The Ameba Graphics Blog

Forever Yours, A Diagnosis.

2011-12-28T06:33:00.003Z

So last week, Alex Day from the internet made his way to Number 4 in the UK christmas charts with his song Forever Yours. A catchy pop song that is unlike pretty much everything else in the top 5 aside from perhaps Coldplay, in a sense that its not a cover song, a parody or a campaign. Its simply a guy who happens to have an internet following releasing a song and getting high enough in the charts solely on the back of this. Its a historical feat in the charts, because it proves that with iTunes and Amazon you can effectively "chart-jack" (to paraphrase a previous attempt at the UK charts) and get your song on the radio out seemingly nowhere.

And to everyone who doesn't regularly go on the internet, it did come out of nowhere. I can picture the bosses at Radio 1 trying to figure out who this guy is who has shot into the charts before christmas and why have we never heard of him before!

What caught my eye more than anything was the press, in every form. Almost every interview with Alex or someone who was writing up on it had literally no clue how to go about reporting this, because they don't know how the internet works. They littered their articles with random "facts" which differed in every one. From Alex being the number 1 subscribed youtube account, or that he is 18, or that he is sponsored by a hair company. Sometimes just forgetting the awesome fact that every penny goes to World Vision, a charity that Alex is an avid supporter of.

In fact the most concise account of Alex's rise to mainstream fame was from a small Channel 4 blog post from the "young writers" section. Proving that younger journalists and bloggers have more input to these stories.

Basically it proved how completely out of touch mainstream media is. The fact that they avoid doing basic background research on their pieces because they literally can't be bothered, all the way down to just not being able to understand the partnership program with Google. Mainstream media has literally no idea what to do with this story. For me it just reinforced how to get the best, most thorough news stories, you simply can't rely on mainstream media.

Saying that, false accounts or not, they certainly helped Alex get the word out about his single, but the legwork and getting him into the charts came from his fans. Alex just has these people to thank for getting him where he is in the UK Singles Chart right now. Everyone else comes second to them.

Meanwhile, all last week I was selling a Forever Yours poster on my store, raising money to go towards WorldVision too. Altogether we sold 42 posters raising £210 for charity! So thank you to everyone who bought a poster, and if it isn't with you already, it will be soon :)

-Jonny

Christmas Commission.

2011-12-23T00:01:00.002Z

Thought I would quickly share this. It's a commission that I made for a friend of mine for Christmas. She liked it, which is good :)

Merry Christmas!

-Jonny

Project: Nerdfighteria Shirt.

2011-12-18T20:43:00.006Z

Last year I made this. A charity Nerdfighteria shirt sold on TeeFury on the 11th of October. It was my second shirt on the site, and it was probably the most exciting day I have had on the internet! Together we raised over two and a half thousand dollars for Cancer Research and Partners in Health. They both say thanks :)

Problem was, after the entire day was over and the excitement subsided, I forgot to get myself one.

Afterwards I started to get hundreds of pictures of people wearing my shirt, and other people mentioning to me places they have seen it being worn, and I was a little jealous I didn't get my own one. Time for a sadface... :( there he is.

Loads of donated pictures, featuring John Green in the middle there.

So now I am asking politely if anyone is willing to donate their shirt to me so I can wear it proudly at VidCon 2012. I'm sure someone somewhere has one they don't wear anymore, or perhaps you bought two just in case? If you know anyone who might have one they are willing to donate that would be fantastic.

I don't just expect you to send me your shirt for free though. As an incentive I am willing to trade any poster(s) on my store, or even ones I haven't had printed before. Check out my Tumblr for a list of all the posters I have previously made.

If you are willing to help me out, just send me a message through this contact form on my website.

DFTBA world! I hope this works!

-Jonny

EDIT: Project closed shop after one day. Amazing. Thanks to everyone who was willing to donate! And to David Raygoza for his donation.

Forever Yours!

2011-12-18T03:18:00.003Z

Today is what Alex Day is referring to as "Forever Day". It's the day when you can start downloading his Christmas No. 1 contender, and to be honest, its an absolute corker! A happy fun filled positive song and a great little video to go with it. Go and see! If you like it and would prefer to see how one guy in his house can make it to Number 1 against the X Factor, get it downloaded! Also all the profits are going to Charity. Specifically WorldVision.

So it seems to have become my custom to do a poster design for something like this, and Forever Yours is no different. I designed a little comic book cover to match the characters from the video:

You can purchase this poster design from now up until Boxing Day from my Poster Shop. All the proceeds from this sale will go to the same charity. So get the song, get the poster, and excitingly await to see what will happen this Sunday!

In a roundabout way, this is my contribution to The Project For Awesome. As I don't regularly upload video's or video blog in any way, this seems like an appropriate way for me to join in on the P4A festivities. If you are unsure of what the P4A is, go and take a look at YouTube's homepage :)

Even though this was a quick design, I would love to know what you think about it. Constructive criticism is always welcome :)

Also here is some bonus sketches of Charlie and Alex I did.

I may now have the first early night I have had in a while :)

-Jonny

Been a while, hasn't it!

2011-12-16T03:38:00.006Z

As you may or may not know, I have been without an internet connection for a month and a bit. Not cool, especially for the online entrepreneur I am. Sort of.

So here is my list of 10 things I did over my duration away from the world...

1) Paul Turner's Album Artwork for FOR GREAT JUSTICE!

When I met Paul, aka, songsfrompaul last year at the Edinburgh nerdfigther gathering, I promised him I would do him some album artwork one day. So we finally both created something magical. I joined him at his album launch party on 11/11/11 in Glasgow to give him all the printed works, and some posters too. Met loads of new people and some old friends too. You can listen to Paul's album for free HERE, but I heartily recommend buying it. Support the indie artist and that!

2) Commissions

I have done a few commissions for people. Some are christmas presents so I can't show them yet. But one of them I made for my good friend Martyn. He simply asked for a "Landshark". Mint. I also picked up a completely whizzer badass frame for it from a local junk shop. Suits it.

3) Black Friday.

Black bloody Friday. I had my first ever sale on my posters, and also put some of my older Lost, Portal and Portal 2 posters on sale too. I was absolutely overwhelmed by the amount of support from the online community promoting my one-day-sale. I hope everyone went away from that day a couple of posters happier :)

4) Iron Giant Poster

The other day I watched The Iron Giant again. And it seems to be my custom now that if I like something, I will make it a poster. The Iron Giant is one of my all time favourite films, and it was a great little poster to work on. I tried to keep it in the same style of that retro-50's look, with the stars and the block colours. If you want you can purchase this poster from my store.

5) Art Cards for Christmas!

Just for my Doctor Who posters, I made a lovely little set of Art Cards you can purchase as Christmas Presents. They come with custom wrapping paper and a little place to write your recipients name. If you live within the UK you might still be able to get these in time for Christmas, you can buy them here.

6) The Grow Your Own Poster Kit.

This has been something I have been wanting to make for a long time. At the moment you can request one in a 72dpi beta for testing out, trailing, and then feeding back to me what you think. Take a look, and request one from my contact form. I've also been tweeting about it with the #growyourownposterkit if you want to help spread some poster creation love!

7) Doctor Who Posters

I realise that the last poster I blogged about was The Girl Who Waited poster. I have since completed series 6! Woo! Go take a look at them all on a page I posted about them all, or take a look at them all together too :)

8) My own Domain!

This happened probably around 10 minutes ago. I finally got round to purchasing jonnyeveson.com! For the moment it redirects to my shop, but I am looking into getting myself a website early next year. Can't wait for that, been something I have longed for since I first started pawning my doodles off as sellable items.

9) I was on a DVD!

Okay so not me as in "look at Jonny right there in the background!" "where??" "if you pause it right... THERE!" "I don't see it" sort of thing, but some of my graphic design got onto The Script, Road To Aviva DVD. You can see some of it on its trailer, and buy the DVD from places too. The film was made by Paul Banks at Digifish. I will be doing some other work with them next year. The beginning of a wonderful friendship.

10) Effects Work

I made Ollie's head explode in this film. Go watch it, tell your friends. It has a guys head exploding. Schoolboy effects work and literally dripping with Video Copilot splats, but works quite well.

Oh and I got Minecraft too. Little late to this party, but the disco lights keep-a-flashin'!

Ive also got a couple of other projects finishing soon too. So I will hastily blog about them now :)

'Till next time!

-Jonny

Without Internet

2011-11-01T22:53:00.003Z

Currently sat at work, stealing some internet to get my posters orders up to date. So thought I would do a small blog post while I was here.

I have been sans internet for about a week now. On one hand it has been quite liberating, having time when I get home to read, catch up on films and just generally not have the constant distraction of the internet. Especially with having a tumblr now, The constant barrage of information can sometimes leave me with hours sat at my desk with little to no work done.

On the other hand. Its not great feeling cut off from the world.

I love being in constant touch with not only my friends and family, but also replying to peoples emails, and talking to people who, for whatever reason, like my work. When I have the internet there all the time its great feeling that close to everything and the world. And that is probably the thing I miss the most.

But at least I got my VidCon tickets before the internet conked out on me. WOO! VIDCON!

In other "me and my work" news, Paul Turner, also known to many as SongsFromPaul, has released a small video EP of some of his songs from his latest album. Complete with some album artwork my me! its almost complete too! The one you see in the video is partially complete. I will post it up as soon as possible :)

Tonight when I get home is me working almost distraction free on the last couple Doctor Who posters. And if I get time, some other commissions I can't wait to show everyone.

Stupid

2011-10-10T23:43:00.003+01:00

I get called "stupid" quite a lot.

I'm pretty sure this isn't anything against me personally, but nevertheless, I seem to be getting it a lot more these days.

Last week I went down to London for the weekend to go to StickAID; a charity event hosted by Myles Dyer and a whole cast of other YouTubers to raise money for Unicef. Now, being from the North, it would be conventionally a bit silly to travel on a whim a few hundred miles to give out some posters and meet some people I had only ever spoken to via Skype before. Nevertheless, I went anyway.

The summer before this one, me and a friend travelled up to Edinburgh to meet John Green. Even though I wasn't even guaranteed I would even meet him. Even so we hopped in the car and went to Scotland for the day.

And even last year I hopped on a plane and went to Vancouver to participate in a week long summer intensive at the film school. I didn't end up going for the full semester, but I went anyway.

I offer to do do artwork for people for next to nothing in return, just for the fun, dedicate a hefty percentage of my week making Doctor Who posters, and I love giving away freebies to pretty much anyone who asks nicely.

And I love it.

Not a lot of people would understand really why I would just hop on a train for the weekend and spend time with people I had never met before. I could have sat and watched StickAID from the comfort of my desk right here and sent some posters to give away. But thats the thing, I would just be sat here, in the same desk week in week out. The nature of my work is that I spend a lot of time sat in front of this computer screen. So naturally I would feel the need to get out a bit.

But every time I have gone somewhere spur of the moment or totally different, it has always lead to something unexpectedly awesome.

At StickAID I met Liam Dryden for the second time, and handed over 4 poster that he auctioned off there and then for his section of the show. I also met up with someone I went to uni with and enjoyed the Sunday London sun on the riverbank and had a nice catch up.

In Edinburgh I did meet John, but I also met a whole slew of other Nerdfighters, including Paul Turner, who I am doing album artwork for right now, which should be finished soon.

And in Vancouver I experienced a whole new city. Learned SO much from the tutors there and gave me a lot more focus on what I wanted to do with my work. And made some excellent contacts there which I wouldn't otherwise have gained. I also picked up my first copy of Scott Pilgrim while I was there too. Which turned out to be brilliant.

Whether its things like this, or gestures of goodwill or freebies or whatever, I just love networking with people. And (as long as I can afford it), I will keep on just doing these apparently "stupid" spur of the moment things. Because they will always lead to something awesome.

As Steve Jobs said in his 2005 Stanford Speech: "You can only connect the dots looking back"

-Jonny

Steve

2011-10-06T12:27:00.003+01:00

I was going to do a blog post today about all my news and stuff that I have been up to recently. But I thought it would have to wait for a little while. Instead I thought I would share my email that I sent to rememberingsteve@apple.com

@rememberingsteve

A few summers ago. I drove me and a group of my friends to a remote barn in the middle of the english countryside. Most of the people I knew, but a couple I had yet to meet. Jo was one of them. She was a little shy, not really knowing many people there, so I went over and started up a conversation. We both had a first generation iPhone in our hands, so naturally, our talk started there. We where inseparable the entire trip.

I had gained a friend through mutual love of apple products. Even though our iPhones where outdated by then. We kept in touch after that, talking after every product announcement and showed off every apple product we bought after that.

We both got an iPhone 4 on its release date. For us both it was our first 3G phone and we both fell in love with it. We used FaceTime for the first time that morning, marvelling in our piece of futuristic technology while other people scoffed at it, while being simultaneously very interested.

One day we went out Geocaching in our local town. Something we would have never been able to do easily without our iPhones. It rained for the majority of the day but we still had one of the best times ever. So much so when we got home and dried off we wrote an email to Steve, telling him how much of a fantastic time we had using his products. We never got a reply. But we where happy in the fact that our email was in his inbox at some point, and he might have even given it a read.

Now I am an employee at the Apple Store, and it has honestly been the best job of my life. I have met some fantastic people working there, and I can't stress enough how much that place has changed my life. Apple's soul really is its people, and I am proud to say I am employed by them.

Jo is now my best friend. And from that chance conversation about our love of Apple she has grown to be an indispensable friend. As soon as the news broke earlier today we texted each other from our iPhones. Baffled and emotional that the device we are sharing this moment on was created by a person now gone. A man that we admired the most.

The news last night has got me to get up and finally get started on my animation showreel for Pixar, another company headed by Steve. I'm shooting for that dream and never giving up now. And I have Steve Jobs to thank for helping me every step of the way. From the devices I do my work on, to the lessons learned from the Credo that rests over every Apple employees heart.

