place WA. Check out Dogstar, it's fun and funny and its flash animation pushed to the limit - I've linked to it.

Jelly Jym on Blip TV

You can now watch Jelly Jym episode bubbles in five minute installments on Blip TV, look for the link on the right of the page at the top. Part one available for viewing now! I am very excited to see if these get an audience. I think teachers and parents should find them useful for;

• explaining science concepts,
• showing to the kids to engage them with ideas and activities,
• ideas on fun activities to try.
  

They are aimed at children aged between about three and eight years old. They are a mixture of puppets, presenter, kids doing stuff, all sorts of animations, stories, singing snails, grumpy rocks.....why am I describing it, just go and watch them!