Animation

Palace Magique

An animated short I created during the MA Animation course, University of the West of England, Bristol.
I used a unique combination of computer animation and traditional hand-drawn animation.

Synopsis: Marty, an old-fashioned and romantic illusionist has a dream: he wants to perform his own show at the famous Palace Magique in Paris. Finally, he fulfils his dream, but not exactly as he imagined.

The next video shows more about how I created "Palace Magique"

Bishop's Palace Project

Robert Burnell - Bishop's Palace Project

The Bishop’s Palace Project was initiated by Right Reverend Peter Price, the current bishop of Bath and Wells. The project’s aim was to create an animated short to be shown at the palace’s exhibition and online as well. Our task was to dig down the bishop’s life and present the bishop and his role: what he does, and what his responses to the changing world are. In addition, our aim was to outline the history of the bishopric from the beginning to the present.
Each participant animator was given a historical bishop to introduce in their work. All of these selected bishops represent a particular role of the bishop, such as pastoral or political role. My task was to present the bishops political role through Robert Burnell, who was elected Bishop of Bath and Wells in 1275 and served as a royal official simultaneously.

Cerebus - The Tale of a Fractured Destiny
A feature film project

This video shows a compilation of scenes I animated. It features Cerebus, the aardvark (ie earthpig), a comic book character created by Dave Sim, a Canadian cartoonist. This is the very first feature film based on his long-running comic book series. I also created some clay model and storyboards for this project.

Dzoing Tac Toc

2D pencil animation about an orchestra of fictional characters.

I created the visuals as well as the soundtrack (with some help from my kids) This short was part of my coursework for the Introduction to Animation module at the University of the West of England in 2009 and actually, this is my very first animation. 

Whiteboard animation

My first whiteboard animation. I created this 30 sec sample with the aim to present my ideas to my customer - a Hong Kong-based CSR company - and to determine the style of the proposed animation.

Whiteboard is an exciting technique, it's fast and easy to make changes. The tricky part is timing, because you have to work straight ahead, frame by frame instead of using key frames. Also it is difficult to create a decent lighting condition. And not to forget a brilliant software: Stop Motion Pro.

Walk cycles

One of my first animations in which I examined how his body parts move at different speed. (Technique: Pencil on paper) Before I applied to the MA Animation Course, I studied animation on my own to discover my interest in animation and also to test my abilities.

In this animation a four-legged animal is running then slows down then gets running again. This pencil animation test is part of my first-year coursework at the UWE, Bristol. Its aim was to practice timing. Animating a four legged animal is quite difficult as I had to synchronise the movement of the two pairs of legs. When the front legs are in stride position, the rear legs are in passing position, and vice versa.

This is a line test, a sequence I made for one of my MA classmates at the UWE, Bristol, who was working on her final project. I made the rough animation and she made the clean-up. Her 2D animation was selected to be shown at Encounters Film Festival, Bristol.

Technique: pencil on paper

Software: Stop Motion Pro

Hand-drawn animation. I was working on a project with some fellow-students last summer. The animation we made presented some cube-shaped characters. All of them have the same cube-shaped body but have their special ways of moving forward. My cube has four robotic legs by which it propels itself. (The audio was also created by me.)

Rowing cycle
A short animation exercise to practice motion analysis and timing. The entire sequence contais only 16 frames (8 keyframes and 8 inbetweens) on twos (each drawing is showed for two frames)

More animations are coming soon:

Walk Cycles (Human, Elf, SpiderCube)
Character Rigging Tests
Marty the illusionist