Rest in peace Steve. You will be missed.

-Jonny

Sent, as ever, from my iMac.

Night Terrors, The Girl Who Waited, and unrelated update on me!

2011-09-21T02:26:00.003+01:00

More posters! Would you look at that, there seems to be one every week...

Night Terrors

The Girl Who Waited

These two posters are the most recent ones. To get a description and explanation of the two you can find that on my DeviantART or on my Tumblr :)

Recently I made myself a list of design work I needed to get done, and every day I have been slowly whittling away at that list and actually finishing them, rather than having a few things on the go at once, where I get distracted. I often make lists like this when I need to do things, it helps me focus my energy on what is needed, and makes it important in my head because it is written there in a thick sharpie. Lists govern my life at the moment, and I like making schedules for myself.

After I finished Uni I found myself pretty much abandoned by the place. A sort of "here is your degree, now get out" sort of scenario. I'm sure thats not what they meant, but it felt that way. So after a week of sitting watching films and not seeing any sun I loaded myself up with projects to do. I woke up early and stayed up late to pump out as much work as I could, from the Doctor Who posters you have seen previously, to other posters that I'm not allowed to show you yet, to starting more animation work.

This year is my year off. After being in education since I was 4 years old I thought I would give myself just this year to try out new things, network as much as I could and dedicate my time to things I love doing. The start of that was a bit of a sham I'll admit, but project independence is a big change. And I look forward to what I make in the next year.

So, who wants to make something?

-Jonny

Red State and Lets Kill Hitler

2011-09-06T03:27:00.002+01:00

Tonight I watched Red State by Kevin Smith.

First of all I will admit that I torrented it. I sometimes do this with films I am desperate to see, and I have been following the production of this film for quite a while, as I am a massive Kevin Smith fan. After seeing it tonight I am more than happy to go and see it a few more times in the cinema and pay for it legally when it arrives in the UK, as I cannot recommend this film enough. This, I believe, is the positive side of torrent sites. It is, and has always been, that people will pay for quality every time. I often torrent films that I already have, just so I can watch them on my phone or have them readily available on my computer. Sometimes I will torrent films I missed out on seeing in the cinema, and if I like it, I will go out and buy it. Simple enough.

Red State is a film which explores the extremist christian groups in america, and some of the disturbing lengths they will go to to uphold the word of God. It feels like someones debut film. I felt excited for the process of film making watching it and made me want to go out and make my own films again. It is a far cry from Smith's previous outings such as Cop Out, a film I had to turn off as I couldn't stand the trashy dialogue in it. It feels like Smith has given himself a wake up call and gone back to what made him such an excellent film maker in the first place.

It also has probably the most convincing group of antagonists ever played. When I looked into the mothers face all I saw was pure hate, and it gave me chills! I have never felt that much towards characters onscreen in a long time. Every decision made by the guys in the film are things I could follow, and I felt every second of it.

Watch this film any way you can, then buy it, because Smith deserves my money for this one.

Second of all, I uploaded my latest Doctor Who poster after this Saturdays episode; "Night Terrors", you can see it below.

As always, you can purchase this individually from my shop, or pre-order the entire collection now and save on postage for all 14 poster designs :)

-Jonny

Still Got Legs

2011-08-24T02:06:00.006+01:00

A quick poster design I have been working on for a few days on and off...

For anyone unfamiliar with Chameleon Circuit, they are a band who create songs around Doctor Who. Their latest album; Still Got Legs is available here if you are interested :)

Been fun working on this. I had a load of screen printed textures made that I wanted to scan in from my days at college. Proved to come in handy! I also got hold of some nice recycled paper for the background texture. For a while I relied on found textures from just google images, but after making quite a few posters with similar textures, and wanting them to be printed on increasing sizes of paper, I went ahead and made my own ones. I would recommend gathering your own materials for a design whenever possible.

I was looking around for some new inspiration for this poster design. So I looked towards some more modern influences such as the "Almost There" section of Princess and the Frog, and also towards older poster designers such as Aaron Douglas and other simplistic art deco graphic designers. Its a style I really loved using. Also I seemed to have referenced Douglas in other pieces of work without even knowing it. I have now become a big fan.

You can check this out and "like" it on Tumblr and DeviantART :)

Doctor Who starts again this weekend! So look out for a new poster design for Lets Kill Hitler the week after that :)

-Jonny

I Love Richard

2011-08-22T23:18:00.004+01:00

This evening the wonderful Ollie Bostock uploaded the final cut of his latest film; I Love Richard. As the synopsis says:

Richard Madeley, the face of primetime television, is about to meet his biggest fan...

It has been Ollie's on and off project for a while. Plus there is a lovely picture he uploaded too showing the final DVD cases for I Love Richard and This Is Ze Suicide. I really enjoyed branding this film over the last few years, developing it and making it feel just right. Will have to take a trip down to York to pick up my copy for the shelf.

-Jonny

EDIT: Ollie made the video private, so you may have to wait a little while to watch it. Or email him asking to take a peek.

Brain Crack and Richard

2011-08-21T18:02:00.003+01:00

To the non regular readers of this blog, simply stating "I LOVE RICHARD" over the past few blog posts might seem like I am just a little too into a certain gent. I LOVE RICHARD is a film created by Ollie Bostock which has been in production for a very long time. It has been described by Ollie as being his "project in-between projects" and a lot of love has gone into it. Plus we have also probably got the largest collection of printed pictures of the infamous Richard Madeley.

Ollie popped up to Newcastle this week to finish the last couple of shots ready for his final editing session on it. I put the finishing touches to the DVD cover which is getting printed this week, and gave him the opening titles (above) all ready to burn his DVD's tonight.

We also did some test footage for Johnny Burdock, our story-less film about a 50s detective. Thats pretty much all we had. So we did some effects tests with some footage from town and a shitload of Video Copilot stuff to pad it out. Looks pretty cool so far. Now we know that we can make such effects, we can just steam on with getting the film written, without the fear of technological disadvantage. We want this to be technologically ambitious, while being our most coherent story to date. I'm really looking forward to it.

Last night I got a rather heavy dose of brain crack thanks in part to this website. I then went on a very big design splurge and I have nearly finished my latest poster design which I am keeping a little secret for now. But I am so glad that I have the design of it down, feels like a weight has lifted a little. I almost wanted to stay up all night to complete it and just sack off going to work at all. But bills need paying. One day I will set my own sleep pattern.

It's been a productive week so far I think. Can't wait to see what next week has in store.

-Jonny

A Good Man Goes To War Poster

2011-08-18T00:19:00.002+01:00

Last night I burnt through and got the majority of this poster made, accidentally staying up until 4am, and I had to pick my Mum up from the station early(ish) in the morning. Then after a fun packed day of pub lunch's, art galleries and changing her impressions of the Tyneside coast, we headed back to mine for a cup of tea and a film. We watched Rango.

After that I sat down and finished this poster. Finally getting myself all caught up just in time for Let's Kill Hitler next week.

After steering away from the core 3 characters throughout the poster series so far, I thought, as it was the last episode, to go all out and invite them all in for vector-ising. Threw myself in at the deep end with Illustrator know-how and time, but I think it was worth it in the end.

Looking at my store it seems to be 90% Doctor Who posters, with no sign of changing in the near future. I think I may have to start making other ones to make up for the serious amount of over-Who. Harry Potter perhaps? Or even Torchwood, so as to not stray too far away from the convention. I have some other non-pop culture ideas too that may materialise. Only time will tell.

Feels very good to get caught up. I think I'll tidy my desk.

-Jonny

New Poster! And finally might I add!

2011-08-16T00:43:00.008+01:00

Right. Blogging. I can do this still.

Hey again!

First of all, I finally got around to making the 6th poster in the Doctor Who series! check this out!

Its purple.

It has taken far too long to get this out, and I really apologise it has been this long. I've probably explained why it has been so long too many times now that you are sick of hearing. But it had to be done. I'm back on track, and well into getting A Good Man Goes To War done too. Its a corker.

After checking the rest of my previous posts out too, I saw I hadn't posted The Rebel Flesh poster either! How bizarre...

Again, as its a two parter, they look lovely together. You can purchase them from my store as usual.

Other things: I have been working with Ollie of Ollie Bostock to get a few films made/finished, so we can have a clean slate and get on making something brand new:

I Love Richard

This is a film that has been in and out of production for a while. The first generation of this was shown at a small film festival in York. Since then the script and concept has been re-written and the direction has drastically changed, but the concept remained the same: A man who is obsessed with the face of primetime television, Richard Madely. I helped film some cracking scenes and it may be some of my best (and only) camera work so far. Ill provide the link once its online. The poster design has changed a few times over the few years it has been in the making, but this version sums up the film very nicely.

This Is Ze Suicide

The story of Stevie Ze Suicide. A man who was once part of a band called the UK Subs. Now, later in life, he is still playing gigs and following his passion. This documentary shows how Stevie lives his life, preparing for one of his most anticipated gigs. I collaborated with Ollie on the cover design and branding for this film. I decided to give it that washed out look and bled in some pink to match his hair. The result was something that was almost nostalgically retro, quite fitting for the films subject matter. Check out the trailer HERE.

Really excited to get started on some new film/animation work. There are a few ideas up in the air at the moment. As usual I am daunted by the creative freedom of it all. By next year I want another film made. No question.

Big post. Had a lot to talk about I guess! More frequent smaller blog posts might work in my favour in future.

-Jonny

Finishing University, Late Posters and Competitions

2011-06-02T15:44:00.004+01:00

Firstly, I have finished university. Me and Dale presented our film to our course yesterday after being awake for 2 days solid both shaking from caffeine and nervous about the screening. Having spent the last few months locked away we where excited to see what everyone else had come up with.

After watching a lot of varied and quality work, ours was one of the last films to be shown. It clocked in at just over 13 minutes, and we really enjoyed showing everyone what we had created over the last year.

I really feel that our film was the best it possibly could be, and the shots look as cinematic as we could conceive. Both me and Dale are happy with the end result. And I can't thank him enough for his hard work and dedication to our little project :)

Second of all, due to my last week in University, I am running a little late on getting the Rebel Flesh Doctor Who poster up and online. I will try and get it up as soon as possible now I have at least a little free time. Same goes with those of you who have ordered posters lately and not received them yet. Hang tight, they are on their way :)

Finally, Its mid week again, so I thought it would be time for another Doctor Who competition! This week you can win an entire series set of posters! :D Details on how to enter are on the competitions page on my store.

I really can't wait to be able to show everyone the film. And hope you all like it as much as we did making it.

-Jonny

Competition Time!

2011-05-25T22:17:00.006+01:00

Okay, it's mid-week, downtime for Doctor Who fans. A bit of time to recap and maybe re-watch the previous weeks episode. Or perhaps just get on with other things you might have going for you. Either way, around about Thursday you start pining for the next episode. I know I do.

So, to fill in the gap between episodes, I am running a small competition!

When I got the first batch of Impossible Astronaut posters made, I picked them up from the printers and I wasn't quite happy with the paper they where printed on. It was a little too thick for posters, but I kept them anyway, in the hope they may come in handy sometime :D

So now, you can win one of 5 sold out Impossible Astronaut posters! Printed on slightly thicker paper that you may or may not prefer :D

Just visit the COMPETITIONS page on my store for details on ways to enter this weeks competition and when the winners will be announced. Basically it's just comment on this blog post asking politely, so you can cut out the middle man and just do that if you like :P

Looking forward to showing you this weeks poster for The Rebel Flesh! And good luck if you enter the competition.

In other University and film making news. Me and Dale have got just one week left of being students, and more importantly to get our film finished. What we have so far looks badass if I do say so myself. Pretty proud of it. I would show you a screenshot but Dale has all the renders. Aw shame.

-Jonny

Doctor Who: The Doctor's Wife Poster

2011-05-23T19:23:00.004+01:00

This is my latest, albeit a little late, poster for Doctor Who: The Doctor's Wife.

The design went through quite a few changes. For the longest time it was a design based around The Doctor and The Tardis/Sexy with a wedding arch over the top of them. The arch was going to look like 9/10's Tardis interior. In the end the poster ended up looking too sparse, as they had the blank space between them. The one thing that stuck througout this week was the silhouette of 11 and Sexy on the hillside looking over the wasteland. I really liked this image and it was the main thing that stuck in my head.

You can get this poster, and all the other previous posters on my BigCartel store :D

And as is becoming customary with my poster design blog posts, here are some quick sketches of the "Making Of" of this weeks :) I was getting a little worried that the overall composition of some of the posters where lacking a bit, so I blocked out the design of them all in advance with a sharpie. The result kind of works I think.

Also, I have changed the "Rules" of my store. When I first opened by BigCartel store, I only had room for 5 products. So I formulated a 2 week rotation of each design so I could sell them all one at a time. In the past few weeks I have upgraded my store so I can have multiple products. So until they sell out, you can get all of my posters!

Hope you like it! :D

-Jonny

Doctor Who: The Curse Of The Black Spot Poster

2011-05-16T03:21:00.003+01:00

This is the third poster for the latest series of Doctor Who. This episode is Curse Of The Black Spot. The first poster that had to stand alone by itself :) The hair was the main thing I had to try and get right in this poster. It took a lot of go's to try and get it how I wanted. I think the end result turned out great, and I learned a lot more about Illustrator along the way. Think I am starting to understand everyones obsession with it now :)

You can get this and the other posters from this series on my BigCartel Shop! It's only going to be up for two weeks in a limited run of 40 prints.

As with the last poster, I thought I would share some drawings on how the poster came together. The focus being mainly on Lily Cole's hair. Enjoy!

-Jonny

Doctor Who: Day Of The Moon Poster

2011-05-07T19:05:00.004+01:00

The second in a two part poster for the series opener of Doctor Who: Day of the Moon is now up!

