As some of you will know, I am an award-winning traditional hand-drawn master animator, author and teacher of animation. I have always sought to bring a high degree of integrity, quality and even a discreet spirituality to my work. I am desperately keen to keep the great legacy of traditional, hand-drawn animation alive - while at the same time, moving it forward, boldly to places it has never gone before. Through all this, I have invested so much of my time and resources, in the attempt bringing to the world creative project that are unique, innovative and inspiring. Now entering my autumn years, I am crazily multi-tasking - effectively working on for very different "legacy projects" that I hope to complete before I returns to that "great animation studio in the sky". To do it however, I need to enlist the support of others - as without such support, not everything I want to do in the time I have left will be possible. To enable this, I have set up a Buy Me A Coffee and a Patreon support page.
Legacy 01: Each of my four projects will communicate something of value that my life has taught me - on several different levels of my being. You may not like all of them, but perhaps there is one that you find you can support. The inspiration for this first project - which is somewhat already completed with the publication of my "ANIMATION MASTERCLASSES from Pencils to Pixels", However, I now want to create a complimentary animation project to to this - a very personal history of animation course, to be called "Once Upon a Time in Penciltown". This is a unique view of animation's history - based from an animator's point of view, not an academic's. I think this is a new slant that will bring true knowledge to the subject-matter, from one who knows the process. |
Legacy 02: My second legacy project is scheduled to appear sometime in December 2023. I am the first to acknowledge that I would never have had the life and career I've had, if it were not for a chance meeting with an amazing Irish herbalist/astrologer, Samuel H. Weir - who miraculously saved my mother's life when doctors had given up on her, and who turned my troubled life totally around! The second project therefore is a publishing entity called "HippyDippyGuru", publishing formative and inspirational book on the Body, Mind, Soul & Spirit. Through these books, I am able to share the wonderful self-knowledge that allowed me to live a modest, yet amazing and eventful, life!
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Legacy 03: The third legacy project I hope to complete is an epic length graphic novel - my first ever - which is essentially a "mystical hero's journey" I once wrote with the intention of turning it into a ground-breaking animated movie with a musical, Fantasia-like theme running through it. Believing the story - "MADA and the Magic Tree" - is too important not to see the light of day, I have now decided to embark on the marathon challenge of bringing this original story to life through words and illustrations. |
Legacy 04: My forth and final legacy project - provisionally called "The Old Man Mad About Animating" - is a full-length, animated and/or graphic novel "memoirs" documentary of my life and amazing experiences I had living it. This is not in any way an ego trip. Instead, it is a comprehensive recreation of many of the quite amazing people, places and experiences I've encountered throughout over the decades. I am hoping too that project will proved opportunities for the young and emerging animators around the world - as well as inspire others to pursue their own creative journeys.
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I thank you for any support you can offer, to help me realize these last remaining dreams.