About a year ago I started work on a project called Tootles. After all this time I am only half way and I am hoping to have it finished this year, although that's hard to ensure, mainly because I do this around my commercial work and, like for most people, bills keep getting in the way. However, I am happy to release a little teaser for the world to enjoy. The lovely music was created by talented musician Tim Burns.

I recently had the opportunity to show my work in progress to Pixar veteran Jeff Pratt, who's now an animation tutor at Escape Studios in London. This is what he had to say about Tootles:

"Having a look at the Tootles teaser I think it’s brilliant. I really like the look and style of hard plastic 3D animation characters with kind of a stop motion facial animation sensibility. I really like the fact that the characters don’t deform or bend except at a few joints and that the eyes and mouth pop from one pose to another. It very much reminds me of what John Lasseter used to say about Toy Story. That the toys had to stay true to their forms and couldn’t bend or deform except at their joints. The hard plastic parts had to remain hard and rigid and once established this rule couldn’t be broken.

This sets up a very believable world for the audience, which once accepted allows them to enjoy the stories presented to their fullest. And I think that the use of very graphic style of eyes and mouth makes for easily read and very expressive characters. As long as the stories match the thought and strength of the character design and animation I think it will be a huge success."

I would like to thank Jeff for the encouraging words and I hope you like it too!

Share this article

Short URL http://bit.ly/6fsGfo

Related articles:

1. Suicycle This beau­ti­fully ani­mated short is a cyn­i­cal and lively view of the world were every­thing we do affects some­thing...