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Split Personality

18 Apr 2011

We’re currently trying to decorate our studio in a way that befits our split focuses of Animation and Web Design. Mostly this has involved multiple trips to Ikea.

One half (my half) represents our funky and creative natures – we have a mood wall for inspiration, paintbrushes that we’ll almost certainly never use, storyboards proudly displayed and of course, that staple of student bedrooms everywhere, a wooden mannequin.

Aaron’s side (or as I like to refer to it, the boring side) represents our technical natures. It has files and calculators, diagrams and charts, aspect ratios and financial projections. Bleurgh!

But it is at least all red and white, so it might be boring, but it is at least Slurpy branded boring.

New Studio!!!

12 Apr 2011

We are pleased and proud to invite you to a sneak peek at our new studio, in London Colney.

We’d been looking for a place considerably larger than our old studio in Harpenden, with better transport links and (all important) nice places to go during the rare moments when we lift our heads from our computers and feel like going outside for a few minutes.

The new studio fulfils all of those criteria. It’s big enough for the new animators and web designers that we’re looking to employ (and to do cartwheels, should the desire overtake us), it’s about as close to the M25 as you can get without being run over, and it’s situated on a beautiful river with willow trees and the all important ice cream van.

It’s also within short walking distance of the biggest Marks and Spencers I’ve ever seen!

This is a big step for our small studio, and we’re very excited about the future. Come visit us soon at Berkeley House, Barnet Road, London Colney, AL2 1BG.

We have cookies…

I’ve been NLPed!

31 Mar 2011

I’ve just completed a one week NLP Practitioner course which, according to the official blurb, means I now have “a FREEDOM from ANY limited, internal model of the world, which in turn, gives me the KEY to UNLOCKING your true potential…”

So that’s nice…

Now, anyone who knows me, knows that I’m not really into ‘personal development,’ ‘spiritual empowerment,’ or any such self help book spouted crap. But I am interested in the power of the brain, and I am interested in being a better communicator, so when I found a teacher who I felt could deliver the more scientifically accurate bits without the fluff that denigrates so much of NLP I decided to go for it.

And it was… interesting.

Some bits I found overwhelmingly mediocre, but some bits so dangerously powerful that I wondered why doctors around the world weren’t raving about it. I saw a woman genuinely cured of a fear of public speaking so intense that she was shaking and practically weeping at the very thought of having to stand in front of a group of 18 people. But I also was expected to report profound emotional change when I stood in the centre of a circle of people spouting such platitudes as; ‘the meaning of communication is the response you get’ and ‘everyone does the best they can with the resources they have.’

I was also made to watch ‘The Secret’ which is never a good way to win my approval. (It’s called EDITING people!)

I find a lot of NLP, therapy and hypnosis is more about peer pressure and a desire not to make the trainer look foolish than it is about genuine change. This opinion lessened during the week, but I could not make it disappear entirely.

Because this review isn’t completely positive, I haven’t mentioned the name of the trainer or the company. This isn’t in any way to avoid endorsing either, because actually I think that any ‘not entirely convinced-ness’ was entirely due to my overly analytical mind and inherent scepticism of NLP rather than the course itself, which was excellent and well delivered… poor guy must dread people like me walking through the door!

Me being hypnotised (sort of):

Web Designer Magazine – Industry portfolio

18 Sept 2010

We’ve been getting Web Designer magazine for about a year now, so were absolutely delighted when they told us they were going to do an interview with us for this month’s edition.

The section is the Industry portfolio, so we were able to show off a few of the projects we’ve been working on recently as well as chatting about our studio, careers and web design ethos (don’t suck).

So here, in full, is a transcript of the article as a special treat for those of you who simply can’t wait until the squeak-splat that signals your copy of web designer coming through the door…

Katie Steed

http://www.slurpystudios.com
Creative Director
Flash, CSS, PHP, MySQL, ActionScript, Javascript, SEO, jQuery

Founded by Award-winning animators Katie Steed and Aaron Wood in 2007, Slurpy has grown to employ a team of creatively diverse artists, designers, coders, programmers and directors. It creates innovative websites that are engaging, eye-catching and enjoyable.

Animation and web design are linked by the limitless possibilities that both disciplines offer through imagination and knowledge. All of the staff at Slurpy love spending their days dreaming up and learning of new ways of delivering appealing and interactive experiences and staying on top of the never ending curve that is web design.