You can purchase this poster, and last weeks Impossible Astronaut poster from my BigCartel store. This will only be available for 2 weeks starting now. So get it while you can! Because the series opener was a double episode, I made these two fit together quite nicely, also keeping it Red, White and Blue in keeping with the topic of the Doctor being in America. I think they match quite nicely :)

So as a thanks to everyone who has bought the posters so far, I thought I would share a couple of drawings from the designs so far. I do a lot of thumbnail sketches to come up with an overall feel for the posters before I go ahead and make anything in Illustrator. These first few would set the aesthetic off for the whole series, so I had to get these ones right really.

Already got a lot of inspiration from tonights episode, so expect to see the poster for The Curse Of The Black Spot as soon as next weeks episode is over. Gives you something else to do when the theme tune to "So you think you can dance" comes on.

Also, I originally stated on the Impossible Astronaut poster that the posters where going to be printed on 250gsm matte paper, which is what I believed that my last batch of posters where printed on. Turns out it was actually 170gsm silk. I tried out some 250gsm matte ones and they creased in the poster tubes and generally looked a bit naff. These new ones look pretty darn awesome, and feel a lot nicer on the silk paper :D

You can still pre-order the entire set of 13 posters to save a bit of money on them all and to save on postage. They come in 4 rolls and include another "special edition" style poster which I have yet to decide on :D Check them out HERE.

-Jonny

Doctor Who: The Impossible Astronaut Poster

2011-05-02T21:51:00.000+01:00

This is the first of a new poster run to celebrate the new series of Doctor Who. Each poster will be available for two weeks on my all new BigCartel store, then they will be gone forever! This one was a little bit late, so this one will be available for three weeks.

The next poster will be for the Day of the Moon, and will go up on Saturday night! :D I'm excited.

After next week I will be running some competitions to win some Doctor Who stuff too. So keep an eye out on my Twitter for those too!

I have had some encouraging messages on DeviantArt and Twitter already, and I can't wait to see what you all make of these poster designs.

-Jonny

Jonny Eveson Posters Store!

2011-04-30T16:21:00.000+01:00

In the past I have had quite a few places where you could buy my stuff. At the moment you can visit my RedBubble site and grab a few shirts and stickers. But I have never had a web store to call my own. Now, I have a new web store hosted by BigCartel where you can buy the surplus stock of both my Doctor and Amy Pond posters from Series 5! They are in limited supply, so get them while you can! :D

Coinciding with this, Doctor Who has started again! And I am starting a new poster series. For each episode I will be creating a custom poster design. Apart from the first one, which is going up tomorrow, you will be able to purchase the previous weeks episodes poster. They are only available for two week and then they are gone! AND they are only £5!

I am a little late on the first one. But I should be on top form by next week :D

Here is the link, and be sure to check it every week after Doctor Who aires (UK time, so watch out for possible spoilers if you are visiting from the USA and other countries)

http://ameba.bigcartel.com/

Thanks! And I hope you like the brand new Doctor Who poster series! I'm very excited by it all.

-Jonny

"SSSSS" on TeeFury Today!

2011-04-17T13:00:00.000+01:00

Today my good friend and work colleague Dale Wilson has his first (of hopefully many) T shirts on TeeFury! Its a brilliant Obey/Minecraft mashup. Simple, but striking and effective. I like it.

You can buy it all day on TeeFury for today only!

Dale is also very kindly running a MINT poster and sticker competition. Give him a follow on his twitter @daledrwilson and tweet at him during the time his shirt is online, and you can win one of 10 Posters and Sticker packs! We went to go pick them up from the printers earlier in the week and they look amazing! Well worth the few seconds it takes to give him a tweet.

Also to coincide with his Creeper shirt, he has a range of Posters and Stickers for sale on his http://www.alliedsnow.bigcartel.com/. The posters are either a bold red textured mandela design, or a limited edition run of 40 black and white posters. Both look sharp.

Also today we have been putting together sticker packs! These are the icing on todays already extensive cuboid cake. For £5 you can get a pack of 9 custom stickers, all individually die cut in premium vinyl, featuring a huge 6'' one! I got my complimentary pack the other day from Dale, and they are comparable to Shepherd Faireys sticker packs in quality and amount.

Today is an exiting day! And I can't wait to see the final result of how Dale did. I wish him the best of luck with it!

The shirt comes at a time when me and Dale have a LOT of university work to finish. The film is coming along together very well. We rendered out and comped together our first shots of the film. And its safe to say we are both very happy with the results so far. Its going to be a good day when we render out the final shots.

Back to the grind after todays excitement. It's always a fun day keeping up with a TeeFury design. As a TeeFury artist, you get a graph showing how well your design is doing, so you can see if your advertising during the day is paying off. As a huge fan of stats anyway, this gets me more excited about the whole process. Will probably update you on how well it did.

I'd give Dale a follow on his twitter anyway, he does come out with some occasional pearls of wisdom every now and then. Or you can go check out his Wordpress blog to see some of his previous designs and the other stuff he gets up to.

-Jonny

Free Textures!

2011-03-29T22:21:00.000+01:00

Today me and Dale went out with the beautiful 5D Mk2 to take some pictures of some local Obey Artwork, this small expedition soon spiralled into collecting some nice high res textures. Which we thought we would just let you all have :)

Click HERE to download them! :D

There are 10 free textures in this pack:
01 Cracked, 02 Plastered Wall, 03 Peeled and Sprayed, 04 Distressed Bricks ,05 Vertical Grain, 06 Speckled Wall, 07 Rusty Yellow, 08 The Green Line, 09 The Skip Is Blue, 10 Horizontal Strokes

The city is a hive of texture if you know what you are looking for. The majority of the ones in the collection where taken around the back streets of Heaton. There are plenty of walls and worn out wood and garage doors that make up a lot of them. Was a lot of fun running around and going snap happy. There are a other ones that we want to go out and get some other day.

This is more than likely going to be the first of many packages we are making, but at the moment we have a film to finish. What brilliant procrastinators we are :)

-Jonny

Doctor Who Updates and Stuff

2011-03-29T01:06:00.000+01:00

First of all, you can now get my Doctor Who "The Eleventh Doctor" as seen on TeeFury all those months ago. I finally got around to uploading it to Redbubble, the awesome website that it is. Get it while you can! I can almost sense the BBC on my tail... Just visit my Redbubble Store to get yourself one! I am in the process of uploading a few shirts at the moment, so keep an eye on the store!

Also availible as a sticker :)

You can still get my Doctor Who A2 poster designs by donating £10 to the poster fund! Just include your name and address and I will send you out a free poster for your contribution to the cause. Just click the donate button link thing below.

Also, what prompted this whole escapade: On my way back from a long morning at university, I was walking back to my house when I stumbled across this fine gent! This is my first encounter of my shirt in the wild, and I was so excited I had to have a picture...

This might have made my day, if not week.

Also, Uni work seems to be going ahead okay. We have just over a month to complete our film. So not too long before I can start showing you some more stuff! In the meantime, Here is John, and both me and Dale are very happy with him.

-Jonny

Final Project Character Designs

2011-02-20T12:53:00.000Z

Been hard at work on my final year project for the past few months. Just about finished the animatic now, really exciting to see the whole film together. Although most of the animated dream sequences have been put together with soft toys and Lego for now..

I found it much easier to get more realistic camera moves working with models this way, than having the infinite amount of possibilities in 3D animatics.

With the character design fully out the way, and we are mid way through modelling them, I thought I would share some Character Designs sheets for John and The Guardian.

Really feel like we are on our way with it now, and really can't wait till it's all finished :D

-Jonny

TeeFury Shirt Submission!

2011-01-21T00:12:00.000Z

Taking a break from film making and playing some Black Ops, me and Dale had a go at some TeeFury shirt designs. This is the best one we came up with. Its on the TeeFury forums if you want to leave some love for it :D A bit of fun, but we both hope it gets printed!

It belongs to the internet now! Blog it and set it free! Just make sure you let TeeFury know how much you love it :D

-Jonny

Recent News Roundup again!

2011-01-19T16:45:00.000Z

Have been beavering away at our still untitled short half animated half live action short film with Dale. Release date is around April time, so we really have a lot to do.

Screenshots from the animatic.

We have been finishing the animatic this week. The animatic is basically a series of storyboards put to film to get the timing right. Its a really ambitious project and I really can't wait to get it all done so I can show it off. We will be having a screening in June at Northumbria University and other locations soon to be announced. Very excited, but also hoping we can pull it all off! I have the faith.

You can still get my Doctor Who A2 posters! Just donate over £10 (around $15) to our film fund, include your address, and you will be sent a poster as a means of saying thank you! Your continued support of our film is greatly appreciated all you Who fans :D

Also I might have done myself a self portrait in the midst of all the other storyboarding this week.

Hopefully have a trailer made soon for our film which will blow your effin' minds!

-Jonny

Uni Film Concept Art and Other Stuff :)

2010-12-19T15:09:00.000Z

Hello!

Today I get to reveal some concept art for my 3rd year uni film! Me and my co-pilot Dale Wilson have been busy finishing the story for our 10ish minute film of epic proportions, and we can't wait to get production underway! We both think we have a brilliant little film in the making, and we are really excited to hear what everyone makes of it!

We are also collecting all our artwork for an "art of" book to be released at the same time, detailing all the processes that go into making a short animated film. We are hoping to get a trailer out by January.

Also in other news, you may have noticed that on my Etsy store there is now a lack of Doctor Who posters. Due to reasons I can't really disclose Etsy had to take them down. The good news is that you can donate £12 to the Ameba Graphics Poster Fund to cover the excess printing costs and get a poster sent out to you for free :)

Merry Christmas!

-Jonny

TeeFury Shirt Submission!

2010-12-07T21:41:00.000Z

Recently I have been submitting a few designs to TeeFury again! So I thought I would share one. This one basically is a vectorised version of a poster design I made a few months ago, and it only just occurred to me to submit it as a shirt!

The other design I made is another Oddworld related one. If TeeFury doesn't get back to me with an answer then I will post it here :)

If you are a member of the TeeFury community, then let me know what you think of this design in the comments on their website!

-Jonny

My Handwriting!

2010-11-27T23:49:00.000Z

I have been toying with one of my favourite iPad apps today called iFontMaker. If you are interested in typography and own an iPad there is NO reason for you not to have this app.

So I had a go at making a TTF of my own handwriting! Which you can download for free HERE.

iPad Backgrounds!

2010-11-26T23:13:00.000Z

I, like many other people, have recently got hold of an iPad! And as usual, my next logical thought was "what can I make for this??"

So, to match the Nerdfighteria iPhone wallpapers, I have done some matching iPad ones too! They work both in portrait and landscape. Just tap on the one you want, hold down your finger on the image, click "save image" and the in your settings, change your wallpaper! You can even have one colour as the lock screen, and another as the background. I spoil you don't I? :)

Enjoy!

Also, if you want some Android supported backgrounds, leave a comment with your screen dimensions and I will get some made up for you :) Just that Android phones and devices don't have a standard background, thats all :)

New posters are going to be available soon too! So watch this space for christmas delivery times and such :D

-Jonny

Link this on twitter! Short URL: http://dft.ba/-ipad-backgrounds

EDIT:
HTC Wildfire:

HTC Desire

Nerdfighter Shirt Roundup!

2010-11-04T11:56:00.000Z

I have been getting a lot of pictures either emailed or tweeted at me the past few days, so I thought I would share some of them, plus LOADS more that I found on the internet. Its very very odd seeing my design being worn by so many awesome people!

Remember if you have a pic of yourself wearing your Nerdfighter shirt and want your tile added to this photomontage, then email me ameba-graphics@hotmail.com or tweet @ameba2k with your pic!

Already my shirt is seeping into the Nerdfighter community, It can be seen worn by a girl who finds double rainbows so intense in Dan Browns LA Gathering Video, and then again in his San Francisco Gathering Vlog (Josh, who likes Jam and tea with bread), and quite a few people wearing it in a Five Awesome Girls video! Thanks to Ellen (@OhDumbledear) for that one.

The money raised from the shirts has been donated to the respective charities, thus the circle is complete :)

Any ideas for my next shirt design? :P

-Jonny

EDIT:
Including John Green wearing my shirt in Amsterdam! Plus a Pikachu hat, unfortunately I didn't make that :P Hi-res HERE

Nerdfighteria Wallpapers!

2010-10-31T00:07:00.000+01:00

Today I got the money through for the Nerdfighteria shirt through! I am in the process of adding together a percentage of the profits from the Nerdfighteria Posters on Etsy to give a total amount soon! That will then get divided between Partners in Health and Cancer Research!

So, to commemorate this joyous occasion, I am giving away some iPhone/iPod Touch wallpapers! Either navigate to the images below in Safari on your iPhone/iPod Touch and save to your library, or sync them through iTunes. Will be getting some sexy looking wallpapers for your computer too! But hopefully these should do for now :) plus they come in 4 wonderful colours! My favourite is the red one.

Also, people have started to get their Nerdfighteria TeeFury shirts delivered! If you feel like sharing a picture or two of you wearing it, send me a message on my twitter @ameba2k or shoot me an email: ameba-graphics@hotmail.com.

-Jonny

NEWS ROUNDUP!

2010-10-24T21:29:00.000+01:00

Hey! Quite a bit has happened in the past few weeks since my Nerdfighter shirt went on sale on TeeFury, so here are some of the highlights so far!

• First of all, thank you to everyone who contributed in the fight against worldsuck and bought a Nerdfighter shirt on the 11th of October! It was such a fantastic day! and altogether we sold 2391 shirts! So thats $2,391 that is going to charity! :D Also I am donating some money from the sales of the Nerdfighteria Posters on my Etsy Store! So if you still feel like contributing, then go get one! Since then I have had a congratulatory Skype conversation with John Green! Hopefully the first of many.

