Hi All :) I hope you're all good.
Whilst it's currently easing into Autumn over here in the UK and I'm enjoying the cooler but still sunny days, I'm excited to show you my latest animated piece which has a very Spring-like feel to it. I’ll share the video here (please make sure you click the cog on the bottom right of the video and click Quality and select 1080p to view it with all the crispy detail!) and you can continue reading below about how this came to be:
Earlier this year Steve Henderson, Director of the Manchester Animation Festival, asked if I would create the festival poster and sting. I’d been so eager to make a small animated piece entirely myself for a while so this job was the perfect opportunity for me to bring my paintings to life again. Also, I love bees (I have one tattooed on my wrist) so it was lovely to work on something bee-centric.
Guess what folks!? I made it all myself. YES, you heard right. It was a daunting task. I hadn’t animated properly since my University days and I wasn’t very good at it back then. (I sometimes animate effects and secondary elements in my short films but I’m no pro). I opted for making my bee character essentially a large oval shape with simplified features in the hope it would make animation easier (it did) but I had no idea how to tackle the blooming flowers until much later on. However, I wanted to challenge myself and I hoped that what I lacked in animation skills I would make up for with my background painting and compositing skills.
It’s a story of Manchester’s rainy weather and spreading joy - because we need that rain for the flowers, and flowers for the bees (not to mention our bee pals to spread joy by pollinating those very flowers). I often find myself daydreaming that the world once we’re all gone will be colourful and full of overgrown rooftops - purple from all the buddleia … well that’s my hopefulness that we don’t destroy everything on this beautiful green earth.
I made this film in about 2 months, alongside other projects - yes I am a little crazy with my workload. But I was really interested to find that a lot of the jobs went a lot quicker than I had anticipated - which was a nice surprise.
I’m really proud of how it turned out, even if the animation is a little rustic. I also am very grateful for the summer I spent learning After Effects in 2nd Year of University ahah.
I truly love finding ways to make things entirely on my own, I have this problem-solving desire inside me to figure out how I can hide or even use my weaknesses to bring a project to life. I LOVE working in teams, it’s just fun to know you can rely on yourself a little too if you ever need to whip up a proof of concept and don’t have the money or means to pay other people to help! I am, however, very much looking forward to doing more projects where I’m just the Director and can rely on far more talented individuals to bring characters to life. Though I’ll be happy to animate the odd leaf or butterfly if the opportunity presents itself.
I hope you like it, and if you do please share about it. Next free moment I get I hope to make some short “making of” videos to show you how I put this all together - perhaps I’ll even make them reels to try battle that Instagram algorithm into favouring me once more ahaha.
Thanks Steve for asking me to make this!
Speak soon,
Izzy x
PS. Here’s a little sneak peek at me trying to work out how to animate ahahahah. SHOUT OUT TO ANIM DESSIN 2.
Such a pleasant read! So glad this worked out for you! I loved the animation and the bee!! 💛