Adam Phillips (animator)
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| Adam Phillips | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 1971 (age 41) Narromine, New South Wales, Australia |
| Occupation | Animator |
Adam Phillips (born January 1971) is an Australian freelance animator whose online alias is Chluaid (pronounced 'Clyde'). His main body of animation work, for which he is best known, consists of flash animation compositions published on his website Bitey Castle and on the flash portal Newgrounds (there, as of March 2010, his movies have over 14 million views and he is one of the highest ranked artists). 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 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. Phillips is a devoted Ween fan and his flash work soon grew to include an official video for the Ween song Transdermal Celebration, as well as a winning entry in the cartoon category of the Flash Forward Film Festival in early 2003. Later that year, Phillips created Bitey of Brackenwood, the second episode in his Brackenwood series and runner up in The Greatest Story Never Told (TGSNT) flash competition. During this period, Phillips also began writing book chapters for flash guides.
At the end of 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, said to be in the Top 5 Most Influential Flash Films of all time. The movie also won the TGSNT 2 competition's grand prize. He has also continued to do outside work as a freelance animator, writer and special effects designer for clients such as Kelloggs, EA Games and Wizards of the Coast (Dungeons and Dragons).
Additional to plans for a television series and various books set in his Brackenwood world, Phillips is teamed up with a co-writer, working together on a cinematic Brackenwood feature film.
[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.
- Prowlies at the River - Brackenwood episode 3.
- littleFoot - Part 1 of Brackenwood episode 4. - Created after Prowlies at the River.
- the YuYu - Part 2 of Brackenwood episode 4. - The first episode to be sponsored by Newgrounds.
- Waterlollies - Brackenwood episode 5 - Sponsored by Newgrounds and fan donations (also released via Youtube by the creator himself.)
- The Last of the Dashkin - Brackenwood episode 6 - Sponsored by Newgrounds.
[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).
- Bitey Castle Academy: Flash CS3 Animation - ebook chapters sold individually from his website, teaching Flash for graphics and frame-by-frame animation. The first two chapters are free.
[edit] Upcoming projects
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Adam Phillips' long term project is making 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. As of August 2009, the Brackenwood feature film script is in development.
Phillips is also working on the "Bitey Castle Academy" which would teach art and animation techniques to other artists. The 'Academy' section of his website so far offers 4 chapters of a downloadable ebook on how to create graphics and animation in Adobe Flash CS3.
Since 2007, Adam has been using ToonBoom software and has been quoted in many interviews as saying it is his "new favorite" animation software. He used ToonBoom Animate Pro for the most recent Dungeons & Dragons shorts. Unofficially, but condoned by ToonBoom, he is posting Animate 2 screencapture demonstrations on his YouTube channel.
At the moment, apart from a Brackenwood feature film, Adam is writing up a fresh new series separate from Brackenwood. It is untitled but information occasionally pops up on his blog and Twitter page.
[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.
- 2008—Newgrounds: Waterlollies : NG Tank Award for Best Movie of 2007
- 2008—12th Annual Webby Awards: The Brackenwood Series : Official Honoree, Animation
- 2008—12th Annual Webby Awards: The Brackenwood Series : Official Honoree, Best Use of Animation/Motion Graphics
- 2010—W3 Awards W3 Awards: The Last of the Dashkin : Silver Award Winner
[edit] External links
- Bitey Castle website - Site contains Adobe Flash content embedded, which requires the Flash browser plugin to be installed.
- Sarus Lessons - introduction to learning Sarus
- 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"
- The Daily Crumb's review of 'Waterlollies'
- Adam's Agenda
- Adam Phillips' Twitter