Katie Steed, creative director says; “we want to make the web a more enjoyable and beautiful experience. Although we believe in the old saying ‘the first bite is with the eye; we also know that a visually pleasing website isn’t effective if it isn’t user friendly., accessible and easy to find on Google.” Slurpy produces 100% bespoke work that has increased customers, sales and revenue for their Clients. It has won several awards for its creativity, design, programming and effectiveness.

Animation Showreel

4 Apr 2010

We are exceptionally pleased and proud to reveal our new showreel! It contains our work over the few years from projects including Title sequences, Music Videos, Short Films, Series pitches, Idents and Commercials, for Clients including Sky and ITV.

Slurpy Receives Honors from American Design Awards

11 Jan 2010

Slurpy are pleased and proud to announce today that we have received an award from the American Design Awards for the design of its Retro Tuckshop website. Our entry was among 25 sites chosen from a pool of over 2,000 entries.

This award is a great tribute to our hard work, dedication and creativity, especially since it comes from fellow design professionals at American Design Awards. This concludes a wonderful year for Slurpy, after our Music Video 'The Best Day We Ever Had' toured the world's animation festivals, and our multi award winning short film 'Death by Scrabble' continued to garner praise and recognition.

We would also like to give our thanks to Kate Henning, the owner of the website for giving us so much freedom with the design, (and also for the large quantities of sweets which she gave us as a thank you present - my dentist may not appreciate them, but I certainly did!). Retro Tuckshop is a great business, and the perfect place to order your sherbet fountains, fizzy whips and aniseed balls. We're very happy to have been able to give Kate a great design and vastly improved visitor numbers through our search engine optimization work.

The American Design Awards looks at and grades hundreds of web design entries each month in their Monthly Design Contest. Grading is based on creativity (40 points), effectiveness (30 points), and practicality (30 points), for a total of 100 points. Slurpy scored a total of 73 points, winning ourselves a very shiny glass plaque.

Merry Christmas to one and all!

18 Dec 2009

Things are a little over excited here at Slurpy Towers - it's nearly Christmas, and we've been feeling the festive love for well over a month now. In fact we brought our Christmas tree on November 13th this year, and have had Wham's Last Christmas on repeat pretty much ever since!

We've put up the decorations, stolen some holly, experimented with mince pies (we didn't have a pan with the holes in, so they were more like mince pasties really), brought the presents, got our auto responder set up and ready to go, and made our Christmas Cards.

This was the first year that we sent out special Slurpy Christmas cards, and we designed one which featured our two Directors Katie Steed and Aaron Wood in a 50s style Christmas scene (with Katie doing all the work and Aaron sitting about shaking his presents!)

And here is a short video that we made on 'The Making Of' this years Christmas Card. It starts with a rough sketch on paper, which is then scanned in and coloured using Photoshop CS4. It has been sped up by about 800%.

2D animation versus 3D animation

15 Dec 2009

Around this time of year, we at Slurpy are often sent emails by animation students asking our opinions on various matters for their dissertations. When we have time, and when the sender has asked nicely (why do these people think we're going to waste an hour of our time on their homework if they don't even have the common curtest to say please and thank you?) we answer them to the best of our ability.

And every year we seem to get one asking us whether or not we think the death knell has sounded on 2D animation. Partly because this is a question which I feel incredibly strongly about, and partly because I think it will save me effort this time next year, I have decided to answer one such email here on this blog.

- It's no secret that 3D has become the new medium of choice for animators, but why do you think this is?

3D has allowed smaller studios to make feature length films, because they don't need the same budget or talent pool behind it. This is a never ending cycle, because the more people see that most of the films coming out are 3D, the less inclined they will be to study and learn 2D animation. While this is a good thing in that it was widened the playing field and allowed studios other than Disney, Pixar and Dreamworks to show the world what they can do, it is also an incredibly bad thing because the smaller risk associated with making a 3D film seems to have come with a dearth in quality of storytelling. Less time is being spent in pre-production because it is less expensive to make changes to the film once a scene has been animated.

The current audience generally judges films and games primarily by how 'realistic' they look, and 3d films automatically look more realistic than 2d. It doesn’t help that 2D is always judged by the standards of Disney, and Disney were producing several of their worst films (ie. Atlantis and Home on the Range) at beginning of 3D, and people therefore equated better films with 3D and tired old films with 2D. I hold out strong hopes that the new Disney film 'The Princess and the Frog' will start to erode this opinion in people's minds, and films will be judged on their own merit, rather than by the medium in which they are made.

