I work as a character animator in film and TV. Below is my professional work history along with some personal projects.
Showreels available on request.		        

   
  John Doo: StoreDetective


Filmed in Wainouiomata, New Zealand in 2005. This is my first attempt at using film instead of DV, featuring 'real' people and a story that is longer than 3 minutes. Daring stuff!. Check it out..........

'Crime is rife in Woolwarts supermarket. The aisles are anything but safe as a body is soon discovered in the freezer section.

There is of course John, in this his biggest, only, first and last case to make it as a one-part series.

By Jamie Beard

Starring:
John Bach
Terry Binding
Des Morgan
Tony Yyeth

 

The Waterhorse

 

I did a small amount of previs work on this film.
   

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Bridge to Terabithia

 

I did a small amount of previs work on this film.

   

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Xmen3

 

Lots of explosions and gritted teeth in the latest installment of superheroes wearing leather.

   

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King Kong

 

Peter Jackson's 3 hour homage. It was extremely challenging but the VFX prooved cool and groovy enough to win us an Oscar.

You can read an interview with me about this film here.

 

 
   

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I-Robot

 

Alex Proyas (Dark City, The Crow), brings this Isaac Asimov inspired story to the screen for the first time. If you read the original collection of short stories be prepared for more explosions.
   

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Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

 

I was ushered out to New Zealand along with a lot of other visual effects people to complete the last installment of the trilogy.

I animated on the big Mumakil sequence where Minas Tirith gets attacked, plus a nice Fellbeast shot at the end (the big flying beasts).

   

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Ella Enchanted

 

Now relesaed to luke warm reviews, this involved a talking CG snake that looked a lot like zippo.

   

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Sky - Red Rocks

 

This was a series of adverts for Sky television using a Mick Jagger persona to sell the product. Below are two commercials I particuarly enjoyed animating on - especially El'Red, the evil cowboy!

'High Noon'
'Lara Croft'
   

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Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets

 

I worked for several months on the second installment of Harry Potter and was involved in both sequences awarded to Framestore-CFC. These were the 'Pixie' and 'Basalisk' sequences.

Official Harry Potter website

Harry Potter Credits
   

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      DINOTOPIA
  
    Zippo (voiced by Lee Evans)

Dinotopia Mini-Series:

Dinotopia, when it aired in May 2002, was billed as a 'Mega mini-series'. Produced by Robert Halmi, this huge production cost over $80 million to produce, and involved the realisation of a whole fantasy world based on the bestselling books by author, James Gurney.

>VIEW SOME OF MY ANIMATION SKETCHES
       
      Details:

I spent 19 months on the production of Dinotopia where I was involved in bringing the character 'Zippo', onto the screen.
Despite some formidable obstacles, I think the team who worked on Zippo brought a believable and genuine sense of personality to the character. The mini-series may have been justifiably slammed on such qualities as story and acting, but all the reviews (bar one or two) gave a positive response to the character:

"In fact, the best actor in Dinotopia is Zippo, a lovably prissy dinosaur who befriends the boys."

"If they decide to give an Emmy this year for Best Performance by a Member of an Extinct Species in a Starring Role, a promising newcomer named Zippo gets my vote. Long-necked and twittery, with large, expressive eyes and a benignly professorial manner, he's part C3PO and part Jiminy Cricket, with maybe just a hint of Kermit in there, too. I wish I could say that Zippo's human co-stars do as well in "Dinotopia..."

""When it comes to acting honors, the only winners are the dinosaurs, who are wonderful."

The boys’ companion Zippo – an intelligent two-legged, upright dinosaur – is animated with a full range of facial expressions which will surprise you. His face can convey fear and guilt and joy with ease. "

If you want to find out more about Dinotopia, watch some animation, or learn more about the production; log on to www.visitdinotopia.com
     
     
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      Stills from film...     Movement studies...  


    My Final Year Film:

The ultimately happy story of 'A Boy Name Sue' struck a chord with me (haha).At the time it was a hard undertaking. I was attempting to make a 3 minute film with realistic human movement for a final project. It had fantastic animation potential involving a fight scene and I felt the mood would be best set if I took on singing duties; the original was a noisy live performance at a jail! Although drawn, much of it could not have been accomplished without the aid of a computer.


It eventually gained entry into Edinburgh Film Festival, got interest from HTV, offers from ATOMfilms, Britshorts as well as making a lot of mates smile cos' of my bad singing.
     
    Useless Facts:

1843 drawings, another 2000 were scrapped (I wasn't very good). Not including sketches, tests storyboards etc
My bed, duvet and mattress served as a useful singing booth when balanced upright!
Over 60 Backgrounds
I read 'The Fifth Secret' whilst scanning (Over a week)
Animating took 2 Months
Colouring 1 Month (all on photoshop)
I did a total of over 45 takes of a Boy Named Sue (my flatmate can vouch for it!)
The Bar is the set from 'Unforgiven'
It all fit on one CD by the end
The bullet is technically wrong. (The casing is left behind once shot!)
The original lyrics have them 'kiss and make up' - the version that made it to screen is far darker........
   

3mb Quicktime

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HEAVEN
   
   
'Heaven' was a short animation about the futile life of a caterpillar - much inspired from Ren and Stimpy! Have you ever seen a catapiller laugh this manically?
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STUDIES
   
   
This is a still from a human motion study;
all done in charcoal.WAAAAYY back in the day ;-)
   
'Pull on a rope' (small quicktime)

 


All images on this site are copyright Jamie Beard and cannot be used elsewhere without permission.