Wayne's Worse For Wear

I've made a new animation aimed at young moped/motorbike riders who don't dress correctly for the conditions. The animation was commissioned by the Bristol City Council Keep Your Wheels project.

Wayne wears next to nothing so coming a cropper isn't going to be pleasant. Enjoy!

As part of this project I was also asked to redesign the keep your wheels website (www.keepyourwheels.com) - I did the front-end/HTML work while the guys at Sandbox Media hooked it up with Wordpress etc. I'm also working on promotional illustrations for the site and made the "make a mint moped" game. Hell, I even recorded a radio ad for them that can be heard on Kiss FM!

Creative Review - January 2010

My work appears in the January issue of Creative Review Magazine... twice! :-)

On page 16 you can see snippets of my entry for the E Stings competition and on page 18 there's a little bit about my involvement in the NHS Choices cartoon competition with a screen shot from "Brenda's Poisonous Pastime".

It's nice to have my work shown in a major design publication but it's a bit of a shame that I didn't actually win either competition... although both provided me with valuable funds so I can't be too upset.

Hopefully it's not a case of "always the bridesmaid, never the bride" and I might actually win something next year!

Happy New Year!

What I did when I was a kid...

My lovely mum was having a clear out the other day and she found a folder packed full of my early "work". Worryingly I had a bit of a thing for drawing pictures of Hitler, war, death and destruction. :-/

If my kids were doing stuff like that I'd probably get them in for some psychological profiling... but it just goes to show that kids can draw some awful things and still turn out to be alright! Assuming I am actually alright?!? Everyone had to go and see the school nurse right?

Anyhow, I also found many pictures of Chad... which gave me a bit of a laugh. What was I thinking?!?

First up... it's the classic "just Chad"...

Then, dead or alive you're coming with me... it's Chad Cop...

Bad Chad... ?

Choss... which is Bros, but Chads... dating this stuff to the late 80s/early 90s when I was 13/14.

Chad the Barbarian. Awesome.

...And my personal favourite... Michael Chadson!

Then there's the dark side of drawings, including a picture of Hitler which shames me! Unfortunately, there were several pictures of Hitler in the stash and some of them were mounted meaning I must have done them at school... but I can't remember being questioned about them!?!?

Having said that, clearly I'd seen Robocop and played Barbarian on the Amiga... both pretty gory affairs for a young lad. I blame the parents! ;-)

E Stings awards night

Last Thursday (the 3rd) I attended the annual E Stings awards ceremony at Channel 4 HQ in smoky big London!

Luckily, this time, I was not one of the people to go home empty-handed as I managed to bag £500 in the form of a runners up prize! The other prizes were awarded to Cyriak Harris (winner) and Gareth Sayers (fellow runner up). So, congratulations to us all!

A few people were interested in seeing the entries for round two, which were not made public but I've provided mine for anyone who wants to have a gander. I also scanned in my prize (what a nerd)!

Download my submission for round two (PDF)

But perhaps more important than this or any other award for work I've also put-up a copy of a certificate I received this morning for recognition of my services to the moustache. Now that is an award!

Don't do drugs!

I've just finished two animations about the perils of taking and dealing drugs! The animations were required for the ACPO Drugs Conference but also for use on the Avon and Somerset Constabulary youth website: www.craniumcaviar.com

I was rather embarrassingly presented with an ACPO commendation and a Bristol Blue Glass decanter for this work, which came as a bit of a shock. Not least because some of these awards are given to police officers who have made a big difference tackling dangerous drug dealers on the dirty streets of England! Anyhow, I am very respectful and appreciative that my work has been recognised in this way... so thank you very much!

As usual, I've provided a few screenshots, storyboard roughs and, of course, the videos! Enjoy!

E Stings competition

I've been short-listed in the final 15 of the E Stings competition with "Dizzy Dave". Yee-haa! This is my second time in this competition but last time out I didn't win a sausage. So, fingers crossed for better luck this time!

In order to win one of the big prizes the finalists had to submit their treatment for another sting about Thursday Night Comedy on E4.

Below you can see my original submission (which will also appear on TV) and my scribbles and character designs for round two...

You can see all the finalists here: http://www.e4.com/estings/2009finalists.html

Dizzy Dave from Albinal on Vimeo.

A statement from Bob

Good afternoon. My wife and I would very much like to congratulate the Brothers McLeod on winning the NHS Choices Cartoon Competition. We are, of course, sad that we didn't win but we very much enjoyed making our films and can't complain at losing out to "The Brothers" as they are indeed amazing animators... So jolly well done!

Unfortunately, Brenda hasn't taken the news quite so well and has gone on a bit of a bender. She's now drinking surgical spirits out of the clinical waste bin at the back of the Bristol Royal Infirmary.

I think it's time I checked her into the Alcoholism Recovery Program at the Clifton Clinic and started my new exercise regime.

Chow for now.

Bob

Find out more about the competition here:

http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/Cartooncompetition/Pages/Healthanimationhome.aspx