commercials

The Fantastical Factory of Curious Craft The Fantastical Factory of Curious Craft debuted on UK screens in May 2020 as Channel 4‘s answer to the British Bakeoff! Amateur crafters use their artistic talent to make spectacular creations! They must impress `factory boss’ Keith Lemon before he chooses the very best for a celebrity client, who in turn crowns a winner (and takes the chosen craft home)! Such a show deserved an utterly creative title sequence to reveal the vibrant & colourful factory of creations. Director Matthew Cooper & Jelly London realized a Willy Wonka style title sequence that combined a mix of live action & stop motion animation. The originally intended titles were cut down as the presentation of the show developed, but here is the full length director’s cut…! & a huge thank you to director Matthew Cooper & model maker Miles Ascough for all the fantastic photos & videos featured here!   https://vimeo.com/419203867?fl=pl&fe=sh Director Matthew Cooper had a 20 second time slot to squeeze in as many examples of vibrant factory of crafts as possible. He’d immaculately timed out every detail of each shot which gave me clear & precise timings to work to for my animation. Director Matthew kicks off the shoot with a few takes on the lever pull! Matthew controls the pressure gauge via a simple string pulley Sliding fabric through the rollers in a straight line proved trickier than expected! https://vimeo.com/422079416?fl=pl&fe=sh Model Maker Miles Ascough devised a little rack and pinion mechanism to aid the stop frame animation of the conveyor belt. The mechanism allowed the both belts and 16 wheels to move in unison so the I could focus on the timing of the animation. The shot has a very specific number of frames to fit into the short title sequence. To reveal each of the 3 statues at the exact right moment, I had to time out all the movement & measure precisely how much to move every object to get it in to the right place on the exact frame it needed to be there! Originally a shot that sadly was cut from the sequence, the Factory pipes were made from drainpipes covered with star stickers before being sprayed in different colours. The star stickers masked the pipe from the spray & it was fiddly & painstaking to peel them all off without damaging the paint! Once ready, I animated the ‘self painting’ pipes by painting over the patterns in grey, frame by frame and playing it back in reverse! Matthew had prepared all the pom poms to run in a colour coded order of which the first few would need to loop, leaving screen on the right & re-entering screen on the left. I marked which direction each cog was turning as it was very easy to forget on every frame which was going clockwise or counter clockwise! Shot from overhead, Matthew & I plan out the animation timing Model Maker Miles Ascough did an amazing job creating each of the wacky contraptions in a very short time frame. One of which was this brilliantly simple pulley mechanism for the pressure gauge in one of the live action shots! That’s a lot cogs to animate & also to remember which way each one turns on every frame! www.milesascough.com Instagram: @milesascough_maker LinkedIn: @milesascough Who knew how long a few paper chains and fans would take to make! Seems straightforward but each row was carefully colour matched to the designers vision and aesthetic of the show… Yes that is a document with coordinates for each row! Big shout out & thanks to Molly Watkins for all her help in putting them together  Matthew designed the titles sign & Miles crafted pink flocked letters, a welded steel frame and wire neon lights ! 3D printing became an invaluable tool for Miles. He 3D printed each cog & even the red light casings were painstaking developed & redeveloped by testing different 3D print prototypes All this amazing work for a 20 second sequence! Client: Studio Ramsay Title sequence directed by Matthew Cooper:Matthew’s webpage at Jelly LondonTwitter: @MatthewCoooperInstagram: @MatthewCoooperVimeo: @MatthewCooper Title sequence produced by Jelly London:FFoCC on Jelly’s WebsiteFacebook: @JellyLondonTwitter: @JellyLondonInstagram: @JellyLondon Model Maker Miles Ascoughwww.MilesAscough.com/Facebook: @MilesAscough.PropmakerInstagram.com: @MilesAscough_MakerYouTube: @Miles Ascough DOP: Matt Day Shot at Clapham Road StudiosFacebook: @Clapham-Road-StudiosTwitter: @ClaphamRdStudioInstagram: @ClaphamRdStudio Photo & video credits with thanks to Matthew Cooper & Miles Ascough

