Adam Phillips (animator)
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Adam Phillips (born January 1971) is an Australian freelance animator. His recent work, for which he is best known, has consisted of flash animation compositions published on his website Bitey Castle and on the flash portal Newgrounds (there, as of August 2007, his movies have over nine million views and he is the fourth top rated artist, considering that he has more uploads, he might even earn a higher ranking). He is the creator of the Brackenwood series.
Adam Phillips was a featured artist at the Adobe Design Center for the month of December, 2006.[1] The alternate soundtrack for the YuYu in that link was composed by Lee Miller.
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[edit] Biography
Adam Phillips was born (1971) and raised in Narromine, New South Wales. He displayed a precocious artistic enthusiasm early in life:
- "My mother recognized my talent for drawing when I was a toddler, and she maintains that I could hold a pencil correctly before my two legs could support me. I would sit on the floor for hours drawing spiders on my fingers and toes, and filling sheets of butcher's paper with doodles and scribbles."[2]
In 1989, Phillips moved to Queensland to find work, and was later injured in an industrial accident. During his convalescence he dedicated himself to drawing, and in 1993 was hired by Disney to work as a tweener in Sydney. He was promoted in 1995 to the position of character animator, and in 1998 to effects director, a role in which he worked on several sequels to well-known Disney films.
In 2000, Phillips began his first animations in Flash, focusing on stories remembered from his childhood. His flash work soon grew to include a video for the Ween song Transdermal Celebration, and winning entry in the cartoon category of the Flash Forward Film Festival in early 2003. Phillips is a devoted Ween fan. In the picture above he is wearing a Ween shirt. Later that year, Phillips created Bitey of Brackenwood, the second animation in his Brackenwood series and winner of the runner up prize of The Greatest Story Never Told (TGSNT) flash competition. During this period, Phillips also began writing book chapters for flash guides.
In 2004 Phillips left Disney "to pursue [his] own interests." Since that time he has produced much content for his Brackenwood setting, including Prowlies at the River, which won the TGSNT competition (subsequently, Phillips has stated that he will not enter any future TGSNT competitions). He has also continued to do outside work as a freelance animator, writer and special effects designer.
Phillips has also expressed the intention of creating a television series, feature film, and various books set in his Brackenwood world.
[edit] Selected works
[edit] Brackenwood
- Auld Sage - Auld Sage sings a song from Coldplay. Although not an official episode of Brackenwood, it is the first look at Brackenwood and one of its inhabitants.
- Bingbong of Brackenwood - The first official episode of Brackenwood, which introduces Bingbong.
- Bitey of Brackenwood - The second official episode, which introduces Bitey.
- littleFoot - Part 1 of Brackenwood episode 3. - Created after Prowlies at the River.
- the YuYu - Part 2 of Brackenwood episode 3. - The first episode to be sponsored by Newgrounds.
- Prowlies at the River - Brackenwood episode 4.
- Waterlollies - Brackenwood episode 5 - Sponsored by Newgrounds and fan donations (also released via Youtube by the creator himself.)
[edit] Sarus
Phillips developed an artificial language for use in the Brackenwood stories. It is called Sarus and is gaining online popularity with a growing community of people learning and speaking the language. The shadow people in the movie littleFoot are heard speaking Sarus.
[edit] Other Animations
- 30 shorts in 30 days
- Pokies - Phillips' first flash
- Night Shift
- HitchHiker
- Taken - for Halloween 2005
- 3:33am - for Halloween 2006
- Frank
- The Wish
- Angry Man
- Transdermal Celebration music video, as mentioned above.
[edit] Books
- Flash MX Most Wanted: Effects & Movies - has a chapter in which Phillips describes his work on Hitchhiker: Part Two.
- New Masters of Flash: Volume 3 - one of the chapters is written by Adam Phillips, studying lighting effects in depth and their implementation in Flash (focusing on the Brackenwood flashes).
[edit] Upcoming Projects
Adam Phillips' long term project is to try to make a Brackenwood feature film, and he has stated that there is a far larger story which has been only hinted at in his short Brackenwood episodes.
Phillips is also working on a series of tutorial DVDs called the "Bitey Castle Academy" which would teach art and animation techniques to other artists. this page on his website biteycastle is still under construction
[edit] Awards
- 2003—Flashforward (New York City '03): The Hitchhiker: part 2 wins the Cartoon Category.
- 2004—Flashforward (San Francisco '04): Bingbong of Brackenwood (Finalist in the Cartoon Category).
- 2004—TGSNT: Bitey of Brackenwood (Runnerup)
- 2005—TGSNT: Grand Prize for Prowlies at the River
- 2005—Flashforward (San Francisco '05): Prowlies at the River wins the Cartoon Category.
- 2006—Flashforward (Seattle '06): littleFoot wins the Cartoon Category.
- 2006—Annecy International Animated Film Festival (Annecy, France '06): littleFoot officially nominated in the Internet Category.
- 2006—Flashforward (Austin '06): the Yuyu wins the Cartoon Category.
- 2007—Flashforward (Boston '07): 30 Shorts : 30 days wins People's Choice.
[edit] External links
- Bitey Castle website - Site contains Adobe Flash content embedded, which requires the Flash browser plugin to be installed.
- Adam Phillips at the Internet Movie Database
- Adam Phillips at Newgrounds
- Adam Phillips 3 part interview on Coldhardflash
- Review of Prowlies at the River on Newgrounds
- ColdHardFlash's analysis and review of "the YuYu"
- Adam's Agenda
