Joanna Brooks

On a small side note, I thought I’d share with you a couple of my own random drawings. My own sketchbook ranges from detailed reference drawings like the eyes above (10 bonus points if you can tell who the eyes belong to!) to quick rough drawings or concept art, some of which are developed into digital artwork at a later date. Here’s a small taster too of one of my current film ideas in development, The Mouse & The Megalosaurus. 

My hands are indeed more plasticine than fingers now so I'm taking a mo to think of ideas for the next project, monthly or longer, we'll see ...

Week 4 and hence the last week of the February Plasticine Project, featuring - a piggy bank, a boot, a pair of sunglasses, a handbag, an owl, a hairdryer and a watering can. Super mega group photo of all 28 objects coming soon :)

Individual pics of models from week 3 of my February Plasticine Project.

Week 3 of the February Plasticine Project, featuring - a cup, saucer and spoon (with a biscuit of course), a book, a paint palette and brush, a lunchbox complete with sandwich, a rabbit, a carrot for the rabbit and a frying pan. Individual pics to come very soon.

Group photo - Plasticine Project Week 2

Week 2 of the February Plasticine Project. Only realised when photographing the objects together that there's a slight bedtime feel to a few of them. Maybe that's me telling myself I need more sleep! Anyhoo this week features - a clock, a bed, a toothbrush, a hot water bottle, a mouse, a mask and a lamp (genie not pictured).

Week 1 of the February Plasticine Project, featuring - a thumbs up, a flower, a lemon, a 'rubber' duck, a pineapple, a mad hatter style top hat and a strawberry sponge cake as a special little nod to my Birthday this week :)

So here's to day one and I will post a pic every week of February of a new assortment of sculpted things (fingers crossed!)

My short time at Aardman on the NFTS Character Animation course has come to an end. I worked with 10 of the funnest and most caring animators and will really miss working with them on a day-to-day basis. I also felt very lucky to have the chance to soak up some of the animation wisdom and knowledge from the people at Aardman including my brilliant tutors, the visitors from the industry that came to talk to us and a handful of animation legends too! Very sad to say goodbye but I really had the best time learning and animating there. So I thought I would share a couple of random pics with you and get you more up to speed with where I've been and what I've actually been doing for the past 12 weeks! New NFTS showreel coming soon!! (P.S. I know, apologies to everyone on the course for all the gushy-ness but it had to be said somewhere!)

New Making of - 'Zazu' Puppet Project on my website. For a school production of The Lion King this summer. Really had lots of fun making this puppet and I hope he doesn't get too destroyed during the production itself! http://jbanimator.carbonmade.com/projects/5271762#1

More pics from my time at A + C. These are all from the Tindle project: 'A Life in Print'. To see the full advert click the link below: http://vimeo.com/86127911 Just before my internship came to an end I was fortunate enough to be involved in the model-making process of this animated film. After the character's armatures and bodies had been created by the head model-makers, I created a handful of characters' clothing using tissue paper and latex, based on some wonderful 2D designs. As well as other secondary characters, I also made the clothing for 2 or 3 of the main characters including a hippy version of the female lead 'Astrid' and 2 versions of the male lead 'Ray'. One version featured a simple armatured jacket which could also be animated if needed. I also designed and made a couple of props including a 70s-esque reel to reel tape recorder and microphone, a few different cups and mugs for the cafe set and an old-fashioned camera complete with flash. These were all hand-carved from polystyrene foam board and then covered in tissue paper and glue. The painting of all these props and characters (excluding the camera and flash) were painted by other very talented people. So overall a big hooray, whooo, and bravo to the many brilliant people who worked on this project! I had an amazing time and felt very lucky to be apart of such a great team.

Couple of pics from my time interning at Animate + Create in Whitstable this Winter. Had an amazing time doing a little bit of animating and lots of model-making, in new ways that I hadn't done before and some familiar plasticine ways too. Picked up some new wood carving and fab paper/latex clothing skills in particular :) Doing workshop team-building days and helping out at Anifest too were a brilliant bonus on top, with a little bit of themed Fridays and Doctor Who madness on the side. The team there are fantastic and I hope to work with them again sometime in the future. Projects I worked on (pictured here): Chivas - Wooden Bottles + other wooden props and varnishing - http://vimeo.com/82009886 Team Building Workshop - Trotter Van Canterbury Anifest 2013 and 'Animating the Beaney' Exhibition - http://www.canterburyanifest.com/anifest-exhibition/ More pics including hand-made props and clothing coming soon ...

I hope to space out any more festival news in the future.

This didn't really get enough proper screen time in the film to see all the bird/chicken/egg puns. So I thought now was better than never to show it to you. 'Cheep' Magazine - how many puns can you spot? Believe me there's a fair few!

And the film has recently been selected for another festival in March, more details to follow :)