Up next in personal projects week…. an animation for Duke Special's song 'Freewheel'.

This is a few years old now, but I wanted to include it on the blog because my work with Duke Special has been, and is still, an important part of what I do. I've been collaborating with Gary at Sparks for seven years now, creating album covers, merchandise, books, and anything else that makes up the strange and magical world of Duke Special.

This was my first experiment with animation. I literally had no clue what I was doing when I started and I didn't know what hard work was until I encountered cel animation - I'm not sure I'll be doing it again anytime soon. Hats off to all you full-time animators out there.

This piece was a collaboration with many others, including Sparks (who hand water-coloured every cel) and director Ryan Suffern. My job was to create the world of the bears and hand draw each frame. It's a million miles away from the slickness of Pixar, but hopefully it has a kind of crude charm : )

Here's my other attempt at animation, also for Duke (it has an even cruder charm ; ) Warning - this one has been known to make children cry!

We'll get a couple in a bear costume yet!

T