Another one fresh from the toaster – a new showcase sequence relating to our client and in-house projects on character animation. The piece highlights the capacity in which we work with agencies and direct brands.

Fresh from the toaster – we have just put together two, one and a half minute showcase sequences relating to our client projects on online games and brand communications. The pieces highlight the capacity in which we work with agencies and direct brands. We have some more sequences coming up in the future – so watch this space.

Sliced Bread are very proud to be partnering with The Green Marine (TGM) team on their new venture. The project is a proposed animation series for digital broadcast. We worked with the TGM team on character development/ design and an animatic trailer. We were drawn into the project by its original concept idea and existing interest by leading industry figures. Visit the site to get a full understanding of the properties fantastic potential.

David Pye is an award winning Transport Planner, campaign Director and CSR specialist. Continually striving for success he is recognised for his creativity, innovation and CSR project impact.

Committed to providing solutions to some of the most challenging economic, ethical, social, health, transportation and environmental issues individuals and organisations face – he is a man on a mission. That’s what motivates him. Combining passion with business aptitude he is an effective influencer at all levels. Advising organisations how to become more sustainable, socially and environmentally responsible, applying common sense and without any flannel!

At a time when there is genuine concern about the future of children in our society, he believes that we should be demonstrating the positive role that media can play: the impact it can have on culture, social values and learning as well as providing relaxation and entertainment.

He has developed a new children’s sci fi action adventure animation series…A BROTHER AND SISTER, AFRO CARIBBEAN JUDO MASTER, A FROG FROM OUTER SPACE AND A HANDFULL OF ECO VILLIANS. The series follows The Green Marine and the team as they act locally and battle globally to protect Planet Earth not only from its inhabitants but also from a succession of evil alien eco-villains.

New technologies and new patterns of use provide us with opportunities to re-invent our relationship and connections with our kids. Using a clearly defined set of environmental, health and social values The Green Marine animation series and accompanying applications will entertain, empower and help keep children on track. As The Green Marine says ‘The time is always right to do what is right.’ Nothing is impossible!

They are currently looking for commercial investment to bring the property forward and fulfil its objectives. If you are interested please contact David Pye direct via the TGM website, LinkedIn or Twitter.

We are looking for a student (Degree/ Masters level) with an interest in stop-frame animation to work on a fully paid 3-week commercial online project starting mid-January. If you know anyone who might be interested, please send them our way and we will let them know more!

We are currently in development of our first iPad app which will be an interactive storybook (more on that later) but since the iPad’s launch there has been quite a lot of discussion about HTML5 and creating web based application as ‘non-flash’, this has caused quite a stir amongst the animation community. We all have our grumbles about Flash, Sliced Bread has only just upgraded to CS5 from CS3, because from what we could gather, going to CS4 was way too much of a risk in animation production. 85% of our output is web based, which is why we are particularly interested in this issue. We have also started working on a number of client projects where the end product needs to work on a ‘mobile’ device, so not only the Apple favourites (iPad/ iPhone) but also Android, Windows Mobile, RIM products etc, etc. There is definitely a need now, more than ever, for some kind of web standard (without the need for plugins). A lot of HTML5 debate seems to be how will the video/ dynamic web elements ‘play’, rather than how it can be created, whilst at the same time keeping the filesize efficient and of good quality (unlike animated gifs).

From what I understand from some our digital agency clients and because its only the start, these type of productions are quite hard to budget, particular on fixed based budgets as you just don’t know what you are going to come up against. Currently the developer will do most of the ‘animating’ through creative direction, or a prototype is built (in Flash) which is then ‘converted by code’, creating almost double the work. Also, with regards to apps, sometimes there is need for several iterations before they are approved.  However, I do understand that Apple have now (recently) relaxed some of ‘their rules’, mainly relating to ‘objective C’ conversions.

The thing is, Flash is such an easy programme to pick up and get animating and that’s all an animator really wants to do. Quite often we have spent weeks coming up with the idea, storyboarding it, creating vector elements (say in Illustrator), etc, etc. From Flash or wherever, we don’t really care about the output as long as it works on what we need it to. Even against H.264 compression, Flash (SWF) files can be tiny in filesize and this has added advantage for gaming, particularly since they quite often require lots of assets for ‘non-linear’ use (see 1066 The Game for reference).

Whenever we do a work placement and where that student is still at school, we tend to offer them Flash as the right tool to get them started. Its not only an easy way to teach the basic principles of keyframe animation but all the tools are there to aid the animator and get the job done. When I was 18, I did a media course and at the college they had an Amiga with Deluxe Paint 3, this was a big step in the  right direction of me becoming an animator, as I could very easily get my idea up and running. I do remember exporting to video being a nightmare as you needed some kind of card and another unit to be able export (just to VHS!). Being able to afford to be able to have one at home, also had its advantages. Given that Flash is also part of the Abobe suite it also has the added benefit of integrating neatly with other products like Photoshop, After Effects etc.