• Production is well underway on mine and Dale's yet to be titled 3rd year animation. In the past few weeks we have built a solid story and have worked on a lot of concept art, I will be posting some of it here in the weeks to follow, but there is still a hell of a lot to do by April 1st, our final deadline for everything to be finished. Ill just tell you that we have a brilliant story for a 10 minute short! Very excited to tell you all about it!

• I went to Otley, Leeds to meet with Stewart Gilray from Just Add Water, a company that is currently remastering the last Oddworld Game; Stranger's Wrath for the PSN. I got to give him a load of my Oddworld Posters, a few of which he is sending to Lorne Lanning. According to him, Lorne simply stated that they where "cool".

• Posters are still all selling very well on my Etsy Store! If you want to grab yourself an Oddworld or Doctor Who or Nerdfighteria Poster then go get one! There is limited stock for each of them!

• And in non-businessy related news, I got my brilliant new iMac, which might be one of the best things I have ever purchased, I am a happy little geek :D

To keep up on places I am going to be, be sure to check out my Twitter, as I usually bring along some free posters for anyone who can find me. On Tuesday I am going to be in London all day! So keep a lookout for me. Probably hanging out at the new Covent Garden Apple Store, as I really want to see what it looks like.

-Jonny

Nerdfighters on TeeFury!

2010-10-01T13:19:00.000+01:00

I just got a confirmation email from the lovely Michelle at TeeFury, confirming that my Nerdfighter shirt will be availible to purchase for one day only on the 11th of October, only on TeeFury!

Remember, with TeeFury all the shirts are availible for ONE DAY ONLY! so put the 11th in your diary.

For the remainder of the week I will also be selling a limited number of A2 sized Nerdfighter Posters on Etsy! So be sure once you have grabbed a shirt that you head on over to my Etsy Store to grab yourself a matching poster!

And if you haven't already, follow me on twitter @ameba2k for competitions throughout the day!

All the proceeds from the shirt and poster sales will go towards two charities, once Cancer Research charity, in memory of the awesome Esther, and the other half will go towards John's chosen charity, Partners in Health.

I absolutly cannot wait for another TeeFury day! The last one I had was so much fun throughout the entire 24 hours. And I hope that you Nerdfighters will make this one extra awesome!

So remember, 11th of October, grab yourself a neat T-Shirt and Poster and help make some money for a couple of awesome causes!

See you on then!

-Jonny

Edit: EffYeahNerdfighters just posted a really mint post about the event, if you are on Tumblr, then go and see their post HERE

Doctor Who A2 Posters!

2010-09-07T15:27:00.000+01:00

First of all, I now have a limited supply of Doctor Who A2 Posters, now available from Etsy! go HERE to go and get yourself one! At the moment I only have The Doctor as a print, but if it proves popular then I will get an Amy Pond one made up too. They are printed on 150gsm Gloss paper and are delieverd to you, as all my posters are, in solid cardboard tubes, To make sure you recieve it in the best possible quality.

Second, the Winners of my Twitter Competition! Who receive each an A2 Doctor Who poster, and an A3 Amy Pond Poster are
@EllieMitchell15
and
@Brainyspecs

Congratulations guys! Hope you like them!

I had some fantastic quotes tweeted at me over the last 24 hours, here are just a few that are pretty cool:

"Actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, [time is] more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey... stuff."
- @ de4d5y

"Donna: You are completely impossible! The Doctor: Not impossible... just a bit unlikely"
- @katiedoyle

"That's a fairytale." "Aren't we all?"
- @SnapPop

Really was overwhelmed by the response I got for this competition. Will probably be doing more of these in future! So stay following me on my Twitter @ameba2k and see if you win something next time!

Also, Im about to start a new series of Poster Designs! Will be posting the first one later this month, and from that you will probably understand what series I am going for. But feel free to guess in the comments :) Or even suggest a series I should have a crack at next!

Lots and lots done, and loads more planned for the rest of the year :D

-Jonny

Some Who Shirts!

2010-09-05T15:35:00.000+01:00

First of all, thanks again to everyone who bought my Doctor Who TeeFury Shirt, And sorry to people who missed it. Unfortunately I don't have the means to make the shirt myself, but If i ever get round to screen printing my own I will let you all know.

I have been asking people who have bought the shirt on my Twitter to send me some pics of them wearing it! Not only to see my shirt, but also to prove to myself that the whole day actually happened, and people actually liked the design. Here are a few! If you want to send me some more, feel free to email me at ameba-graphics@hotmail.com and send me your best picture. Here are just a few:

I loved the whole experience, and amazingly my followers on Twitter has stayed around 500! It really is amazing to think that people will stick around even after the Doctor Who shirts.

Remember, you can still buy A3 Posters of The Doctor, Amy Pond and other designs from the store!

-Jonny

Meeting John Green and the Nerdfighter Gathering!

2010-08-15T20:14:00.000+01:00

Have just got back from a day trip to Edinburgh to meet John Green and other Nerdfighers.

For those who don't know, John Green is a writer of such teen fiction titles as Looking For Alaska and Paper Towns, he is also primarily known among us all as one half of the Vlog Brothers! Where he exchanged videos every day with his brother Hank Green.

Me and Franki both donned our new Ambea Graphics shirts and headed for Waverly station. After waiting for a while we met up with Nyla and other YouTuber's outside the Millies Cookies stand and waited for John's Train to arrive.

Upon his arrival he was greeted by about 10 of us, exchanged greetings and headed over to the park, where to my amazement, there where about 60 other Nerdfighters all waiting for us!

Then John said a little speech, and we all said good morning to his brother Hank for his Vlog on Monday. Afterwards me and Franki gave out 100 posters to everyone while John signed some books. People also where getting my posters signed too. A surreal experience for me, having someone want someone else to sign something that I have made. Here is the poster I made for the event:

We hung out under the tree overlooking the sea next to a giant Parthenon structure, the weather was beautiful, sung songs and got to know each other. Lots of group photos too. John gathered everyone together to hold up my posters too so I could get a picture. This to me was amazing, seeing everyone with my work. I loved it.

John then had to leave to go to the event, we unfortunately didn't have tickets so we had to leave. Not before I got one last picture with him. He said he made special exceptions for graphic designers. Mint.

All in all, Nyla did a fantastic job putting the gathering together in such a short space of time, if given a few more weeks I recon we could have had double what we had today. But it was a good number of people. Was great to finally meet John after following the Vlog Brothers for so long. Need to meet Hank next please.

-Jonny

TeeFury Debrief

2010-08-14T11:03:00.000+01:00

Wow.

Yesterday has to be one of the most hectic and exciting days ever. Not only did I move into my new house in Newcastle, but also my Tshirt on TeeFury sold 2239 times! Was a fantastic print run, and also it got Pancakes! Pancakes meaning its a "hot seller" or something. Still, look how cute he is!

I fully expect everyone who bought a tee to send me a picture of them wearing it to ameba-graphics@hotmail.com just so it proves you actually did buy them and its not my imagination.

Also I was running two competitions to win 4 of my posters yesterday! Was going to give away 2 but the response was so huge that I decided to give out a few more :) Two on the TeeFury comments, and the other was two on my Twitter by tweeting a hashtag at me. The Winners of them where:

Jadellyn and wbuthod from TeeFury
and
@englamericann and @UlyssesOnion

Congratulations to them! Posters will be printed off and sent off as soon as possible.

Some stats from yesterday:
781 Comments on the site
241 Competition entrants
peaked at 180 tees in an hour

Can't wait to see people actually wearing one of my designs.

Thanks go to Jimiyo for curating my tee and helping me get the design print ready and for all his encouragement, Franki for helping me pick the winners, my new followers on Twitter and the TeeFury community for all their comments

-Jonny

Doctor Who on TeeFury!

2010-08-13T09:10:00.000+01:00

Good Morning!

Woke up this morning with two hundred new followers on Twitter and several new followers to this blog! Hello to everyone new!

So, My T Shirt design is on TeeFury NOW! :D

I have to say Jimiyo has done a fantastic conversion job on this one. The colours are very dynamic and really stand out. If you are a Doctor Who fan and love that Tomorrowland Optimism, then you will love todays T-shirt!

Not only that, But there is a competition to win one of 3 Doctor Who Posters! One in the TeeFury comments, and Two on Twitter!

For the one on TeeFury, simply leave comment on the poster, and on Twitter simply tweet @ameba2k #canihavethatdoctorwhoposterplease or Retweet some of my competition updates throughout the day with that particular hashtag! Good Luck!

Having a brilliant day already! Look forward to reading everyones comments about it! :D

-Jonny

Oddworld Poster Series

2010-08-13T00:33:00.000+01:00

Hello World! Quick post.

Ive just finished my last in a series of Oddworld inspired Poster Designs! These are something I have been working on quite a bit in my spare time. They started life as Art Deco posters, but quickly evolved into something askew from the style, especially with the Strangers Wrath one.

You can check out all of these and other poster designs, as usual, on my Poster Design Blog!

-Jonny

Hewitt and Walker's Completion! & Other News

2010-07-28T18:07:00.000+01:00

Just got back from the printers this afternoon, which marks the final stage for the Hewitt and Walker History Of Cinema! I am meeting up with Ollie to oversee the final render of the film and burn it, ready to send off!

The design has been ongoing since the films conception, and has seen many different alterations. But this design not only matches the aesthetic of the film, but is in a style that I have been happy with for quite a while. Something of a rarity when you are as self critical as I am!

They look brilliant all folded in the box now. Spend the majority of the night folding them all!

If you want more information on The Hewitt & Walker History of Cinema, then become a fan of us on Facebook! We have around 80 fans already! But be sure to add your name to that select few, and if you like what you see, let us know! :D

In Other News:

• My Blog has been featured on the Official Vancouver Film School Blog! If you look back at previous posts, I did a day by day diary of what I got up to on my Vancouver Film School Summer Intensive. And they liked my blog enough to not only feature it, but give me a free T-Shirt :D Thank you VFS for not only having me, but endorsing my blog.

• TeeFury have announced the date that they are going to be producing my TShirt! I won't say exactly what design is going to be printed, but you can probably guess. It will be featured on Friday, August 13 2010. Be sure to go and check out TeeFury in a fortnight to see my design, and if you like it, get a shirt! :D

• I have also uploaded 2 more posters to my Poster Design Blog, one of them being the 3rd in a 4 part Oddworld Poster series focusing on Strangers Wrath, shown below. The other being a Nerdfighters Poster! Visit my poster blog for all of them and more!

More Ameba News as it develops! I am out with Ollie tomorrow, so expect pictures and more news on Hewitt and Walker!

Day 5 at VFS

2010-07-26T13:44:00.000+01:00

Last day! The early mornings and inspired late nights were starting to catch up with me. Nothing a coffee couldn't remedy though! And onwards towards my last day. Today we had 3D animation and character modelling!

3D Animation

When it comes to teaching 3D in Maya, the lines are so blurred between different disciplines that often the teachers go over things we had already covered in previous lessons. But rather than a carbon copy of yesterdays character animation, this one took the basics of animating with Maya and reiterated it until we where at least confident using Maya by yourself. For me, going over the basics was just what I needed. After being pretty much self taught in 3D through trial and error, it was great to have professional tutoring.

Our lesson consisted of a basic bouncing ball animation. But concentrated on getting that ball to bounce the best it could, applying the squash and stretch techniques we used in classical animation. We where all told that nothing is perfect, and that to make our future animations look more authentic, we had to distort the animation curves slightly, once you had the perfect ball. It was very satisfying getting it looking great! Then we did some texturing to get it looking swish.

Last lunch of the week was some more sandwiches. Lovely.

Then it was Visual Effects time! You could tell that some people had been looking forward to this one all week! The first half of the lesson was a lecture on everything that goes into making modern visual effects. And breakdowns of every aspect of the industry. After that, we had quick fire Maya tutorials! Starting with basic dynamics, texturing, modelling, shading, rigging, animating, cameras and lighting! Was amazing to get that level of teaching in just a couple of hours!

Then, towards the end, our course rep came around with our official VFS course completion certificates! Was hoping I would get something like that, going straight on my wall when I get home.

They had one last treat for us, we went to the modelling room and where introduced to Zbrush! I have never used a program like it. It's more like sculpting in clay. And I loved it! We only had half an hour on it, but the introduction was massively helpful. Really can't wait to get home and start playing with it. A massively more intuitive way of modelling characters that need a lot of detail.

Thus completes my week at Vancouver Film School! I'm so happy I had the opportunity to go. I met some massively inspirational people that have changed the way I approach animation and film. Who knows, hopefully I will end up back there! Even if I don't end up at VFS, Vancouver is such a beautiful city, I might just move there once my degree is over! Thanks for having me Canada!

VFS Day 4

2010-07-23T01:05:00.000+01:00

Another early morning, and a brisk walk with a morning coffee to VFS's Animation building. Todays lessons where Acting for Animation and 3D Animation!

Acting For Animation

After a bit of room confusion we all bundled into the common room for our much anticipated Acting Class. By now we are starting to get to know each other, and can have a chat about what we expected of this class. Whatever each of us had thought acting was going to be, we where all wrong.

The guy teaching us came and sat down and made us each say what we think acting is. We all said variations of the illusion of characters or making an audience believe whats on screen. We where all right, but very wrong too. He taught us at speed the essence of characters in films and how and audience relates to them, and what it takes to convey emotion with characters.

From there we discussed how to construct a scene using specific examples from Ice Age and Shrek, and how each of them has different things to look out for. Im generalising here of course. He expressed distaste for acting classes that teach you to express yourself by acting as a tree, or a cloud or something like that. Not once has he needed to be a tree or a cloud. Or anything inanimate. Simplicity in the work is key. Something he didn't want us to forget in a hurry.

