Saturday 30 November 2013

'Otherwise' - Mr Jackson (Animated music video)

Hello friends,

Here it is, after months of teasing you about it, a fully animated video for the song 'Otherwise'


Credit where credit is due, I didn't make this on my own. As the last frame shows, I had lots of help from Abi and Mel. The aim of the video had been to make a scrapbook that appeared bit by bit, and I feel we achieved that. So taking on the role of teacher for a moment, I think that this work is deserving of full marks and a cupcake. Please collect your cupcake on your way out.

Please share the video with your friends and acquaintances on the old facebook, or in real life. You can even tell your enemies if you like.
Here is the video share link -  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QF5BFLM980g

To celebrate the video being finished and release, Otherwise has been packaged with a B-side on bandcamp and is completely free to download. You can check that out by clicking this link
https://howboutthatrecords.bandcamp.com/album/otherwise

Tomorrow starts my December blog a day-a-thon, so check back for some heavy duty creative silliness.

Love you
Save the badgers, they know more about things then we do

Peace and infinite love

Andy Jackson (Mr Jackson, [adj])

The single cover

Sunday 24 November 2013

Dotting the eyes and crossing the teas

Hello friendlings,

So lots of stuff is happening right now, you can barely move for it! Just look around you right now, stuff is happening. It might not be important stuff, well, not all of it, but it is stuff and it is happening and it is right now. There is also lots of stuff happening where you can't see right now, which is quite a lot more places (compared to what you can see). So what's the point of all this? Well, this blog is about some stuff that is happening, it's not happening where you can see it happening, but you can read about it in this very blog, and it is happening, and it falls into the category of the aforementioned "stuff".

Right, I imagine anyone that had accidentally stumbled across my top secret blog would have clicked away before getting this far, only the people that can handle the knowledge would be able to read through that first ridiculous paragraph and not feel the urge to close the tab.

A frame from the upcoming 'Otherwise' video
The animation is finished, with just a final frame to add (which will be done tomorrow). The video is edited (except for the aforementioned final frame that requires animating) and the music is all in place. It will be released on the 30th November 2013 on youtube. The song 'Otherwise' and a traditional 'B' Side in the form of the musical poem called 'So' will get a bandcamp release in the style of singles of ye oldie times of old. Set an alarm so you won't forget (make it a fun musical alarm).

After the release of the 'Otherwise' single package, I shall be doing a blogging experiment for the whole of December, in which I plan to post once a day. This is not me just trying to get more views (please share my blog, please!!!!), I want to put my creative brain juices to the test and get something fresh from the creative realms every single day of the last month of 2013. Then we will be onto 2014 where everything is going to metaphorically explode into awesomeness.

We are all winning always in all ways,

Stay beautiful

Andy Jackson (Mr Jackson, [adj])

P.S - I did a silly meme from futurama (been re-watching and loving it recently)


Sunday 17 November 2013

Last frame of animation - I'm back!

Hello friends,

The long animation haul is over, the final frame is scanned. The last bit of ink has been added and the last drawing of a lava lamp has been blue tac-ed to the background. There is still a little bit to film for the very end of the video, as well as a 'we made this' placement bit for the final fade (so another weekends work for sure), but in principle, all the principle bits have been done. Thanks for caring :)

Here is the final shot, the last image for the scrapbook video.

The gnome has landed!


















You will get to see it in context with all it's fellow animated brothers and sisters and a-sexual relations very soon, maybe a couple of weeks. (side note - if you are reading this is the future, the video is already available and you can find it by clicking on the side like on the right called 'Otherwise' video) ((side side note - if you are not from the future and are in fact from the past, having accidentally accessed the internet from the future but unwittingly ended up on a completely uninformative blog by some ego maniac, then please email me and tell me that the video idea I have for the Otherwise video is a really hard one and I might try and think of something a bit easier, Cheers).

I have big plans to do something special with this blog in the future, to use it more frequently as a kind of therapy for all the weirdness that occurs in my general brain area, a kind of public ventilation system. I often have big plans though, and they don't always pan out the way they were conceived, but that's one of the exciting things about being alive I guess, you never really know what's going to happen!

My face is back in the game (in a week or two)...

Have a great donut,

Peace and infinite love

Andy Jackson

Saturday 9 November 2013

Well what can I say?

Hello friends,

Nice to see you, have you been well? I hope so.

Here is another sneak peek cell from my upcoming animated video.


















I am still in animation land, seems like I've taken up some kind of residence here, it's alright, not quite what I had dreamed it would be, but it's very colourful. I'm not ever doing this again, not for free anyway.

I have always loved drawing, it's not something I will ever win any awards for, and my art is probably in line with any first year college student with a box of crayons and an empty note pad of dreams. As a form of creative expression though, it is certainly a very therapeutic one. Every time I pick up a pencil and start converting a blank sheet of paper into something else I get this weird infinity connection. The very act of creating in such a fashion connects me in with every single instance of pen in hand creation that I have ever had in my life, right back to when I was a tiny youngling scribbling outside the lines of a picture of a harmless bear having tea with a harmless lion (my guess is, they were both heavily sedated and forced to pose for this childish outline abomination) all the way through to my final drawing of a clown on fire with worms for eyes that I will draw the day before I pass away many many years from now.

It is a peaceful feeling, unlike any other, which is probably why I love returning to it again and again through my creative adventure. When I write music, I mainly do it with pen and paper STILL, even in this digital age of smart toilet phones and talking maps. It's what works for me, and already makes me feel old even though I am only in my early thirties. The very fact I spelt out 30's there just goes to show how out of touch with the modern world I am. Still, the pen is mightier then the sword, except in a sword fight, then the pen don't stand a chance, unless it was a pen knife, the ultimate combination of pen and sword!

2013 has been the year of things taking much longer then they should, and now that we are nearing the end of it, I am ready for the next year which I am dubbing, the year where things happen much faster then expected. Patience is a virtue for sure, but next year it is all going to go off in a big way, I've upgraded my pen to the modern penknife and am ready to stab this metaphor till it bleeds in rhyme almost all of the time...that's fine.

The video will be finished in a couple of weeks, for realsies, I promise. Then I will release it and get back on with being an adventuring creative, rather then an animating creative, which is kinda the same thing but much much slower, like a snail version of a creative.

Here's some music for you, enjoy :)


Peace and infinite love

Andy, Mr Jackson, [adj]