I think the biggest concern is, if it needs to be non-Flash what other tools are out there to get the job done? At the moment not a lot, Adobe has a new application coming out called Edge, here’s a link to a prototype presentation. There is also Sencha, which I have recently download at had a little play with, it is only a beta version, and seems very light not nearly early enough the intuitive tools like Flash has, and certainly not something we can use professionally. However, I do think in both these cases its a move in the right direction to achieving a ‘web standard’ for this type of content.

Sencha Animator allows you simply place objects (text, shapes, and images) onto a re-sizable stage area, configure their properties and then animate to bring them to life. You can move, scale, skew and rotate objects singly or at various levels of nesting, in 2D or 3D space. With Sencha Animator, you can also take advantage of CSS3 capabilities like gradients, blurs, reflections and shadows. You can create basic animations quickly and easily. But Animator is also designed to be a CSS3 power-tool. So when you need to add HTML or custom CSS, it’s easy to do that too. Best of all, Sencha Animator outputs pure CSS3 animation code, so it’s hardware accelerated on Apple iOS, which creates incredibly smooth animations. This also means it’s ready to work with any JavaScript library, not just Sencha.

Here’s an animation we have just completed for Twestival Global (2010)... see twestival.com for more details. There’s a blog post coming up shortly, which details more about the collaboration process (which was a fantastic experience), but for now we wanted to get it out there and promote the cause.

Creative: Crystal English, Leynete Cariapa, Animation: Sliced Bread, Music: EliasArts, Audio: Green-Shoot, Recorded at Dammit Ltd., Voice: Lawrence Sheldon, Twestival Bird: 383 Project, Video Footage: charity: water, Thanks to What Talent Ltd., Produced by Connect the Dots Foundation, Photography Courtesy of National Geographic (c) James P. Blair/ National Geographic, Gabriele Gaspardis, Justin Sangani, Brooks Walker/ National Geographic, Johannes Ehrhardt, James P. Blair/ National Geographic images

What is Twestival™?

On Thursday 25 March 2010, people in hundreds of cities around the world will come together offline to rally around the important cause of Education by hosting local events to have fun and create awareness.  Twestival™ (or Twitter Festival) uses social media for social good.  All of the local events are organized 100% by volunteers and 100% of all ticket sales and donations go direct to projects.  If you would like to get involved, please Register your City, Register your School, or Volunteer and we will get in touch.  Organizers will be given a handbook and invitation to our collaboration workspace.  Follow @twestival for updates.

The online game 1066 won a BIMA last Thursday (19th Nov 2009) for Best Online Game, The BIMA awards  ‘celebrate the work of the UK digital creative industry’. As previously blogged we were responsible for creating over 270 animated assets in just over 2-weeks. Preloaded did all the creative and site development, and we created the Norman, Viking, Saxon and Villager character animation elements. We are very proud to be part of its success, the quality of the game speaks for itself in terms of the gaming results:

Since launching in May 2009, the game has received an overwhelmingly positive response from both the gaming community and online press.

The project has received no marketing budget, simply relying on the audience and community to seed and share between themselves. The traffic to date is testament to the quality of the game and the compelling nature of the content.

The Multi-player mode plays a large part in the distribution mechanic of the game and this is reflected in the continued and sustained and growth in traffic and game-play duration.

Effectiveness

> Number 1 search result in google for ’1066′
> Current total game-plays standing at over 5 million
> Average game duration over 25 minutes

And the reviews:

“If half the Proper Wargames released each year showed as much imagination, style and spirit as 1066 the genre would be in a far healthier state”

Tim Stone – rockpapershotgun.com

“Pleasing to play and pleasing to the eye. Check it out.”

Brian Ashcroft – kotaku.com

We recently compiled a DVD for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission using supplied assets and some good ‘ole Boyce Dungood animation (by us). Sponsored by The Mirror and Mirror Football it has been sent out to over 28,000 schools over the past week to coincide with Remembrance Day.

Glory Days – Football in Times of War is a short film aimed at engaging teachers, students and football fans of all ages with the website of the same name at cwgc.org/glorydays

Introduced by David Beckham and enthusiastic football manager Boyce Dungood, Glory Days tells the stories of some of the footballers who gave their lives for their countries and how they are remembered. It explores how the two world wars affected football teams and how football played a part in times of war as entertainment, for boosting morale and for propaganda.

Argos have recently launched this Sliced Bread created game (client: Meteorite) to coincide with their ‘Toy Tester for Year‘ competition and ‘Big Play’ Roadshows. The game has 3 competency zones, each with 4 playable levels. Players can also invite their friends to join them in mini high scoreboards. You can play the game here.

I’m Angus and this is my awesome Toy Testing factory. It’s my job to make sure all the toys are off the Fun-o-meter scale! But there are so many great toys here, I need another Toy Tester to help me. So let’s see if you’re up to the job. Collect as many toys as possible from the Big Play Area zones – the clock is ticking!

We recently created an expanding banner campaign for use as a takeover on msn.co.uk, view here or click the image. The original MPU (300×250) was created by Glue and wide expanded banner (980×450) by using Maya (client: BPL Marketing).