You could tell that he had years and years of different acting classes, and he had pulled out all the essentials and tried to cram in as much as he could in the 3 hour time slot. We each constructed a scene in pairs using the techniques he showed us, and we each had to talk about it. A fantastic exercise in writing. And I was itching to go home and start writing my own work!

3D Animation

After a sandwich lunch and a lengthy discussion about Pokémon with people, we made our way upstairs to the 3D animation room. Yesterday we learned how to make a fish swim, Today it was getting into making believable 3D animation using a simple bouncing ball animation. Having a bit of Maya knowledge already, I used this oppertunity to grill our tutor about some of the finer things about Maya, and any tips and shortcuts he can show me. Which he did. After then I decided to pick up a bit of zBrush in preparation for our lesson on it tomorrow. Something I really can't wait for! I got a small into to it from a guy called Logan on the course, and some of the stuff he had created was insane. Its such a more intuative way of making 3D models rather than staring with a Polygonal geometry in maya.

Overall I really feel like I am getting the best parts of a broad curriculum. I feel like I can go home soon and feel more ready than ever to get to work on my final year animation. I have a better understanding of story structure now to add to the mix. Its all coming together.

Inception tonight! Then my last day tomorrow! Including a trip to the VFS shop for some gifts for people back home :)

Oh, And a pixelated whale...

-Jonny

Sunsets and Fireworks

2010-07-22T07:27:00.000+01:00

Had to post something about my night.

Yesterday, our history tutor mentioned that there will be a huge firework display on down by the river thanks to a group called the Celebration of Light. So we all nodded and said that we would go and check it out if we weren't doing anything.

I walked over the bridge and saw a mass of people herding towards the coast, lining the beaches and crammed into the parks. After walking down I took my seat on a patch of grass in-between two giant sculptures and watched the sun set...

Then a couple of people from the course, plus some game design lot, came and sat with me and we waited for it to get dark enough. We chatted for a while, then as soon as the fireworks started our attention was diverted. We discussed the mechanics of fireworks and how brilliant it might be to have the general public be able to control it. The people next to us where talking about the free popcorn.

It was so cool just hearing the fireworks rumble through the mountains then back behind you. Anyone oblivious to the fireworks behind the mountains would first think of thunder, then an air raid.

Loved every minute. Pixels never do fireworks (or anything) justice, but I tried :)

-Jonny

VFS Day 2 & 3

2010-07-22T00:49:00.000+01:00

Sorry to anyone who reads this for not updating yesterday, I got back from Tuesday completly burned out and slept for 10 hours. But, refreshed this morning I went right into Day 3.

Day 2

Against our scheduled timetable, we had History of Animation, and in the afternoon we completed our classical animation sessions with learning a walk cycle.

Apprehensive about History, we walked into the room to be greeted by a quietly enthusiastic guy. As soon as we all took our seats he dove right in with describing the specifics of how moving pictures and animation works on screen, onto different types of animation there are, to discussing what films have inspired us to come to VFS in the first place. A lot of people influenced by Pixar films, so he talked about what inspired John Lassater when he was at CalArts. One inperticular he showed us was Fredric Back's The Man Who Planted Trees. a 30 minute animation which is fantastic! We watched a few more films and had discussions about each of them. The most phenomenal one is a film made by doing finger paintings on glass called The Old Man and the Sea by Alexandra Petrov. A FINGER Painting! :O There where loads more. All in all you came away from the session with a more broad perspective of the whole of animation, rather than the diet of Disney that you usually get. It was brilliant to get a condensed 4 hour lecture from someone who really has a massive amount of knowledge and appreciation about the field. Rather than hating History of Art, I left wanting to come back for another lecture! Maybe next year.

Classical animation came to its conclusion for the week learning a walk cycle. Different to the sack of flour yesterday, being more planning and getting the movement right over 12 frames. Quite difficult, I went through about 3 different cycles before I got one that looked even remotely realistic. Its something you really have to keep doing over and over again. Which we did. Iain, the guy who was helping teach, when he wasn't teaching anyone, he would sit and draw. By the end of the session, he had a stack of paper about an inch thick that he had made during the afternoon, and each of us in the class had been drawn around 4 different times. Im very aware of my own circular shaped head...

The day finished with a few drinks with the people from Game Design on the other campus. Sat around our table where 2 Autralians, 2 Americans, 1 Mexican and 1 Englishman (me). You had to take a step back and see how VFS had brought people from nearly every continent together in one place. And these guys are really on fire about their fields. They love animation and game designing. Us all talking about our work was exculpating into a inspirationgasm, so we called it a night. After a few days of getting up early and staying up drawing, I was beat.

Day 3

Refreshed, I made my way to VFS for Life Drawing! With Adam Rogers, a guy who looked like a shorter Hugh Laurie with glasses. Neat!
He started talking about the specifics of how life drawing affects your view on the world, and how drawing people all the time improves your style and can bleed into whatever animation discipline you end up doing. His real passion for the subject really shone through, and it was almost infectious! We all went ahead and drew our model in 30 second poses and 10 second poses and so on. By the end of the session each of us had used almost a whole pad of paper. and looking at the first drawing we did compared to the last, everyones was a hundred times better. If that was a 4 hour session, extrapolate that to doing that every week for a year. The message was simple. More drawing makes you better. Im booking myself in for life drawing when I am back in Newcastle!

After scoffing the sandwiches, we made our way to the computer labs for our 3D animation session. We got our basic orientation onto the computers, then in came our tutor, called Magic Eslami. I had a basic knowledge of Maya, our 3D package we where using, but even I had trouble keeping up with the speed at which he wanted to teach us. By the end of the lesson we each had modelled a fish, gave it a skeleton, coloured it, parented it, skinned it and animated it. For me it was a great little recap of the basics, and learning the shortcuts and other really useful tips from a guy who had been teaching there for around 10 years! Here is my fish:

Tonight there is a HUGE firework display on around 10, so I'm heading out to that later on. Will put some pictures up of that. According to pretty much everyone who lives there, it should be something magical.

More tomorrow!

VFS Day One!

2010-07-20T05:05:00.000+01:00

As you may or may not know, at the moment I am in Canada attending the Vancouver Film School's Animation and Visual Effects Summer Intensive Course! Today was my first day so I thought I would share what I have been up to!

Was up very early to get to Orientation on time across town. Upon signing in we where given a welcome pack, pens, a drinking bottle and a rucksack! We sat down and watched the intro presentation showcasing some of the work that has been created at VFS so far.
Shuttle Bus!
Then using our trendy key cards we made our way up to the Visual Effects and Animation floor. The first thing you notice is how proud the school is of its alumni and the things they have worked on. Immediately as you walk in there is a District 9 poster signed by Niel Bloomkamp and some of the Visual Effects team. As we where toured round each of the rooms we where greeted happily by the people in them before they explained what they did there. More posters, this time for Toy Story 3, 9 and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs to name a few. Lining the corridors are framed artworks from previous graduates, with a level of detail and precision and variation that someone could only dream of achieving. Before we had even sat down you where loaded with inspiration.

Todays lessons where firstly Introduction to classical animation, where we learned to bring personality and life into a sack of flour jumping off a table. And after lunch there was Character Design, lead by one of the most charismatic and happy guys I have ever had teach me.

Character Design had to be my favourite of the day. Taught by Mike West. Winding down in the afternoon watching some old Tex Avery cartoons, while being taught quick fire techniques to building some great characters, teaching us all the basics of how people relate to characters, along with which appeal to different age groups. The beginning of the session we where given a stack of paper and just told to keep drawing throughout the afternoon, each hour he gave us something new to try out. Here are some of the drawings I came up with today:

Once 4 o'clock came along we where free to wander the building as we wished, if we wanted to cary on animating from the morning we could just go back in and help ourselves. A few of us sat and chatted with Mike for a while about some of his work. Check out his blog for some examples.

Fully inspired I took to a few coffee shops at the end of the day to do some people watching and some drawing. Nice end to the first day, can't wait till tomorrow!

-Jonny

Toy Story 3: How Canadians Ruined It All (Some Potential Spoilers)

2010-07-19T08:08:00.001+01:00

I was seven years old when the first Toy Story came to the UK. The perfect age to be magically taken away by visuals that even then I knew there was something new and unseen before, and if not for the strange and alluring visuals, but for the story. Every child imagines their toys come alive when they are not looking! And here they where all along, in the mind of John Lassater. Everything we children wanted from a film.

Then soon after, Toy Story 2 came along, and for me at my tender age, I felt that the story of Andy and his Toys had some sort of closure. The ending of the sequel capped off the films with a sense of optimism, and counter balanced the first outing like only a brilliant sequel does.

Then there is Toy Story 3. 11 years in the making, and by anyones standards a brilliant film. Unfortunately the cinema I saw it at was full of the most wretched slime of Vancouver, one in particular who thought it was wholly except able to guffaw at every opportunity that they could. Even the most poignant moment in the film (and there are a few) he felt like it deserved a chuckle. Because hey, this is a cartoon! Its here to make me laugh right? So if some of the comments seem a bit harsh for this otherwise 5 star film, my concentration and immersion was taken away by this man. May he stumble back in time and kill his grandfather so he never exists and butterfly effects his way into making this review better. Amen.

Toy Story 3 is a fantastic film. Perfectly put together and the animation, a quality that we have become accustomed to with Pixar Films, is the best they have ever created. Its something that every single person who worked on the film will be, and should be, proud of for the rest of their lives. But me being me, I still had a couple of little things wrong. Baby things. But ones that took me out of the moment and made me remember Im in a cinema again...

Toy Story 3 opens with a spectacular scene in which Woody and the toys are in a wild west chase scene, and as the story unveils it becomes clear that this is either in the eyes of Andy, or its what the toys experience while they are being played with. Personally I prefer to think of it as the latter, explaining why they would want to be played with all the time instead of going ahead and making a Toy Zion somewhere and christening it the homeland.
But as the scene develops, what strikes me most is Andy's lack of imagination. The characters that they portray are the same as the first film. For me this set the tone of the film as going to be filled with attempted nostalgia by making you remember the first ones. As if this one wouldn't be able to stand by itself. Lee Unkrich should have more faith in his storytelling. To me it seemed as wrong as people who say that there must be an Incredibles 2 because there is the Underminer at the end! With this instalment being "lightyears" ahead of the first two, to me it needed to be more separate, instead of constantly reminding us that the first two films existed.

And one you noticed that, its everywhere. If you know the previous films well enough you notice that a lot of the dialogue is reworked to mirror its original counterparts, such as "this is the perfect time to be hysterical". Then there are total reworked scenes that take essence from the oldies: Flashbacks, baddie comeuppance etc...

As I said before, this is probably down to my lack of total immersion in the film due to this now cursed man who was sat next to me. And as the infamous Facebook group put it: "ive been waiting 11 years to see this film", and it was ruined by someone who thinks every move on the screen needs to be rewarded by a chuckle. Sad smiley face time :(

It was a great film, and I am watching it again when I get back from Canada when the hype has died down in the UK over it, and yes I did well up at the ending, but probably more due to the fact that after waiting so long to see this film it was ruined and it wasn't effecting me as much as it should, and I will never be able to see it for the first time ever again.

New Trailer, New Myspace!

2010-07-03T21:48:00.000+01:00

Trailer is done! Myspace is done! (In more ways than one)

Go and check out what me and Ollie have been attacking all day! Today we finished our final trailer, and got ourselves a swanky little myspace page.

The film is in the final stages of completion, and I cant wait to get it out there for everyone to see. Head on over to the Myspace page to see our brand new trailer.

Very happy :)

-Jonny

iPhone 4 Stuff!

2010-06-29T14:24:00.000+01:00

Hey everyone!

Yes I got myself a new iPhone. I haven't had one since the original one came out 4 years ago, so I thought it was time for an upgrade.

So, I have decided to make a few backgrounds, made from my posters, for all you swanky new iPhone 4 users! You can still use these on other iPhones too. I will be updating this with more as I get them finished off. Hope you like them! And let me know if you use them.

Just click the poster, then press and hold the enlarged image, then click save image. You can then go to your settings and change the background from there :)

-Jonny

News! Bits from all over the Internet!

2010-06-17T14:25:00.000+01:00

Posters!

My Poster Blog has been growing in popularity over the last month or so, riding mostly on the crest of the Lost Finale, I had every Lost related Tumblr re-blogging my 3 Lost posters. So thanks everyone who "liked" it and re-blogged them. Hopefully I will be uploading more soon!
Also on the note of posters, I have made some rather swish looking Oddworld Posters! I have so far made one for Abe's Oddysee and one for Abes Exoddus and another Soulstorm Brewery one, shown below. I happened to also post them on the Oddworld Forum, see what the Oddworld community had to say about them HERE.

Short Films!

After shooting Hunter with Ollie this weekend we are more than on track getting Hewitt and Walker finished. But on another note, after doing a quick search online for our films, one inperticular, called First Date, was featured on some persons blog! check out First Date on there if you haven't seen it already, and see his other collection of pictures, films and poems HERE

The Pixar Talk Says Hello!

Recently me and Ollie went to a Car Boot sale. Upon browsing some of the stalls I found an original Fisher Price Chatter Telephone, as featured in Toy Story 3.What made the photo brilliant was the couple in the background, looking at disbelief at what I was buying.

After Tweeting it to several Pixar Blogs I got a reply from @PixarTalk saying:

PixarTalk @ameba2k that is an awesome photo!
1:23 AM Jun 11th via Twitter

Brilliant

More News as it developes!

Hunter! Filming a Grindhouse Trailer

2010-06-15T13:19:00.000+01:00

We are (again) wrapped up filming Hewitt and Walker. And given ourselves a deadline of the end of the month to get it all finished. I can't wait to get it out there and get people watching it! I really hope everyone likes it!

Yesterday me and Ollie filmed our last grindhouse trailer, called Hunter. A story of two Vietnam prisoners of war who escape their captors. Only to find something more horrifying than they could have imagined waiting for them in the jungle...

