Lost in Information (Animated Short Film)

 

Recently finished a great artistic traditional animation project for Gerry Lindfield of Strange Pixels Ltd and GeeFX Studios bringing the illustrations of Norwegian artist Astrid Iverslien* to life using animation. Lost in Information is a very interesting book about the evil lure of the smartphone screen.

Whilst remaining respectful to the illustrations and not creating too much extra movement the animation was subtle but to the point. Using a line~boil style the art was created in photoshop and animated in after effects.

This was an awesome opportunity to create some "arty" animation and build on already very strong imagery. Each illustration offered different challenges, due to the varying style and technique.

After the project was completed Gerry sent me an email with some great feedback... "I wanted to say how good I thought the animations were, particularly considering the volume. There was a distinct look to each one which gave a lot of added value which the client also noticed." 

Watch Lost in Information on Youtube

Amazon's Quiz of 25 Years

 

Recently completed an animation job for Amazon celebrating 25 years of business. Made in Illustrator and After Effects via GeeFX Studios

Amazon's Quiz of 25 Years on Youtube

Road to Wembley: The Video Game

Recently I was given a great opportunity to work as an animator with GeeFX Studios on Road to Wembley: A Video Game produced by BBC Sport. The fast paced, energetic mini-doc is a quick look back through various teams' highs and lows on their journey to try and win the FA Cup.

Donkey Kong inspired Level 01

RTW was divided into 6 separate levels each inspired by different video games. The levels were Donkey Kong, Sonic the Hedgehog, Street Fighter, Outrun, Mario and FIFA Soccer. Each level would have characters designed to look like well known footballers who would then recreate scenes from various footballing events.

Donkey Kong Final Designs

Starting out with simple sketches and then turning those sketches into the retro gaming style graphics using Aseprite wasn't an easy task. "Pixel art" can be extremely limiting but after some practice I started to get used to the process and really enjoyed it.

Sonic inspired Level 02

John Motson

Ronnie Radford

Finally it was onto the character designs for the two competing teams' managers, Pep Guardiola (Man City) and Erik ten Hag (Man Utd) which was inspired by anime. This took a while to get right but I was really happy with the way it turned out.

Pep Guardiola

Erik ten Hag

BBC Digital: Green Films (Picture Zero)

BBC Shorts - Net Zero - How We Eat from GeeFX Studios on Vimeo.

Recently I created some animations for Picture Zero and BBC Digital. Three documentary films were produced to highlight the importance of reducing waste, looking after our planet and to make recycling better.

BBC Digital

Chat Show GFX

It's ChuckleTime!!!

ChuckleTime Titles from BenJamin Wigmore on Vimeo.
ChuckleTime is a clip show on Channel5 featuring English comedy legends Paul & Barry Chuckle. Various funny clips are mixed in with classic Chuckle Brothers humour. GeeFX Studios Creative Director Graham Clarkin tasked me with making some appropriate wacky titles with a cartoonish/Monty Pyhton feel.

Produced by So Television for Channel 5

Uploaded with kind permission of GeeFX Studios/ SoTV

Addition: I was very sad to hear of the passing of Barry Chuckle on August 5th 2018. The Chuckle Brothers were the first comedy duo I ever saw on TV and they had a great influence on me. They had perfect comedy timing and ChuckleVision was a big favourite of mine when I was younger. I'm thankful that they gave me this brilliant introduction to comedy at such a young age.

BBC World Cup Titles 2018

BBC World Cup Title Sequence 2018 UHD from Rob Whitworth on Vimeo.

Very pleased to have worked on the amazing BBC World Cup Titles made by BAFTA winning film maker Rob Whitworth and GeeFX Studios. I looked after the Russian Doll Sequence and the painting in the Saint Basil's Cathedral which required a lot of rotoscoping and photoshop work. The end result is a fantastic eye catching sequence that is very unique.

Join the Revolution

Sky One - Revolution - 4K Graphics Package from GeeFX® Studios on Vimeo.

Working closely with Znak & Co we helped develop the show with various concept artwork, and upon commission we created the entire broadcast graphics package, from logo design, t-shirt and banner designs, to on-screen animations, score boards, and a multitude of post graphics. All the graphics we're produced in 4K resolution.

For the last two years GeeFX Studios has been working in development with Znak&Co on a very ambitious television project. Personally this is the longest and most in-depth development of a TV show I have ever been involved in. I ended up doing all kinds of different jobs for production, including costume design, promotional work and website designs.

From initial concept artwork, logo design, titles, on-screen graphics, promo work, costume design and post graphics the show has grown into a mighty 4K monster which reminds me of TV shows like Gladiator and X-Games.

Here are some Concept Design examples:

It takes a huge number of people to produce a show like this. Filmed at Cardington Studios, a massive aircraft hangar, the show's scale is off the charts. Here's a video of presenter Steve-O on set...

Steve-O on the set of Revolution from Znak & Co on Vimeo.

Revolution is on Sky One 6.30 on Sundays.

Graham Norton by Aardman (Early Man)

Amazing maquette of Graham Norton by @aardmananimations #animation #stopmotion #plasticine #earlyman #aardman #aardmananimation #london #tv #chat #graphics

A post shared by benjaminwigmore (@benjaminwigmore) on Jan 14, 2018 at 5:51am PST

Sheridan Smith ITV Special

GeeFX Studios recently worked on the screen graphics for the Sheridan Smith ITV Special. We created visuals alongside directions from ITV Producers, Lighting and the Director Chris Howe. Great project to work on and Sheridan is such a real genuine talent!

And we're back!!!

Back creating graphics for Graham Norton Show and Jonathan Ross

BBC Sport - Cycling 2017 Title Sequence

BBC Sport - Cycling 2017 - Title Sequence from GeeFX® Studios on Vimeo.
BBC Sport tasked us with creating a new and distinct Title sequence for the BBC's coverage of Cycling. Our senior motion graphics animator Ben Wigmore, designed and lead the production of the sequence which was inspired by the works of artist and author Jan Pienkowski's fascinating children's illustrations.

Creative Services:
Title Sequence Animation, Concept Design, Creative Direction, Compositing
Client: BBC Sport
Producer: David Purchase & Helen Dapre
Creative Director: Graham Clarkin
Design, Animation & Compositing: Ben Wigmore
Background Animation: Sean Womersley

BBC Cycling Titles (Making of)

BBC Sport asked GeeFX Studios to design and produce a title sequence for the new BBC Cycling coverage inspired by the paintings of artist/author Jan Pienkowski.

Working alongside GeeFX's Creative Director, Graham Clarkin, ​I ​designed various ​concept ​visuals to give ​the producers at​ BBC​ Sport​ a ​clear ​idea of ​the type of visuals we could create for cycling with these great paintings as inspiration.

The Producers​ really​ liked the visuals​, and so our next step was ​creating​ an animatic ​to get ​the timings right for each of the transitions. We also needed animation that would easily clarify each cycling event. Velodrome: Mountain: BMX and Road. Here's the animatic in sequence....

BBC Sport ​loved the timings and ​animation ​ideas. I moved onto animate each cyclist while Sean Womersley created wonderful painted backgrounds. I had to create each cyclist silhouette and build them so they could be easily animated and posed in different positions.

Top Left: Mountain     Top Right: BMX      Lower Left: Road      Lower Right: Velodrome

Finally it was a case of compositing everything together using the animatic as a guide and building each scene. A​fter seeing the final animation there was a great reaction from the producers​ at BBC Sport​.