Mackinnon and Saunders

A good few weeks ago now, Chris and I had our 'magical trip to Manchester' where we spent the morning in China town (getting inspiration for my game module.. and just allowing me to run around like a child asking for every pen and bracelet with a cat on.. and there were a lot..!), then midday we had the chance to meet up with our BAFette buddy Ellie and went to an interesting and fun animation talk, and then we ended the day back in China town with a big yummy meal.

The main part of the day, which is probably the most relevant to my studies.. is the animation talk we went to, held by Mackinnon and Saunders, as well as Max Hattler. Although Max's work was lovely, it was too info-graphicy for my liking, however his water projection work was amazingly thought out and I could really appreciate the work that went into producing that.

The talk by Ian Mackinnon however was much more up my street, as stop motion is a root which I am looking to go in perhaps in the future. Mackinnon and Saunders is one of the UK (if not the worlds) biggest puppet makers for animation. So getting to meet and listen to one of the co founders thoughts on the animation industry today, and how he made the company successful was a priceless experience (even more so when it was a free talk to go to!!)

http://www.mackinnonandsaunders.com/

http://maxhattler.com/

Here are my notes from the event..

We also got to see some of the prototype models of Sparky (from Frankenweenie) and one of the finished models of him, along with his amazing armature.