about
Based in London for hundreds of years, Animation Director, Philip Vallentin, (from Canada), and crew, (from everywhere), have been making and drinking way too much coffee. On occasion we have been known to do a bit of doodling and image creation on the side. In some flukey way these doodles and things end up in visual order and go to make up a commercial or something. It’s quite amazing really.
Animation remains a magical mystery to us. We are often asked “Don’t you need a great deal of patience to do animation?”… usually we don’t think this is a very interesting question. At least not as interesting as, let’s say “How many frames does it take for a lemur’s eyelid to go down and up in one dopey blink?”.
Our animation concerns should not be public knowledge, (they’re too embarrassing). Yes, we do get exited by the way cats jump and bits of paper blow around, why do some people’s mouths turn into a frown when they’re laughing, or is it funnier if a hand moves in an arc or in a straight line, or will we ever be paid for that Continental job? These are the kind of burning issues that reside at the core of our craft and industry. During production they fuse into a stimulating “frisson” we like to call “procrastinator’s panic”.
Like a well made espresso, under pressure is where we feel most comfortable because it produces the best tasting animation. The less you water it down, the more oomph you get out of the grind.