Lidl commercials by Restless https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JX51UEErfs I was Lead Animator for Restless on our 2nd Lidl commercial due to run throughout 2021. This time round it’s disco time as a world of Lidl foods hit the dance floor! I animated the second half of the commercial (everything after the banana) & Tobias Fouracre animated the first half. Plus some guest animation from Dan Gill on the orange & strawberry jam. Robin ‘the Rigger’ Jackson was lead rigger, along with Ben Cote, helping us control every dancing fruit! The white tape on the floor helps me keep track of the line each object needs to move along to stay in focus Lots of overhead rigs from Robin the Rigger to ensure the rigs were clear of each object’s shadow A brief moment’s down time in between shots! https://vimeo.com/506493309?fl=pl&fe=sh My test animation of a spinning banana which was a lot trickier than expected! Bananas have a habit of falling apart & I got through at least 6 whilst animating this! The final shot was animated by Tobias Fouracre. He actually shot the banana’s last pose in reverse because we feared the banana would slowly turn brown whilst in it’s final position! https://vimeo.com/506499422?fl=pl&fe=sh The concept was fun, but it was surprisingly difficult trying to simulate a twerking bum. A peach may look somewhat similar to a human bottom, but it can’t do all the movement of two flexing buttocks! This took a couple of goes to get right (& of course a lot of research)! I then had to demonstrate to our clients how the peach would move. I turned around to find them all filming me!   This test was last minute & I bought a good dozen similar looking bananas to make sure I didn’t run out! Making the banana’s ‘arms’ bend upwards it did not want to do! I could thread wire into it’s skin to hold the position but this proved very fragile Robin’s rig, stabbed into the back of the peach with several pins. Thankfully it’s skin was firm enough to stay gripped onto the rig & not get squishy Creative Agency – KarmaramaCreative team – Matt Butterfield & Ben MillsExecutive Creative Director – Nik StudzinskiCreative Director – Luke Ramm & Joe HoltAgency TV Producer – Jenny O’ConnellAccount Director – Jess HardingAccount manager – Kya Boon-CohenProduction Company – KreamCreative Partner – Jon HarveyProducer – Jeannine MansellDirector – RestlessDOP – Matthew DayAnimation – Tim Allen, Tobias Fouracre & Dan GillRigging – Robin Jackson & Ben CoteStudio – Clapham Road StudiosSound Design – 750Post Production – Coffee & TV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljSiDgT6UpA I was also Lead Animator for Restless on our 1st Lidl commercial that ran throughout 2020 on TV & cinemas – because they’re always Lidl on price!  I animated everything except for ‘Tomato Mountain’, plus the Weetabix & nappies all  by Tobias Fouracre. The end shot I co-animated with Steve Warne. Client: LidlDirector: Restless (Richard Acton & Chris Tan)Production Company: KreamAgency: KarmaramaLead Animator: Tim AllenAnimators: Tobias Fouracre & Steve WarneDOP – Matthew DayRigger: Robin Jackson Restless website:https://wearerestless.com/Instagram: @restless.studiosInstagram: @richardacton_ We had different scale tin cans made to simulate the tin shrinking to the size of a bean The chicken in it’s dish was heavy & held up by steel rods dressed as strings Animating the potatoes was a very greasy job! Tobias took on the huge task of animating the erupting tomato mountain! Tobias drops his strawberry in preparation for tomato mountain Robin the rigger made many beautiful custom made rigs to hold different foods A lot of rigging to control each item dancing & it all needs a final check before we start I planned out each frame of the nappy sliding into shot & they were individually cut to size Tim & Steve have a lot of dancing food to bring our grande finale to life! 2 Animators, 2 Sets, 6 Days & a loads of food to be animated! See behind the scenes as we brought the shelves of Lidl to life! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDVQSaRCIxc #TimAllenAnimation #StopMotion #Animation #Animator