A promo I did earlier this year for ESL Panda.

When animating, I’ve mostly stuck to rotoscoping, so this is by far my longest and most complex work that is predominantly cartooning. Oh, there are rotoscoped bits peppered throughout – all the buildings, the world map, the panda – but I enjoyed mashing up a lot of different techniques. Trying to make a style that matches that of my high school drawing book – and keeping it consistent – was something I’d never done before.

With my critical eye, there’s a lot to pick apart. For instance, this is really a 1-minute promo in 30 seconds. There’s simply too much information. Even 30 seconds of animation can take so much work, so much time, that it’s easy to forget just how brief the finished product will be. It became most clear near the end when I listened with the voice-over, and it was dense as a neutron star – a neutron star made of information. I re-wrote the script to cut out about 1/3 of the words and slacken the pace, but that only achieved so much.

But let me be honest: this is, flat-out, the best animation I’ve ever done. Collating all my work on one site for the first time, it’s clear to see. A lot of time went into this, and I was ecstatic to see it finished. Warts? I don’t mind a few warts.