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Hi, I'm MikeI'm an Animation Director, Lead Animator, Character Designer, Video Editor, Character Rigger, Storyboard Artist, Previs Animator and Generalist... phew, that's a long list so I'll just settle for Animated Filmmaker, that seems to encompass most of it. I picked up a Diploma with Distinction in Art and Design at Alton College then headed out to the Glamorgan Centre for Art and Design Technology for three years where I got a First Class Degree in Animation, and picked up three awards for my films in GCADT's excellent industry awards. I was an animator for Rare for seven and a half years where my first game, Starfox Adventures was a very respectable success. That was when the company worked exclusively with Nintendo. After Starfox I became the Lead Animator on Kameo: Elements of Power which was released under the new management of Microsoft when Rare was made a first party studio in 2002. I took a sabbatical and spent five months living in Sydney working on the animated feature film, 'Happy Feet' which amazed us all by winning an Oscar. I returned to Rare for a few months and presented at one more festival before moving up to Scotland to work on a new CG feature film as the Animation Supervisor. Later I moved to Sheffield where I joined Ark VFX as their Senior Animator and completed a few small commercails while I started to develop a certain short film idea. I polished off a few pet projects before starting at The Moving Picture Company in London where I worked on a couple of adverts before starting on Prince Caspian. Then I moved to Passion Pictures to do some very interesting Game Cinematic & Commercial work. I took some time off to continue developing my short film script and designs while I enjoyed the London summer. I had a bit of fun animating Churchill over at Glassworks for a bit and briefly dabbled with another budget Feature Film. But it was time to take the plunge and I moved to Austin, Texas to take on the Lead Animator role at an exciting new company while I continue to work on my film in my free time.
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My Pet ProjectsI'm big on story and character, so I'm always working on an idea at work or at home. During my traditional 2D years I always had to develop ideas that I could bring to the screen in an achievable fashion. This usually meant that they had to feature characters I could draw efficiently and stories that could be told in a few minutes of screen time. Despite these limits I always pushed myself to try things that I hadn't done before. I tried to push the limits of the technology and techniques we were taught whenever possible, and experimented with numerous ideas that hadn't been seen much back in the 90s. Not that you can tell now, some of these techniques are a little over used these days. I guess you realize, after a while, that you don't live in a vacuum and everyone else is inspired by the same things you are, and the chances of you doing something first are slim to nil. Still, I keep trying.
At the time I was exploring the modern dating world with things like Speed Dating and Internet Dating and my experiences were so positive (and dramatic) that I couldn't help making it the subject matter of my next film. As I flew back from Australia I had a story idea that I quickly wrote down the follow evening. Twenty or so drafts later with a pile of character scetches I decided it was time to storyboard it and reach out to the internet to find colaborators. Today the project has attracted hundreds of artists and we've formed an online cummunity around the social networking site I setup. Follow our progress at www.DevilsAngelsAndDating.com That's not been my only personal venture, and as a short film can take a long time I've been adding to my animation portfolio by doing individual shots with specific original challenges. First there were two dogs on a seesaw, which required an enormous amount of variable juggling to make it convincing. Then there was the parkour piece that was something I'd wanted to do in 2D since I was at university and I finally decided that I'd found a rigging method strong enough to carryout my wishes in CG. Of course I dabble from time to time in the same performance style pieces you see more commonly on showreels, including an 11 Second Club entry that did quite well. I'd like to have a go at that again some day, when I have a clear one month run at it again.
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Me on the Net and at Festivals |
One of my first pet projects, after my Degree, I started with the intension of freeing myself from those limits, since I was just doing it for fun with no intension of ever necessarily making it... and eventually the script grew to the size of a feature film! With that in mind I started working on something smaller and more personal in it's initial scope just to make sure it's achievable. 
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