Starting off with an amazing interactive Flash generated fireworks display by Seb Lee-Delisle from Plug-in Media on the front of the Unitarian church in Brighton.

Pictures from the night are here

It then continued the next week to include the Portfolio Clinic - where I was priviledged to share a table with local animator RichMitch and look over work produced by local students and freelancers and offer advice on how to improve their portfolios and where to take their career next.

Photos from the night are here

The following night I was asked to be part of the Animation Night. Together with the Hastings Animation Networking Group's founder, Angus Giorgi - we compiled a 30 minute showreel of animation work produced by BANG and HANG members - which included a very varied selection of films - from commerical work produced by AnimNation and John Davison, to personal projects created by the incedibly talented Cyriak, Tim Frost, to name but a few.

On the night this was shown to the audience along with a selection of animations from some of Ireland's most talented film makers and animators. A panel discussion was then put together - consisting of the Dark Light Festival organiser Nicky Gogan; Matthew Talbot-Kelly who created the haunting Blind Man's Eye; Eoghan Kidney who created Stars; English animator/film maker and director at Slinky Pictures, Chris Shepherd; Angus Giorgi founder of HANG and myself.We all discussed how we all have sought funding for short films and how the process varies from country to country - with an English, Irish and Canadian perspective on things. We also chatted about how politics can influence animation.

Photos from the event are here

I'm off now to download a copy of the Papervison3D Collada Maya converter software to see what amazing 3D models I can drag into Flash!

And the best news of all - the next version of Flash is incorporating Inverse Kinematics! Now why they couldn't include that technology into Flash years ago, I'll never know! IK has been around in the world of 3D for donkeys years & revolutionised the way us 3D animators work. But it's great news anyway for any Flash animator!

Out of all of the guest speakers, three stand out as being very inspirational to me:-

Chris Orwig - freelance interactive designer, photographer & lecturer at Brookes Institute of Photography. Chris gave an hour long talk on story, branding and visual design. A few things I took away from his talk are to keep things simple, how to explain my niche work in one sentence and how my work could tell a story (colour conveys emotion, typography a voice etc) & also complete admiration for his photography work.

GMUNK - an amazing Motion Graphics designer who combines Maya dynamics & modelling and design to create brilliant visuals. And very often his work has been produced to an extremely tight deadline - so I'm sure his tips and tricks will come in handy!

The Ronin - again, an amazing Motion Graphics designer & UK based! I recognised one of The Ronin's animations "Black Day to Freedom" from the McLaren Award at Edinburgh Festival a few years ago - second time round watching it, I still found it incredibly moving. The Ronin combines photography and illustrations by his brother to make some very inspirational pieces. I would definitely like to try out some of his techniques to combine my photography work and get some motion into it!

As soon as the tickets become available for the 2008 Flash on the Beach - I'll be getting my credit card out to book a bunch of tickets!

Location: Madgex – Suite 1 Clarence House 30-31 North Street, BN1 1EB GMap

Week of SkillSwap

There’s going to be a full week of SkillSwap sessions as part of the Brighton Digital Festival.

Register on upcoming.org

• Photography 101 – Jane Dallaway
• Master Screencasting – Ian Ozsvald
• Agile – Iterating the Reasons – Joh Hunt & Tom Hume
• The Art of Storytelling – Charlie Davies
• 10 reasons why you shouldn’t test your software – Rosie Sherry

Speakers at the event include a nice portfolio of companies:

·        De-Construct: London based digital agency will report on the Toyota outdoor campaign taking place in Paris (Champe Elisee).

·        Bunnyfoot: Oxford based usability company will show groundbreaking results on eyetracking techniques in outdoor posters.

·        Foviance: London based usability company will engage the audience with its latest results from anthropology studies conducted in the London underground. The study looks at people’s interaction with interactive technology in the London underground

·        Cogapp: Brighton based enterprise, Cogapp has placed itself as the leader in interactive technologies for public spaces such as museum and galleries. Among their clients: MoMA, the British Musium, The National Museum.

Interactive Outdoor Technologies are becoming part of every day’s people life. Embedded technologies in people’s surrounding environments help deliver information in the right place at the right time. The event will feature key aspects about:

·        User engagement: How do you attract people’s curiosity, what information can and cannot be included and how to structure the interface navigation are all central issues to user engagement

·         User Experience: Interface Navigation, look and feel, easy to use interface are all key factors to deliver effective interactive technologies

Surrounding Environment: sound, light and space are critical factors that influence User experience and interaction for successful deployment of interactive technologies.

Flash on the Beach - 4th - 7th November

We're only a week and half away until the start of the Flash On The Beach conference - which will be hosting talks and workshops by some of the world's best Flash experts. I was very lucky enough to win my ticket to the conference this year by creating a Flash banner to advertise the conference. The entries to the competition were judged by the Flash Coders New York group and I was privileged to win 1st place!

Y-Design Awards - Peoples' Choice Award - 5th November Brighton Pier

Brighton Pier has been opened up to digital artists to celebrate the Peoples' Choice Award as part of the Y-Design Awards. The organisers of this event have very kindly opened up their invitations to the Brighton Animators Networking Group.

Portfolio Clinic - 13th November

I will be putting in an appearance at the DScape Portfolio Clinic as an industry representative. The evening is designed for students and freelancers to have a one-to-one meeting with the best local digital companies to show their portfolio in the hope of getting some expert advice and possibly some work!

Animation Night - 14th November

This is evening is being held to showcase English and Irish animation work with a political theme. Wired Sussex have very kindly offered a 20 minute slot that evening to show off the work produced by the Brighton Animators Networking Group (BANG) and the newly formed Hastings Animators Networking Group (HANG).