This was our first proper film shot on Ollies brand new camera. And we were very excited to be shooting in full 1080p HD! We got some shots that would never have been possible on Ollies old camera, and the quality is just amazing! Here are some screenshots taken from some of the footage gone through so far, click to see in High Resolution...

Also feel free to go and check out Ollies Blog for more beautiful high res screenshots, his thoughts on the film and other projects he is working on! His website is here too.

Was a brilliant day filming, the weather held out and hopefully it looks more like Vietnam than a chicken shed in Yorkshire.

-Jonny

Jamie Smart Stuffs!

2010-06-07T16:04:00.000+01:00

Around 5 years ago, I was taken on a shopping trip to Leeds with a friend of mine, and she made me buy this comic, called Bear. Ever since buying that issue (and the other 9 issues), they have completely turned around what I wanted to do with my life, and inspired me to create the design work I do today. And more importantly, to keep drawing. I have been a huge Jamie Smart fan from then on.

If you remember a few months ago, In my spare time I went ahead and made some Looshkin related content in Touch Designer, Starting with a Looshkin clock and climaxing with an interactive Looshkin. I sent him the links and he was kind enough to get back in touch! He told me he really liked my designs and that he will feature me in his blog sometime.

A few months later and on his blog he does a fantastic feature on my work! For those who can't wait to see what he said about me, here is some of it...

"So there’s this guy called Jonny Eveson, and by all accounts he’s a bit of a demon with graphic-nobbery (i’m not sure the correct technical term, though that’s probably close?). He showed me some of the things he’s been doing with Looshkin as testers recently (we’ve also been talking about working on something together), all of which you can see on his youtube channel HERE. From rotating heads to Looshkin clocks, he’s quite the inventor!"

-Jamie Smart

Its amazing that he will give my work the time of day, let alone actually liking anything I produce. I look forward to working with Jamie in the future, making something fantastic, as only he can.

iPad Review!

2010-05-28T14:08:00.000+01:00

After much anticipation, reading US reviews from Apple enthusiasts and haters alike, I was more than a little apprehensive about the iPad. Nevertheless I got up this morning, and after an hour or two trying to find my car keys I made my way into the shiny new Apple Store in Newcastle.

Outside the store there was temporary queuing bollards for the morning rush, now disused as the queues had subsided by the time I got there. But either way there was crowds of people squishing around the iPad tables, desperate to get their hands on one. So much so that they had Apple "Geniuses" abandoning their posts and running around with little Apple branded cloths to wipe the Geordie peasants grubby fingerprints off their new babies.

I had a vague idea of what it would be like. An iPhone thats a bit bigger with some higher resolution apps on. But once I had squeezed my way past I picked it up, and using it was just like second nature to me. I was proud of myself figuring out the screen rotation lock and finding my favourite websites on it etc.. But looking around the table, that was how everyone else looked. People who young and old, all figuring out the different apps with a massive smile on their faces. From just being around the table, you can tell that this was a device that was so well designed, that it rendered people of all ages to the same level, without patronising anyone.

So I did what anyone else does with it, checked my email, tweeted about tweeting from an iPad, checked out how nice my YouTube videos looked on its screen (fantastic by the way) and left Safari open with my blog, you know, everything someone does in the Apple store.

While I was there I had a chat with my friend who works there (Hey James!) and he told me how much he wanted one too, took me over to a spare one and showed me some of the features I might have missed. Quite a lot. I also played on the somewhat limited choice of apps available on each iPad: a Zombie Flower game and Flight control HD. Both stunning definition and colours so sharp!

Basically, I love this product. It just feels right to use, All the Apple Fanboys where right, you just love playing on it, surfing the internet is so easy and (probably from an extension of my iPhone) just touching the screen works for me, you don't feel like you are squinting through a hole at the internet like on the iPhone or other mobile devices, you feel like you are a part of it. And more importantly, I can see myself using it at home. And not even in a romanticised "just imagine what I could do with it" but genuinely wanting to use it every day.

Leaving the Apple store, I kind of felt like I was betraying myself by letting myself fall in love with a piece of technology and wanting it in my life. But sat here in my girlfriends bedroom, on her bed, blogging on my laptop, I can't help but notice how much my back aches, and think what I can possibly sell to get an iPad.

-Jonny

Jonny Eveson Posters!

2010-05-19T19:23:00.001+01:00

I have had a DeviantArt for a number of years now, and I upload pretty much everything I do to it. but recently I have been making quite a few poster designs, So I thought I would make myself a simple little online portfolio for everyone to take a peek at. If you have a Tumblr, be sure to "follow" me here!

Doctor Who Posters

2010-05-19T19:15:00.000+01:00

I love Doctor Who. This new season feels a lot more grown up and less slapstick than previous series. Im really enjoying it! And tying together my love of both Doctor Who and Poster design, I threw together some designs! So far they are gaining quite a bit of popularity of a few sites. Hopefully I will get some better higher res versions up for people to download.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do making them! I really do love making posters, and I plan to make quite a few more of different things I like. Let me know what you think of them!

DandAD Update

2010-05-09T16:46:00.000+01:00

I got an email earlier this week from Fergal Kilroy, the head of D&AD Student Awards, and unfortuatly my animation didn't make the cut for D&AD this year. So no Yellow Pencil for me this year! Maybe next time.

On the plus side, I get to upload it and show it off now! Take a look:

Click HERE to see the video in High Definition

To be fair, I did make it in 4 days. The D&AD brief sort of crept up on me this year. I think If i spent more time on it, and actually put some animation in there, then I might have made something worth a Yellow Pencil. As soon as the briefs for next year come through I am starting right away.

Tuesday Night: MGA at the Tyneside Cinema!

2010-05-09T13:14:00.001+01:00

The Tuesday just gone was the MGA Interactive Animation and VJ Night at the Tyneside Cinema!

For all those who didn't come along, it was a great night! Took pretty much all day setting up, hopping from the cinema, to Uni, then back home etc. But after all that it was a good night showcasing some of our work. Unfortunately the bar we hired out closed at 11, something we didn't know in advance, so some people didn't get to show their work. Hopefully I will get a video soon of everyones work that went into the night.

My work was down in the bottom corner along with a couple of other peoples, projected on the table. It went down amazingly! Everyone loved playing with my amoebas and had loads of fun. Even if it did have limited capabilities and a few glitches. But nothing that anyone was too worried about. Im working on a video showing how I made it later today. Im looking forward to the next night now! And I love playing with Touch Designer.

Also my mum paid a visit too. She drove a 200 mile round trip to come and see my work. And chat to my Tutors, which I think she was looking forward to the most.

Finished My Interactive Animation!

2010-05-02T22:34:00.000+01:00

I have just finished putting the last few details on my Interactive Animation project. Its come along really well these past couple of days. I can't wait to show it off at the Tyneside Cinema on Tuesday. I fully expect everyone to be there! Not only to see my work, but to take a gander at everyone else's work too! Varying from VJ Sets, to Interactive Animation. If you can't make it on the night come up during the day! We should be there all afternoon setting up.

If you can't make it on Tuesday don't worry! We are recording the entire night and making a short film showing the best bits of the night. It will be like you where right there. Except you weren't. Boo.

Now all thats left to do is sit and play test it tonight! Search for faults and such before letting everyone else have a go.

Two more sleeps till MGA Interactive Animation and VJ Night!

2010-05-02T12:25:00.000+01:00

Its my last weekend to get everything finished for the Motion Graphics and Animation Night at the Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle. If you are in the North East on Tuesday night I highly reccomend you come down and visit from half 9 till late. We are all really excited for it and we can't wait.

My project is coming along nicely, Im just putting the finishing touches to it this weekend. Its a piece of interactive animation that will hopefully be fun to play with! Ill get some videos up mid next week of how the night went.

There have been some brilliant projects being made this semester, and its going to be brilliant showcasing it all on Tuesday. If you are free on tuesday please come down and check it out. Invite yourself on our Facebook Event or "Like" our event on Tyneside Cinema's Facebook page!

See you on Tuesday!

My Finished Character Animation Module

2010-04-27T00:37:00.000+01:00

In the early hours of this morning I got my minute long advert made for my hand in! I thought I would upload it here. Let me know what you think!

Eco-Green Advert - Motion Graphics and Animation from Jonny Eveson on Vimeo.

Only 2 more modules to go!

NEWS at Noon

2010-04-24T11:12:00.000+01:00

Sort of a Headline Updates post really.

• D&AD Student Awards is being judged as we speak! According to the D&AD Twitter they have finished judging the professional entrees and are moving onto the student awards now. They sent out emails to us all (3 of us on Motion Graphics) saying that we should hear back from them around early May. So look out for a post then to see how Sam, DavidNeal and I did!

• My Fiverr page has been getting a LOT of traffic! Im amazed how many people have ordered something. I have been featured on their home page for about a week now and getting a lot of brilliant feedback from the work. Shame this surge has come in around the time of University deadlines, so a couple of them might get them a little late, but hopefully the posters will be good enough that they forget that :D

• University work is coming on nicely! Our hand in for my Recycling Animation is Monday, so a busy weekend ahead cracking on with getting the final scenes done. So to end with here is a very topical volcano from my animation...

-Jonny

Tyneside Poster Designs

2010-04-22T23:29:00.000+01:00

In the midst of doing my last week of Uni work. I like to take a break and wind down by doing a bit of poster design. Naturally. These two I made for some upcoming nights at the Tyneside Cinema in Newcastle. The first being Death Note, as part of their Japanimation Season, and the second is a free screening of Raiders of the Lost Arc. Check them out if you are in the North East!

Hopefully Ill have some more if they like these ones.

Lost Poster

2010-04-15T16:48:00.000+01:00

As you may or may not know, I am an AVID Lost fan! And when I got an email from ABC for Lost fan art, I kinda had to put a poster together. I was going to attempt a Grindhouse poster as I've been putting out quite a lot of them from Fiverr, but it sort of developed into a screen printed advert for Oceanic Airlines, approved by Charles Widmore. I think that it kind of captures the feeling i get from Lost.

Hope season 6 ends well! :D

EDIT: You can see both these with other pieces of LOST fan art HERE

More Ameba News!

2010-04-13T15:31:00.000+01:00

• Have totally finished all filming Hewitt and Walker and I'm putting together the last of the effects over the next couple of weeks. Unfortunately I don't think we will have it all done to our standard for Leeds Zombie Film Festival this year, but don't worry! We still have a load of freebies to give away to do with the film on that day! We look forward to seeing everyone again this year.

• Had some great feedback from people regarding Killer Flies From Mexico, our short film on the DVD extras on Paranormal Activity. If you haven't seen it yet and you do own Paranormal Activity, sift through the Extras and find our short film. We would love to hear what you think!

• I am now part of the "Featured Club" on Fiverr! The top 4 results on the home page are on a rotation, and if you refresh it enough times you get this...

...which is lovely! You can find my profile on Fiverr HERE and check out my entire list of Gigs.

• This summer I have got into Vancouver Film Schools Intensive Week Program. Its basically a week of intensive animating and special effects. I have no idea what I'm going to learn there, but a week of hardcore animating in Vancouver should be amazing! Ill be sure to post pictures and videos up here when I get back.

• Uni work is coming along great too. Im just putting together some final tests in After Effects of what my work might look like. Screenshots and test video below. This is for my 30 second TV advert on recycling as part of my Character Animation Module. Im getting that out the way first then concentrate on my Interactive Animation. Only a few weeks to go! Remember you can catch up on what I am up to at uni by looking at my blogs for Interactive Animation and Character Animation.

Click HERE To see the video in High Definition

Thats all for my News so far! Hopefully I will be back to doing regular blogs instead of news updates every month!

-Jonny

NEWS! Headline: Paranormal Activity Out Today!

2010-03-22T15:56:00.000Z

• Paranormal Activity is out TODAY! Go and get yourself a copy either on DVD or Blu-Ray and see Me and Ollie starring in the greatest B movie ever made; Killer Flies from Mexico! Our biggest claim to fame so far! If anyone gets a copy of it let me know! and let me know what you thought of Killer Flies!

• I've submited my entree for D&AD, unfortunately I can't post it on YouTube or anything after reading the terms and conditions. Shame! Screenshots are okay though. So take a browse through earlier posts to take a look at how its been developing. Hopefully it will be on the D&AD website for you to take a look at later on. So I'll keep you posted on that.

• Today, just had a talk from Shane Walters from OneDotZero at university today! OneDotZero have put on some amazing shows since they started in 1996, and they are real pioneers in moving image. After the initial lecture Shane then came upstairs to the 4th floor and sat and chatted with us about his work. He also got an invite to our next MGA show. Which I hope he turns up to! Would be mint if we got someone from the industry giving his opinion on our work.

• Had a really productive weekend with Ollie filming the last little parts of Hewitt and Walker. We got some brilliant effects shots made. We are really not experts in the field of visual effects, up until now we have made all our gore and effects in camera, so for two people who don't know where to start, we did a brilliant job putting it all together. Also with Hewitt and Walker, I am getting some T-Shirts printed today with Death Chair for Leeds Zombie Film Festival. Should come out nicely!

• Finally! I showed Jamie Smart the various Looshkin tests via Facebook, and its safe to say that he really liked what I have come up with! More Looshkin tests coming soon the more I play with Touch Designer. Its a great character to play with and its been great getting to know it.

Newscast is over, coming up next, weather!...

Submission Day! (Nearly)

2010-03-18T23:38:00.000Z

Wow. Been such a hectic past couple of days. Squeezed every minute of the day out on getting this D&AD animation finished. Right now I've got all the compositions to a stage of completion. I just need to sit and colour correct, add elements to each composition, do some promo stuff and boards. And then look back at the brief and hope its an online submission.

