Sunday, December 5, 2010

Cardboardtreehouse Christmas Craft Card Video

Happy Holidays my friends.

I've made an accordion style Christmas Craft Card that is now available at a couple of local stores. In the card we find Santa enjoying a glass of milk after delivering a few presents to some lucky kids for Christmas. I really enjoyed making this card and I hope you like it as well. It is a family friendly project that is a fun way for kids and adults to spend an hour or so together at the table.


Here is a video on how you can assemble your Christmas Craft Card. Check it out. Sorry my head gets in the way at one point.


Locally you can pick up the kit to make your own Christmas Craft Card at Strange Adventureson 5262 Sackville Street and at Love, Me Boutique at 1539 Birmingham Street. I'll be making more cards in this style in the future so stay tuned.

Update: I am no longer updating this blog as I have moved to my new website cardboardtreehouse.com I'll be adding new paper craft, illustrations, animation, and other offers on the new site. Feel free to pop over and have a look around. Thanks for your interest in my work.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Updates

Hey folks,
I haven't posted in a while so let me start by saying that Ottawa was amazing. Nice to see some old friends and to see Little Thunder up on the big screen at the OIAF 2101. I've recently learned of a few more festivals that are screening Little Thunder. So if you haven't seen it yet or you are in these neighborhoods, check it out.

The 35th annual American Indian Film Festival. This is a bit after the fact as this festival was actually earlier in the month and has already happened.
In the New Year Little Thunder will be at The 6th Annual Children's Film Festival Seattle. The Festival will be presented by Northwest Film Forum January 28-February 6, 2011 with additional screenings for groups through February 25th, 2011.

Little Thunder was also accepted to the 6th annual REDCAT International Children's Film Festival in Los Angeles. That festival will take place over the course of two weekends; March 26-27 and April 1-2, at Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theater in downtown Los Angeles.

And one last note: Little Thunder will also be playing in a film festival in New York at the end of March. I'll have more information on that as it comes available.

More posts soon.


Monday, October 18, 2010

More festival updates

I'm heading out tomorrow to attend the Ottawa International Animation Festival where Little Thunder is playing as part of the Canadian Film Showcase. I will be at each screening so if you are in Ottawa and attending the festival be sure to say hi.

I've also recently was notified that Little Thunder will be screening at the 21st Annual St. John's International Women's Film Festival, October 26-30.


Sunday, September 19, 2010

Little Thunder is in a few more festivals...

So great news. Little Thunder has been accepted and is playing at the 30th Atlantic Film Festival here in Halifax, NS. It will be playing as part of the Atlantic Shorts 5 program on Wednesday September 22, 2010 at 9:20 pm at Park Lane 8 and again on Friday September 24, 2010 at 12.00 pm at Park Lane 4. I'll be at the Wednesday night screening along with the Directors Alan Syliboy and Nance Ackerman. Say hi if you're there.

The other big news is that Little Thunder has also been accepted as part of the Canadian Film Showcase at the Ottawa International Animation Festival this October. This is kind of a big deal for me as the last time I was there it was as a student and now I have something in the show. Click here for show times at the OIAF. I'll be in Ottawa for the festival so if you are at the OIAF then maybe I'll see you there.


Thursday, July 8, 2010

Stop Motion Reel

Here is a reel of some stop motion animation I did on Poko and Lunar Jim. I had so much fun doing this stuff. One of the biggest challenges was on the Poko indoor sets we weren't able to use tie downs. We used rigs and magnets to keep the characters from falling over. Once again this is the raw animation with temporary audio, no rig removal or colour balancing. Music is Bugle Call Rag by Benny Goodman.

Lunar Jim looking for Pop Berries

In this episode of Lunar Jim we find our heroes looking for Pop Berries so they can have some pie. The only problem is that Pop Berries are hard to pick.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Little Thunder Festival Updates

I just got wind of this today. Pretty awesome stuff! Little Thunder played last week at the 2010 First Peoples Festival in Montreal. Here is what they thought of it.

"For its vivacity, humour, and its light, impulsive brushstrokes sketching playful figures, and for the stone canoe carried off like a leaf in the eternal currents of the Mi'gmag legend this film brings to life, the 2010 First Peoples Festival jury awards the Best Animation Film prize to Petit Tonnerre "(Little Thunder)

In other news, Little Thunder has also been selected for the 40th edition of the Giffoni Children's Film Festival ELEMENTS +3 section, in Italy July 18-31, 2010.

...and Little Thunder has also been selected to the the Gimli Film Festival in Manitoba, July 21-25, 2010.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

On your mark. Get set...

Here is some more stop motion goodness for you. In this clip, Poko, Bibi, and Minus are playing Olympics and are about to have a race. As you can see Minus is having a hard time getting started but don't worry he does much better in another event later in the episode. I had a lot of fun on this episode and had a good time hiding the rigs on the characters whenever possible. While animating on Poko the indoor sets had painted floors and as a result we weren't allowed to use tie-downs on the characters. So we had to use lots of magnets and rigs to keep them from falling over. Fun times.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Poko and his train

Here is some stop motion animation that I did on Poko sometime ago. It is the raw animation without the colour balancing or the audio. I think that you can still follow along with the audio voiceover. So Poko wants to play with his train and Minus won't let him and Mr. Murphy isn't much help. Good times.


Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Little Thunder



Little Thunder has been accepted into the Montreal First Peoples Festival. The film is listed by it's French title " Petit Tonnerre" and it is playing at the opening Gala. If you are in Montreal feel free to check it out otherwise I thought that I would post the film itself here on the blog to make it easier for people to find.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Little Thunder Update


If you happen to be in Toronto this weekend you can watch the NFB film that I animated and co-directed, Little Thunder, at Sprockets: Toronto International Film Festival for Children.

If you are in Halifax, Little Thunder will also be playing at the VeiwFinders International Film Festival for Youth as part of the Jr. High/High School Program: Our Nation First. April 22 at 10:00 am, Dartmouth Crossing - Theater 7.

And as always, if you can't make it to either of those screenings, you can hop over to the National Film Board website and watch it streaming online anytime. If you do watch Little Thunder on the NFB website please feel free to click on the "i like" button if you enjoyed it.

I really had a great time working on Little Thunder and I hope that people enjoy the film.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Updates

Hey folks,
For those of you who check out my blog you may have noticed a lack of posts as of late. Well my wife as recently give birth to our first child, a son, Ewan last week and things have really changed around here. Mom and Baby are doing well and I've just got to say that my wife is a Super Hero.

It really is the best thing that has happened to me and I'm sure I'll have some more posts around that in the future. But for now I'll be stepping back from the blog for a little while until our new routines get established. But that doesn't mean that I don't have anything art related to post.

The NFB film that I animated and assisted directed a while back is now posted on the NFB website. Click here and check it out. Thanks and I'll see you soon

Monday, January 4, 2010

Happy Post New Years


I hope you all had an enjoyable holiday and that you've had a chance to spend it with friends and family. We spent the holidays getting the last few things ready for our little one's arrival (scheduled for later this month) all the while visiting and doing other holiday related activities.

As with most people around the holidays, family comes first and I didn't get near enough to my computer to post anything last week. So to get up to date I owe a girl's name for last Tuesday, a boy's name for last Thursday, and a girl's name for this Tuesday. I wanted to include three names in one post and the first thing to pop to mind was the long standing (and recently settled) love-triangle of Betty, Archie, and Veronica. I have fond memories of reading those comics as a kid but can't imagine naming any of my kids after those perpetual teenagers.