Nain Story Gwir

While studying in Glyndwr University, I created a short Stop-Motion film: ‘Grandma’ inspired from my childhood. I wanted it to be based in Wales and in Welsh language.

My message is a message of love and compassion. During the pre-production which lasted three months, I wrote the story, then drew the storyboard leading to creating an ‘animatic’ on the Toon-Boom Software. This animatic was containing all captions concerning the narration, dialogues, lighting, camera angles, sound, and mood of the scene, action of the character...and more... Then only a few weeks were left to build the Set, Props and Puppets from scratch! To have sourced quite a few props at the right scale in advance saved me a lot of time in the making process...

The Production period lasted four months: I proceeded to the shooting with a Canon 600D EOS and the ‘Dragon Frame’ software. Discovering along that it was not possible to shoot in a linear way, all the scenes happening within a same background had to be shot at the same time. To avoid changing scenery constantly, I created a schedule to regroup and time the shooting scenes belonging to the same set and/or the same lighting...

Finally it took me 10 days to do the editing on Final Cut Pro. Although I had a few minutes of help there and then, I worked on my own the most of the time... around the clock!

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From Brittany in France, I graduated obtaining a First Class degree in Animation, Visual Effects and Game Art within the North Wales School of Art and Design in UK.

During my Paragliding flying years many years ago, I produced with friends a music video : 'Blue' on the Hang Gliding World short listed in France at the Icarus Film Festival, and more recently, a Stop-Motion Very Short in London.

With a Technical Theatre and Puppetry background, I have now two years of experience in Set, Props, Puppets, Models design and making.

I have been using all types of materials, it goes from : wood, leather, canvas for the Set; fimo, plasticine, clay for the Sculptures; alginate, plaster, latex, silicone for Casting- Molding; fabric, felt, crochet, metal, lead... and more...

I specialized in Stop-Motion, as it became obvious along the years that it was the path I was looking for all along.

When working on a Story, comes to my mind, first the Layout, Design style and Color tone for the entire film. Then reading the script I visualize spontaneously in my mind the Action, Mood, Camera, Lighting, Background necessary for each scene.

It takes a bit longer at the pre-production to create a Stop-Motion than a digital animated film, but the shooting can be fast (6 minutes film, 3 weeks shooting for my last commissioned work).

It does worth it to choose Stop-Motion in matter of popularity with the audience. The fact that it is hand-made brings a Quirkiness and incomparable Human feel to it. It is particularly an ideal technique for series as once the puppets and set are made, then it is shot within no time..!

I am passionate about telling truthful and cheerful stories. It is because I believe that : 'if each one of us at our little scale brings goodness around us, then the world becomes a better place to live in and that we are all responsible to do just that'.

'Grandma' is a story of love and compassion.

Creating Set and puppets is my favorite part, would you not dream at creating a whole new universe? :-)!

When animating, I find it important not to think but to feel...
To me, the lighting is the magician of the atmosphere desired...
As a general rule, I try to keep it simple, everything has to be there for a reason...

The synchronization at editing is crucial to keep the flow and the truth of the emotion intact.

My Future Plans :
I am offering my services to assist as a Stop-Motion Model-maker and Animator to the Animation and Film Production Industry.
As a free lancer I am offering commercials, music-videos, short films made in the Stop-Motion technique.