So while I've got a spare moment, I thought I would share some new screenshots of what I have made today! The final animation should be finished and uploaded by tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully with some decent sound on. Almost all my animations so far lack any sound at all, I prefer to concentrate on visuals then worry about sound later. With the VJ-ing project coming up my mind might be changed. Anywho. Screenshots!

Will post the video up as soon as its done. Then hopefully it will get something from D&AD. Will keep you posted.

1 Day till DandAD!

2010-03-17T19:43:00.000Z

With only one day to go till submission I am sailing through the project. Probably the quickest I have ever produced anything! I have got all day tomorrow to get everything animated. Im working in loads of different programs to create a mash up multimedia style look, hopefully it will work and not look too messy. The most I can probably expect as far as awards is to get is some "In Book" screenshots, but thats what I get for leaving it till the last minute!

So while some 3D is rendering, I thought I would share how some parts are getting on so far! Quite a bit of progression since I started last night. Im slowly filling up that 30 second timeline!

Spending the rest of tonight getting all the compositions ready and finished so I can put the animations and characters in tomorrow. Overall its coming together nicely for a 3 day animation! Although I am extremely rushed by it, I cant help but feel inspired, that if I can make an animation this fast under pressure, then why can't I usually?

This way of working might have better applications than I thought...

2 days till DandAD

2010-03-16T19:36:00.000Z

Was told recently that the submission date for the D&AD student award was this Friday. With hardly anything done for it, and only 2 days to go, I decided to get on and finish it. I have to have a 30 second animation made by Friday afternoon. So rushing to get loads of elements made to play about with in After Effects. Hopefully Z space ~~and Andrew Kraemer~~ will save me!

Here are some screenshots so far...

...don't think I'm doing too badly considering I started a few hours ago!

Hopefully I should have a nice 30 second animation

Even More Touch Designer Work

2010-03-16T13:21:00.000Z

Been hard at work with Touch Designer for Uni work. Absolutely brilliant programme. If you are into interactive animation then I highly recommend it. the FTE version is free to download too! I just thought I would post some of my tests I have been working with. I've used Looshkin as a placeholder and to test out some different inputs. Hope Jamie Smart likes them!

This one is a clock I made! Based on the time controlled man I made earlier, I decided to make something that looks a bit more aesthetically pleasing, rather than a guy made of cubes.

Click HERE for a high resolution version

This is something a bit better. This is based on the same Looshkin character, but this one is really basically controlled with a PS3 controller. Hopefully I will get a better looking movie up later on

Click HERE for a high resolution version

Again, these are just tests I am working with, Hopefully my end project will work a lot better!

EDIT: Ive also made a rotating Looshkin head in Maya and AE, thought I would put it on this post too.

Click HERE for a high resolution version

Killer Flies Update!

2010-03-13T23:02:00.000Z

Got a email from Ollie today, block capitals, that gave me a link to a review on Moviefone.com of the Paranormal Activity Prepare To Be Scared competition! Here is what they had to say about the competition, and Killer Flies in particular...

"Two of the finalists, however, do deserve some credit; Ollie Bostock and Johnny Eveson's Killer Flies From Mexico, a funny, well-filmed Grindhouse homage, and Andy Macpherson's Pigment Of Imagination, a beautiful animation that shows more flair and imagination than Paranormal Activity and Heebie Jeebies put together"

... which is probably the best review we have got so far! Thanks to Pete Stanton at Moviefone.co.uk. Read the full review HERE

We are gathering together a nice collection of reviews for Hewitt and Walker already, and it's yet to be released! If you remember we had Adam Buxton comment on our film back in November, he said...

"The DVD, was beautifully put together and highly enjoyable... Keep on keeping on!! and give us a part when you are famous"

...only a short one, but we really appreciate that he got back in touch with us after sending him an advanced copy.

Hopefully once the DVD is finished, shot, cut and printed, we will get some response back. And any reviews we get we will be sure to let you know about them.

Remember to get yourself a copy of Paranormal Activity, if not for the fright of your life, but to see Mike as a Scientist, Ben as a Mariachi, Ollie covered in Goo and Me kicking the shit out of a Killer Fly. With an axe!

Alice In Wonderland, Film Review.

2010-03-08T22:51:00.000Z

I haven't posted a film review here since I tore apart Monsters Inc a while back. But after coming back from watching Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, I thought I would have my two cents and tell the blogosphere what I thought.

Beware, before you read this. I don't like Tim Burton. Here's why.

This film could have been brilliant, probably as magical as the trailers made out, if it had taken a leaf out of The Wizard Of Oz. The advent of 3D film making could have been made out to be the best thing since colour, which the Wiz took full advantage of by making real life black and white, and Oz colour. I think the initial WOW of Wonderland was dulled down by the opening being in 3D. If the opening in the real world was made 2D, then Wonderland 3D, this could have really brought out that kick that it was desperate for. But the alternate reality Victorian London and Wonderland seemed to mesh into one big 3D congealed universe. I get the feeling that this probably was the vision of Tim Burton, but jumping on the 3D bandwagon meant making the entire film that way. Disney's Influence was useful, being able to reference the old animated film, but Its shafting is a bit too much when the castle reeks of the Disney Cinderella Castle...

And often the case with Tim Burton films, it felt really claustrophobic. If you compare this to Lord of the Rings, Middle Earth felt totally vast and open, like there where places yet undiscovered, and you where dying to just get out and explore. Wonderland just seemed like a set, and there was only one path to follow. And the characters seemed to be just biding their time until Alice got back. With no lives of their own. It just wasn't the expanded universe it could have been.

People walking into Alice in Wonderland thinking that this is the wonderland they had in the original, won't feel that this is the Wonderland that they knew when they where younger. Sure its gone to rack and ruin since the apparent threat of the Red Queen has taken over, but without knowledge of what Tim Burton's new and exciting 3D Wonderland was like before the Helena B Carter took over, its hard to think that this world is in such peril. We have a small flashback into what it was like when se was a young girl, and we are teased with a bright and colourful Wonderland, if only for a few minutes. But it comes too late. It could have probably done with a Lion King style scene where everything goes back to how it was.

It did have its good moments, the final battle felt a bit like a playground scrap, but overall its an enjoyable film. The 3D works for a conversion, and the colours in it are lovely. Just try and leave before the Avril Lavigne number kicks in at the end.

Rant over.

More Touch Designer

2010-03-07T21:32:00.000Z

Touch Designer sounds like a bit of a perverse bit of software (not to say that you can't make something with it that IS perverse) but the name aside, it happens to be a very intuitive piece of technology. There is something that I like about things that have a particular order to them. And Touch is no exception. It uses a series of Nodes to make things! and you can trace each node back to its origin. Its really quite lovely. Nonetheless, its still really really difficult to use, and I know I'm only scratching the surface of its capabilities.

I had another go on it the other day, this time making a character that was controlled by time! Not in the DeLorean sense but a character that shows you what time it is by where his arms are. And to make it more lovely, his head moves with each second that passes. I made two versions, one out of cubes to start with, then started modelling with Metaballs. Which I keep accidentally referring to as Meatballs. Take a look!

Just another step on the tedious ladder to creating a lovely interactive character that looks like this:

Wish me luck!

Some final thoughts on the DVD cover...

2010-03-07T05:49:00.000Z

As with most designers I know, the more you stare at your work, no matter how much you loved it last week, it somehow doesn't measure up now. Your design might be brilliant in the eyes of everyone else, but to you, it will never be finished. And thats the dilemma with Hewitt and Walker. Part of me doesn't want it all to be over! Im simply having too much fun making all the artwork and motion graphics to go with it.

Looking again at the DVD case prototype, once it is opened up you get THIS poster on the inside. But now, looking at it, it doesn't seem to match the aesthetic as the rest of the THIS DVD case.

So after playing with some textures and with my new Hewitt and Walker poster, I came up with THIS...

...I was thinking about the Cinema once it had burned down, and how someone now might stumble across it and find the reamins of some old posters from the 70's. Although as nice as the textures are, it doesn't have the same sort of punch that the first one I created had. Probably needs an explosion or two. What would make a great poster would be that poster actually pasted up somewhere and torn a bit like it has been there a while. Might do some experimental print work sometime soon when I get to the printers on Monday.

Again, let me know what you think! Cos my opinions on my own work are useless.

-Jonny

Hewitt And Walker Posters

2010-03-07T01:12:00.000Z

Hello. Had a weekend of getting the DVD menu's done for the film. As my After Effects has quite a few compositions to render Its going to take at least overnight to get it all rendered out. So i have to make sure its perfect before it goes out.

Also Ive been finalising all the posters, going through them all for spelling corrections, ironing out the textures and typography. Ive also put together one final poster to encompass the whole film! Might even give this one away with the "elite edition" DVD

Ive been watching quite a few films recently, and one thing that always baffles me about DVD's, and Blu Rays even more so, is their DVD menus. This is a major touchpoint of a film, and something that always gets left out of the design process and often gets ignored. Either that or the artwork wasn't made by the same graphics people but at at the production company for little money.

When you open your DVD, from holding the packaging in your hands, to the disk, to the DVD menus, all these are points that someone takes in when watching a film. Anyone can notice that a film looks cheap when it comes in a regular black DVD case with a silver disk in. And being a designer I would think that film makers would take that into consideration when producing a film.

Especially with the decline in people buying films, opting to download them for free instead, DVD and Blu Ray manufacturers should be looking into new and creative ways to get people back into buying DVD's again. People arn't fooled by just whacking "Special Collectors Edition" on the cover of a regular DVD box. Something that has some real design, thoughtfully laid out, something that someone would treasure.

That is what I've always felt while making Hewitt and Walker, from a design point of view. Thousands of people make films and send them away to production companies, always just their film on a blank DVD from tesco in a regular DVD box. And it gets ignored, because producion companies get thousands more each year. If I can make our film stand out from everyone else's with just design, that would be fantastic. To give the illusion that its more than just 5 people, would make it all the more impressive when they know its just us.

Hopefully anyway!

-Jonny

Uni Presentations

2010-03-04T16:12:00.000Z

As I said before, lack of recent blog posts is due to University project mid term presentations. So I thought I would share what I am up to with these and the projects I am working on.

The first is Character Design. This involves creating a character, taking inspiration from my Berlin sketchbook, and fleshing it out in all directions and stretching the concept. Then finalising it so it can be translated into a few mediums. I keep track of this module in my sketchbook.

The second is Character Animation. This ties into the Character Design Module, we take the characters that we have and test out how they would move and animate. The outcome of this is to produce a Sting or Advert, showcasing the animation advertising a brand. I keep track of my ideas and tests on another smaller blog. Click HERE to see it.

The third is Interactive Animation. This one is probably the most experimental of all the modules. Here we have to create a music track based around an acronym of our choice from the word FEAR, and take samples from the Ian Brown song if we feel. Once we have created a track we then have to make some live visuals, or interactive visuals, that work off the midi outputs from the music. The software we use for that is called Touch Designer, and its a pretty awesome piece of technology. I keep track of this module and keep everything together on another blog, click HERE to see it.

Ill probably post a few tests that I like later on. Hopefully these will turn out great! I already have a few pieces on the blogs and on my YouTube for you to take a look at.

More Hewitt and Walker Stuff on the way! Should be getting the footage any day now to add the effects to and send off the rest of it. Also, Monday is Printing Day! where I will try out another prototype for the Hewitt and Walker DVD cover. Can't wait to start promoting this soon!

March Is Lacking

2010-03-02T18:30:00.000Z

Absence from blogging is from my Uni Work, had some mid term presentations to deal with this week. So sorry about the lack of content so far!

Have no fear though! Ollie is in the process of editing the footage ready for effects to be added by me. Can't wait, going to be brilliant being able to make our film come to life in a whole new way. Hopefully I will be showing you some screenshots in a week or so.

As far as uni work goes, I have been playing with a program called Touch Designer. This is a realtime animating software for PC, whose posibillities are literally endless. Been so brilliant being able to have a play with it. I had a character animating in realtime with Midi sliders. Take a look at my little demo!

Click HERE to see the video in higher quality

I always try and add something to each post, whether its an image or a video :)

Johnny Burdock

2010-03-01T17:33:00.000Z

Just thought I would upload some screen shots of my opening for Johnny Burdock and the Strange Incident of the Lights in the Sky. The whole 30's feel is starting to look pretty sorted. Need to work on the 3D models of the UFO's, didn't think that anyone would see them up close.

Just a tester for the opening so far. Got a long way to go. Was feeling really inspired from the weekends film making and cracked on with corrections on the posters and also writing a first draft for Johnny Burdock. Really looking forward to getting started on this one. Especially for the epic UFO fight scene at the end :D

Back to Hewitt and Walker, Got all the posters finished and the DVD case all re-sized and ready to print. Just the film to finish now! Best get cracking!

-Jonny

Making Of Hewitt & Walker

2010-03-01T12:56:00.000Z

Spent a weekend down in Yorkshire filming some final bits for Hewitt and Walker. Odd to think that we don't have to film any more! Maybe some additional Foley and sound effects later on. But the rest is up to me and graphics!
Another thing we are finishing up making is the Making Of Hewitt and Walker. Ever since me and Ollie started making films we often just keep the camera on or set up another small camera just to take in all the out takes and to capture all the little moments. Often we forget that it is there. Since beginning Hewitt and Walker, when Ollie is either done editing or getting a little stressed with the edit, he will open up the Making Of and have a bit of fun editing that. Part of me thinks that the making of Hewitt and Walker will only be funny for us. But we always love seeing how films are made. The first thing I usually do when getting a DVD is watch the bonus features. Hopefully we should have the DVD packed with extras.

Our making of has the same theme as the film, that 70's Grindhouse look. Just to tie it in with the feature. Ill probably add in loads of production stills, galleries, art and all the posters in glorious high res.

