Household gods: Dingles' window display. Read More...

New moon: in the early hours of this morning a woman drove the wrong way up the A38. After two miles she hit a car coming the right way down the dual carriageway, and killed herself and the two people in the other car. Read More...

Half term city centre. The last day of artist Anna Best's sea container project. Read More...

Two toothyface stickers hiding out low down on a parking notice, Regent Street just outside the art college: Read More...

For his final production Paper Cuts created a Flash animation called The Hungry Mouse: Read More...

See the new music video by James Jones Morris for the band Santa Dog. It's called Big Bang - cosmic. Read More...

Speed up the A38 and M5 to do an animation art day working with found photographic film images at Bridgwater College in Somerset. Near Exeter a couple of swallows hang upside down from the telegraph wires, like clothes pegs. In a west-side field near Cullompton, a bony old oak tree that's been dead for years has suddenly sprouted leaves along one dead branch. Read More...

Last night it was movies with surnames in the title, and the screen doesn't stop moving. Read More...

Following another tip from Lord Lipson, I am pleased to discover that other people too like the emotional dalek with the weird Medusa hairdo Read More...

Following a tip from Lord Lipson I went up to Freedom Fields after college yesterday and took a photo of a bird painted on the side of an old hut by the road Read More...

Coming to the end of the module now, so a quick session on merchandise. Read More...

It's after midnight and they're back onscreen... Read More...

Today we were looking at expressing and reinforcing meaning through integrated choreography of backgrounds and sound design with the animated character. Read More...

The second years said: Read More...

In classic narrative animation it is character that drives the story forward. In last night's Dr Who the over-achieving businessman melded with uber-dalek Sec became a sad/bad character as the remaing daleks ordered him to be ex-ter-min-ate-ted for being too human. Read More...

After the first character design session at the beginning of March I began to note down some of the points coming through from our discussions that morning and found that I wanted also to include images the students had created and to comment on their work. To ensure anonymity I ascribed a capital letter to each student. Read More...

To open the discussion about animation and movement, I asked the students What is animation? What does animation mean to you? and wrote our responses on the whiteboard: Read More...

Summer term started today and I'm doing animation with the ND Media (Moving Image) first years for the next few weeks. There are 26 of them, all there and excited to be back at college after 2 weeks away. I asked them to respond to the question What is animation? and wrote down their responses on the whiteboard: Read More...

Wallace and Gromit are a couple - the single male and his trusty canine companion. Read More...

Dr Who: Gridlock - 2 good characters wasted in one episode. Read More...

Big Brother on its way soon... this year without the Carphone Warehouse celebrity character Mowbli. Read More...

Along the Laira bike track at high tide, a group of young kids shout out It's an old man not an old woman! Up towards the wreck of the Ocean Maid there's a white-haired man sitting on the path, combing the hair of his sheepdog with long silky strokes. Read More...

I got twin dolls the Christmas I was five and a half. Patsy had skin of pink rubber with white-gold hair and blue eyes. Pokahontas, my favourite, had brown skin, black hair and deep brown eyes. Read More...

Late night BBC2 programme Return of the Hero about the reinvention of the adventure-book in the 21st century and how 'books for boys' are best-sellers again. The posh boys interviewed belong to a strange middle-class breed - distinguishing features include huge floppy hair and weird ears. Read More...

Anthropomorphism: as a small child did I imagine inanimate things to be 'alive' as part of my developing mental abilities and relationship with the world as I grew up, or was it in response to prompts by others - children and adults? Read More...

Danger of death keep out: toothy face/spaceship stickers opposite Voodoo Lounge, and with crossed bones, by the multi-storey round the back of Mayflower Street in Plymouth City Centre. Read More...

A trip to south east Cornwall with my mum who's staying for the weekend. Inside the country park Sarah and her son peer through the gun emplacements - they're sure they saw a bat inside the battery. Read More...

Some of my favourite animation characters: Read More...

Writers' portraits: Doris Lessing 25 February 1992 an imperial presence in Mary Poppins' misty rooftop world, chimney stacks behind her. I notice a large ring on her left hand. Read More...

On page 10 of today's Guardian newspaper: a man kidnapped a squirrel monkey called Spongebob from Chessington World of Adventures. When he was rescued, Spongebob had to be sent to Battersea zoo 'for his own safety' as the other monkeys didn't want him back because 'he smelled different'. Read More...

As a practical exercise during the lesson each student designed their own original character and produced 2 model sheets Read More...

In this lesson we looked at model sheets, the design visuals prepared and used in the construction of each character appearing in an animation. Read More...

Original character designed and animated by me, a commission for a CD-ROM about interior decorating. The brief from the client was to devise and design an animated sequence as a step-by-step guide to illustrate the correct technical procedure for cleaning a dirty paint brush advised by health and safety legislation. Read More...

We recognise a (human) face more easily and quickly than any other image. Read More...

Possible definition? A collection of individual features arranged in such a way that the whole is recognisable as unique. I think it's the distinctiveness from that-which-already-exists that is important, the presentation of selected features to emphasise difference. Read More...

Article on page 3 of today's Observer newspaper: Disney to bring out a new brand of 6 Fairies, designed to appeal 'to older, sassier girls'. Read More...

Up early to hit the road for Dick Arnall's memorial service. The landscape is a very deep, calm blue, trees are empty shapes, waiting to be filled. There are more animals than usual. Seagulls stamp on green grass, far from the ocean. Read More...

Anthropomorphism means giving human characteristics to animals, plants, inanimate objects or imaginary creatures. Read More...

Sweet stone baby Jesus, outside the main entrance to Plymouth Guildhall. Read More...

Some drawings of lemurs from the telly: Lemurs of Madagascar BBC2. Read More...

Animal characters today. One of my favourite sessions. We name all the animated animal characters we can think of. People take it in turns to write the names up on the whiteboard. There are so many we run out of space. Read More...

The Disney Princesses brand. Ubiquitous. Read More...

In today's session we looked at stereotypes and their function in animation, enabling an audience to identify a character type on-screen in the fastest possible time. Almost instantaneous recognition. Read More...

After lunch I took a short cut through the library on North Hill. On my way through I took a Magritte book off a shelf. Read More...

In yesterday's session - the first for the character module, I asked the students to work in pairs, taking turns to sit for and draw the 'likeness' of the other as a head and shoulders portrait, and to swap roles after 20 minutes. We had an equal number so I didn't need to step in and be the other half of a pair. Read More...