- Do you believe that in order to stay relevant, 2D animation must change and evolve? If so, how? If not, why?

I actually believe the opposite. I don’t believe that the medium is as important as the storytelling, and a good story makes for a good film. 2D can evolve all it wants to, but it’s never going to be 3D, so it shouldn’t try. Choose the right medium for the story, and the medium should quickly become irrelevant. Walt Disney was an experimenter, always at the forefront of any new technology, and I know that he would have been very keen to embrace 3D animation (and would probably have managed to do so before anyone else. But Walt Disney is not Walt Disney simply because he was an innovator, his main accomplishments were that of a storyteller, and his constant search for the latest technology was simply to find the best ways of telling his story.

3D has it's purpose, and it's been used to make some wonderful films, but it cannot relate to people in the same way that 2D can, simply because it is too close to replicating life without ever being quite perfect. Disbelief is automatically suspended when people know that they are watching a 2D film, yet a 3D film has to work extra hard to avoid the ‘uncanny valley’ to make people believe their ‘close but not quite perfect’ people, and the part of the brain that is aware of things that aren’t quite right with the model are not enjoying the film that is being told. Very few of the 3D films that have been made recently would have worked as well in 2D, and very few of the classic 2D films would have been better in 3D. This is because of media specificity - the medium in which a film is made dictates the emotions felt when watching it. For this reason, 2D should stick to what it does best, and 3D should do the same.

- Do you think that children as an audience have changed since the golden age of 2D (Loony Tunes, Disney Classics)?

No, I think it’s mostly the adults that have changed. Adults are more afraid of the violence depicted in cartoons, and don't always have a child's ability to disassociate it from real life.

Cartoons that were made in the 60s, 70s and 80s are still shown regularly on TV, whereas little other content from those decades still has the same appeal. The appeal of classic cartoons doesn’t change with passing generations, and the issues that affect children remain the same.

- Is there a future for traditional 2D animation?

Without a doubt.
It took people a while to notice that 3D films are necessarily better than 2D ones, but the hunger for good films will always be there. Disney’s current slate of 2D productions should reassure large studios that 2D is not a risk so long as it is supported by a strong story.

Summer Time...

31 Aug 2008

It doesn't seem that long ago that we posted the music video and were looking forward to a few days off! August has been a quiet month, very much tying up loose ends, promoting ourselves and straightening out some 'boring' business-type things.

We have finished our 2 short animated pieces for ITV (30 seconds each) on the misrepresentation of youths who wear hoodies. This is not available on our website yet, but is due to be broadcast in October.

Best Day We Ever Had is currently being submitted to various film and animation festivals around the world. One of the schemes we have joined is a new Channel 4 inititive called 4mations which showcases animation talents. Slurpy were one of the first to join, hence the strange cat 'badge' we were given (above)!

Apart from the work, August has seen us audition for Tim Burton's new film 'Alice in Wonderland', vivst the Edinburgh Fringe and do a mini sight-seeing tour of the North East. We thought it worth mentioning a wonderful second-hand bookstore in Alnwick, Northumberland. Barter Books is housed in the old railway station and is the 2nd largest bookstore in the UK. It retains an old railway station atmosphere and there is plenty of space to sit and browse your books. If you are up that way, it is well worth a visit!

WINNER - Stoke your Fires best 2D Animation

17 May 2008

Yesterday a Slurpy Studios representative (Katie Steed) took the day off from drawing thousands of practically identical pictures, and spent the day at the Stoke on Trent Animation Festival, somewhat ingeniously named 'Stoke your Fires.'

It was a thoroughly enjoyable day with guest speakers including Chris Bowden from the world renowned Cosgrove Hall, master puppet-makers MacKinnon and Saunders, and Greg Lynn from Chapman Entertainment. At the Award Ceremony later, the day was made even better with the announcement that DEATH BY SCRABBLE picked up the award for Best 2D animation.

Considering the exceptionally high quality of the competition, we are delighted to have won this award which is an exquisite porcelain work by Jerry Warmsley Pitts. It will look very nice on the studio mantelpiece (...just as soon as we get it back from the taxi that we accidentally left it in).

With yet another Award behind us, Slurpy are excited about the future. We are currently working on a website, a title sequence AND a music video. If you want us, we'll be at our desks!

Slurpy Studios - Animation and Web Design | Reviews, News, Updates, Art, Events, Awards