So far the DVD is coming together really nicely. Ive got all the design work finished for the DVD cover and the cards, I just need to finish some motion graphics for the opening! Then all we have to do is get printing! Our deadline is the end of March. So not long! Wish me luck!

A Double Double Feature

2010-02-23T15:43:00.000Z

To celebrate us getting Hewitt and Walker nearly wrapped up I thought I would upload my two double feature posters. Might do a few more for when I put them together in AE. Should look good. I really like the way these turned out, and always like coming up with tag lines for each film.

Hope you all like them!

-Jonny

Motion Graphics and Animation Film Night

2010-02-23T15:25:00.000Z

Thursday night is the Motion Graphics and Animations film night at the Tyneside Cinema!

Click the poster to see in higher resolution

The night will include showreels for both the first and second years. Its the first time we have got to showcase our work since the course started and we are looking forward to getting our work out there. If anyone who reads this is in Newcastle on thusrday get down to Tyneside Cinema! Free entree, promise!

Will probably blog about how mint it was later on.

-Jonny

Few Days With Ollie

2010-02-23T15:13:00.000Z

Ollie came to Newcastle for the past few days. We got some good "Making Of" footage and got a lot of stuff finalized. We took my posters and the DVD cases to the printers and got that all finished up. Am really happy with how they have turned out. Though we should get some more pics on Saturday for the posters. We pretty much have the intro all planned out. I just need to motor through the graphics in the next couple of weeks. Might end up looking like this. Minus the Death Chair logo.

Please click HERE to see the video in High Definition

Also on the night, after watching some District 9, we came up with a final battle scene for Johnny Burdock. So I came up with a quick VFX shot of the "Mothership" and Johnny Burdocks ship flying away. Really looking forward to getting this shot animated and cut together. Its going to be so much fun. Im thinking of it as a more "War of the Wasps" sort of thing. Anyways, here is a screenshot!

We also got chance to mess around in the sound studio at uni and get some good trailer voices. Unfortunately i dont know how to use Ableton and we lost quite a bit. Nevermind.

Overall its been a mint few days. Had loads of fun and we are really on the home straight to getting Hewitt and Walker finished!

Mint!

-Jonny

DVD Cover Design, and City Lights! (You know, city lights!)

2010-02-18T22:46:00.000Z

So I have sort of calmed down a bit after finding out that Killer Flies will be on the Paranormal Activity DVD. And its kicked me and Ollie up the arse to motor on and get all the design finished for the DVD. Im in the process of scaling down some of the posters to square for the "limited edition art cards", but the DVD Poster/Case is all done! So I thought I would upload just the cover to give you a peak at what you could get your hands on, if you ask really really nicely...

...I went for that Zombie Nazi Hunters look. Really basic colours that stand out, and make it look all screen printed. I think the red and black really encompass the feel of Grindhouse and Hewitt and Walker.

On another note, I was in a lecture today and challenged myself to a speed poster design during my tutors talk. So I did one for my good friend David Neal (of City Lights)

City Lights was a short film where David Neal predicted the future, Ross Kemp Style! Check out his YouTube Channel HERE

-Jonny

Paranomral Activity DVD Entree!

2010-02-18T12:43:00.000Z

I am SO proud to announce that mine and Ollie's short film, Killer Flies From Mexico, has made it into the top 10 entrants for the Paranormal Activity "Prepare To Be Scared" Film Competition! Which means that our film will appear alongside 9 other films on the Paranormal Activity DVD and Blu Ray!

Click HERE to watch the video in High Definition

Check out the other film entrants HERE.

You can still go and get our view counts up and watch it a few times! Don't think it will really help with the competition. But if you have a YouTube Account please go and leave some nice comments on the channel!

And also to celebrate here is the poster in Glorious High Definition!

Go and watch! And let us know what you think!

-Jonny

Something In 3D

2010-02-16T22:36:00.000Z

Have just uploaded a Red/Blue 3D version of my Looshkin, complete with some 3D after effects just to pad it out a bit! Just kidding. It was mainly all an experiment in how After Effects 3D glasses plugin works. I think that the Looshkin character works a hell of a lot better than the 2D words. I think its about camera positioning in 3D space that makes it work. I also think that Red Blue 3D is only really meant for that slight bit of extra depth, rather than really jumping out at you. Thats how you can get the most believability out of the animation.

Anyways here it is! Please leave comments either here or on the YouTube video and let me know what you think! Remember your Red/Blue specs!

Please click HERE to watch on YouTube in High Definition. Thanks!

-Jonny

Seeing the world in Red and Blue

2010-02-16T19:26:00.000Z

Hey!

Spent the day making several pancakes thanks to my good friend Betty Crocker. Im a bit full now though.

Tonight for me is 3D night! Using my favorite placeholder I have put together a 3D camera rig in Maya. Took a few goes to get it right.

If you happen to have a pair of RB3D glasses, put them on. It works!

For now I am using traditional Red and Blue 3D glasses. Its a bit of a step backwards technology wise but its the same principal as RealD 3D. Each lens, whether it be from polarization or from just canceling out the Red and Blue values, transmits a different flat image from each eye, creating the illusion of 3D. Hopefully I plan to make a 3D animated film for my final year project. That will more than likely be in Red and Blue 3D, but if it reached a wider audience, then its easily transferable to Real D.

I am just at the moment rendering out my Maya camera rigs to see how a moving image works in 3D. No doubt that test will go on YouTube for everyone to take a look at!

-Jonny

And One Last Poster...

2010-02-16T04:08:00.000Z

...As I was on a Grindhouse Poster spree, I thought I would make one to celebrate the completion of another local film. Crimefighters is a film that has been in production for a while now and is nearing its screening! So I thought I would make, what you might call, some "fan art" for them. Hope they like it!

We met Miles and Co. at a small event called the Freestyle LDN, where we where the only film makers screening that day. I hope Crimefighters goes well for them! And good luck!

That is all for tonight. Its late. And I've been at The Cluney all evening :D

-Jonny

Some Other Grindhouse Posters

2010-02-15T00:04:00.000Z

Hey!

I've been on a design spree most of today. So I've made a few more posters and I am putting them in another After Effects document later on for the opening. Again, really happy with how these ones have turned out too. Just hope I can keep up the style throughout. Im off to the printers tomorrow to get my favorite ones printed. Who knows, I might give some away at Leeds Zombie Film Festival if you are lucky! :D

Click the image to view in a higher resolution

Ollie has given me a list of about 20 other film posters. Think my favorite one out of them is either Mommas Boy 2 or The Quick and the Painful. Hehe.

-Jonny

Hewitt & Walker Film Posters!

2010-02-14T15:32:00.000Z

Happy Valentines Day everyone!

I spent my day making some posters for you to take a look at. Im really happy with how these have turned out, and might even get some printed for my wall.

Click the image to see a higher resolution

I tried to get a varied range of colour in these posters but still maintain that grindhouse feel. I limited my main colours in each poster to three, to keep the look of being screen printed. I got the feeling that if Hewitt and Walker where commissioning these posters, they would want them to look good but still be cheep. My favorite so far is Foxy Pam Mantis with Zombie Nazi Hunters a close second. The obvious ties with Inglorious Basterds can be seen in Zombie Nazi Hunters. I also wanted to make one a 3D feature.

More on their way today! Need at least 8 to make the opening look good.

-Jonny

Opening Credits First Draft

2010-02-13T17:16:00.000Z

I thought I would show you the first draft of the Hewitt and Walker History of Cinema credits. These credits appear at the end of the film, which is the beginning of the gangster film we where filming the other weekend. If you get my drift.

Please click HERE to see the video in higher quality.

There are a few things already I feel i need to alter and change. But this is just a draft to see about getting the look and feel of the titles. I think that there needs to be more time spent on the names, and the sequence needs to be longer. Just a few things to rectify though.

Im about to get started on some posters next for the opening trailer. Again its nice to get back into making these Grindhouse posters for our film. I can't wait to see it all come together. Me and Ollie only have a short time to get everything together, with me in Newcastle and him in York. Its great watching it all come to life at the end.

-Jonny

Overnight Rendering

2010-02-12T23:48:00.000Z

I was hoping that my opening credits for the Hewitt and Walker History of Cinema would have finished rendering by now, but it might end up being an overnight job. Its a lot for my little laptop to handle!
But either way for now I will show you a couple of screenshots. I've gone for a Dr No, Saul Bass inspiration. Ollie got the feeling that the owners Johnny Hewitt and Ollie Walker would want themselves to be all over the credits and would go for this sort of look. Really like how its turned out.

Hopefully the rendering will be done by tomorrow morning, where upon I will post the video! yey!

-Jonny

Leeds Zombie Film Festival 09

2010-02-11T20:22:00.001Z

This year on April the 25th, Dominic Brunt and Mark Charnock present the Leeds Zombie Film Festival. Me and Ollie have made our pilgrimage to Leeds for the past 3 years now and we love going every year. We use this film festival as a deadline to get our films finished. The first Hewitt and Walker was made in time to show Mark and Dom last year.

I've spoken with Dominic before about creating some designs for a future film festival to follow the Zombie Film Festival, as there arn't many more (quality) zombie flicks to show next year! So I used the name Leeds Horror Film Festival as a placeholder for now to create some designs! So I thought I would share some designs I have come up with so far!

Of course they only have placeholder text recycled from older posters as I am not sure what films they might be showing or the date for the 2011 festival. Just another thing keeping me occupied!

-Jonny

Pixarpedia Competition Update

2010-02-11T13:40:00.000Z

I've been checking back on the Pixarpedia Competition's YouTube channel every now and then. And I checked back today to find the community in uproar about the shortlist of animations chosen to be sent to Pixar. People have noticed that two animations are by the same person, there are 12 shortlists, not 10, there is a corporate logo in one in particular and some do not match the length.

A few of the people, (including me) have emailed both Pixar and DK's marketing department to see if they actually watched the animations, and what they where thinking sending an animation of a Poo to the top animation company in the world.

Again, here is the Pixarpedia YouTube Channel and here is the shortlist.

Oh and here is mine again :)

I If you have any opinions on the matter please feel free to email DK's marketing department at:
dkchildrensmarketing@uk.dk.com

-Jonny

Some Gangster Screenshots

2010-02-11T00:15:00.000Z

Evening!
Just got back from watching Sherlock Holmes, a bit delayed in watching this one, but nonetheless I thought it was really well thought out, brilliantly framed and paced and the visual style was spot on. The crowning moment being the closing credits; these where handled with such brilliance and looked so good! As soon as it finished I wanted to get home and try out something in that style. Maybe for our next film...

...anyway onto current film making. As promised here are some screenshots from the Hewitt and Walker History of Cinema Gangster flick. We are very impressed with how these turned out and think that its some of our best work yet. We can't wait to show you the film in its entirety!

Kudos to Ollie for putting these shots together so quickly and getting the editing started soon! Better kick start the graphics to keep up!

-Jonny

Thats Propper Gangster!

2010-02-10T17:41:00.001Z

Ive just seen some of the rough edits from the Hewitt and Walker gangster film that is shown at the end and it looks amazing! Even in the rough edit the colour correction looks really 70's and the set looks pretty well made. I had loads of fun making it over the weekend and I'm happy to be back filming with Ollie.

Whilst filming we also came up with some mint idea's for Johnny Burdock too. At the moment I am choreographing the climactic ending featuring UFO's on strings piloted by our hero of the hour. Im putting it mostly together in Alias Maya and Adobe After Effects. So I thought i would show you some screenshots of its work in progress.

...and some render tests...

... just to show you what Im up to. As always, let me know what you think!

-Jonny

Just A Quick Animation

2010-02-07T03:43:00.000Z

Hey!

I spent my night messing with Maya's character animation. And used Looshkin from Bear! Take a look...

If you havn't heard of Jamie Smart, I have done his character no justice at all. And you should check out his website and see some mint artwork!

Night!

-Jonny

Pixarpedia Competition Update

2010-02-06T22:27:00.000Z

The shortlist of entree's for the Pixarpedia competition have been shown on DK's website. Unfortunately my animation didn't make it into the final 10. If you want to take a look at the entrants that have made the cut check them out here.

Nevermind, can't say I'm not disappointed.

-Jonny

A DeviantArt Revamp, Filming Re-Hash

2010-02-06T21:49:00.000Z

Just got in from a days film making with Ollie. We filmed some really short Grindhouse trailers for the Directors Cut of Hewitt & Walker. We came out of my ~~garage~~ studio with some amazing looking shots. We ended up imressing ourselves and really outdid ourselves with this one. Its part of a short gangster film as part of the Hewitt and Walker History of Cinema. There. Thats all I'm saying. I look forward to seeing how it all edits together! But if you want to see it in full, you will have to request a DVD. To reserve your copy, again, please get in touch and I will put you on the list for when we finish it!

Also on another note, I decided to get back into DeviantArt! I opened a DA account when I was in college back in 2005, and I only really uploaded 4 things. But already I have thrown a load of my sketchbook work on there from Berlin and some more poster work. If you have an account go and say hi! Link here. But here is a couple of pages from my sketchbook to take a look at.

-Jonny

Another Filming Weekend-A-Thon!

2010-02-05T00:05:00.000Z

This weekend I get to spend some good times filming in my mums garage with Sir Ollie Bostock of Moorlands Films again. We tend to do this once every now and then; get together and spend a day filming and getting only half of the stuff that we had planned done due to everything being so very very funny all the time!

In preparation of a days filming I have been spending the past week getting some sample graphics together and some sample CGI shots. So I thought i would share one of the UFO tests I spent this evening making!

As you can see I have tried to emulate the 1930's look with the shots, held together with thin wires and embedded with some shadows. The shadows being to bad lighting if we are going for the whole Ed Wood style of film making.

Im sure this weekends film making will be an absolute blast as it usually is. And I'll give you a summary of what went down when I get back to the 'Toon.

See you then!

-Jonny