FIGHT MY MONSTER® JOINS FORCES WITH BROWN BAG FILMS TO DEVELOP ANIMATED TV SERIES BASED ON THE HIT ONLINE GAME
Brown Bag Films, the multi award winning animation studio, has teamed up with online boys game FightMyMonster.com to produce a 3D animated TV series.
Fight My Monster is a free-to-play online game for 7-12 year old boys in which gamers create and trade monsters and challenge others to battle. Launched in January 2011, the game has grown to over 300,000 users in its first 6 months from playground word-of-mouth. Over 3 million monsters have already been created, with over 7 million battles fought. The combination of Fight My Monster’s unique design, its collectible virtual trading card element and core battle mechanic have made it the fastest-growing online game for boys in Europe.
Fight My Monster was founded in 2010 by developer Dominic Williams. Dylan Collins, the well-known video games entrepreneur behind companies such as DemonWare and Jolt Online, joined as Executive Chairman in 2011.
Commenting on the partnership Cathal Gaffney, CEO of Brown Bag Films, says “We are very excited to work on this project. We have been looking for a character-driven boys show for some time and are extremely excited about a show designed for all screen platforms from its inception”.
Dominic Williams, CEO of Fight My Monster says “Having seen the amazing work that Brown Bag Films have done on Octonauts and Olivia, I’m incredibly excited to be working with them to bring Fight My Monster to TV screens around the world.”
Brown Bag Films will develop and produce the TV series at their animation studio in Dublin. They are currently attaching writers and will present the television concept to international kids’ broadcasters at the MIPCOM conference in October.
To download the full press-release in Word format please click here
What is a texture artist and what is texturing?
Texture Artists are essentially individuals that paint using software like Photoshop to create textures. Texturing is the process of painting colour and depth onto digitally-generated 3D models’ skin or surface.
Textures are usually 2D images called maps overlaid onto a polygon mesh. The Texture Artist receives work on a 3D polygon model created by a modeler.
To give you an idea of where texturing lies within the process, here is an example of part of our pipeline:
The Art Director must approve each stage in the pipeline before it moves on to the next. more »
It’s only 2 days until Brown Bag Films’ team of cyclists take part in the Equinox Charity Cycle which will see them cycle 160 miles across the country from Dublin to Galway… in one day!
Along with the Brown Baggers in the photo are Keiran Loughran from Headway; Angela McNulty from Temple Street Children’s Hospital; former Headway patient Thomas O’Neill; and co-organisers Kev Marron, Simon Devenney and John O’Connell.
The cycle has been co-organised by our own Ronan O’Neill and will benefit two fantastic charities, so please donate if you can at www.EquinoxCycle.com
Ballyfermot College of Further Education’s Irish School of Animation, which has produced a number of international award winning graduates in animation, are to join forces with multi-award winning animation studio Brown Bag Films to deliver a range of evening courses targeted at specific needs within the animation sector in Ireland.
Commenting on the significance of the collaboration, Cathal Gaffney, CEO of Brown Bag Films said: “Brown Bag Films are delighted to partner with Ballyfermot College on these training courses, which aim to address the skills shortage in specialist areas in the animation industry. These courses should ensure students will have a greater prospect of securing full time employment in the animation sector on graduation”.
The evening courses, which are due to start on Monday 3rd October, will run for 10-12 weeks on Mondays and Wednesdays from 7pm. The courses will be designed and delivered by current Brown Bag Films staff members with expertise in each designated area. more »
The day usually starts off around 7.30am (what can I say, I’m a morning person!). It gives me a chance to catch up with all the odds and ends and emails i really should have read and replied to the day before. Most people in Brown Bag know that if they need something from me they should come find me and give me a friendly poke with a sharp stick.
Then I will spend half an hour or so in research mode, going through some of my favourite animation and art sites. I’m always studying and learning from different people by their approach, style, use of line, composition, character design, layout etc…you can never have enough research. more »
8:30am. I arrive in to the studio early as I live in the countryside (Clane, to be precise) and the next bus will have me in late. There’s Derek, our 2d concepts artist, also in early to learn 3d in his spare time. I’ll just hide behind my monitor so I don’t get a torrent of questions about the model he’s working on! Sign into our timesheet software and I’m ready for the day.
8:32am. Derek’s spotted me and comes over with 3d questions. I promise to help him once I’ve had my 1st cup of coffee.
2d Artist Derek Horan at work
8:40am. Coffee in hand I come over to help Derek out with his personal project. It’s a Hover Car and looks pretty neat. Only advice I have for him is a couple of basic geometry tweaks. more »
I was delighted to learn this week that Brown Bag Films’ latest short film has been selected by the Irish Film Board for this year’s Shorts Shorts scheme.
The short is called “Bird Food” and is about a man who plans to eat his lunch in the park ….while the local pigeons have other ideas!
It’s a jazz-like animation piece featuring slapstick physical humour with sinister undertones.
It will be done in 3D but feel very much like a classic 2D short.
I wrote and will direct the film, and it will be produced by Laura Roche. It will premiere at the Galway Film Fleadh next summer.
More updates will be posted throughout the year but until then here is the teaser poster for it…
Please friend the Bird Food Facebook page for updates and artwork throughout the year.
On September 24th myself and other Brown Baggers will be taking part in a charity cycle from Ireland’s East Coast to its West, starting out at sunrise and aiming to finish 230 kilometres and 12 hours later at sunset. We will depart from Howth village after dipping our back wheels in the Irish Sea and cycle to Galway city where we will dip our front wheels in the Atlantic.
The cycle, part-organized by me here at Brown Bag, aims to raise as much money as possible for its chosen beneficiaries; Temple Street Children’s University Hospital and Headway, two very worthy causes. The cycle takes place on the weekend of the Winter Equinox and will be a serious challenge for the 40 participants involved as we attempt to cross the country in twelve hours.
Brown Bag Films has generously donated resources to help organize the day, and any other donations would be greatly welcomed. Please visit Equinox Cycle for more information on how to become involved, and to donate now please visit Equinox Cycle’s MyCharity page.
Additional updates can be found on our Facebook page and also on our Twitter feed.
Thanks for your support!
Every Tuesday evening in Brown Bag we like to have a training course outside of any training we might do as part of the day job. We finished our life drawing course, taught by Niall Laverty, and that was really enjoyed by everyone.
For the next course, we decided to do a ten week Sculpture course which was given by the talented Una Kavanagh. This has been really popular and it’s great to see the diversity of Brown Baggers doing this course; from sound engineers to production staff as well as digital artists.
The first couple of weeks started off teaching us to sculpt a life model using only paper. Then there was Still Life with mixed media, and on then to sculpture inspired by creative literature. The most popular - and messiest - was working in clay. Different styles are beginning to emerge from everyone, and I wanted to share some of the images from the course. more »
Last week I attended the 3D masters seminar at BAFTA in London, which focused on the future of 3DTV. It was a packed day of keynote speeches from industry professionals giving their opinion on the state of play of 3DTV.
The 3D industry is fairly mature now in Hollywood and the feature film industry but not without its issues, and 3DTV is still at the early stages of its development. As one speaker put it; the baby is born and is now a young child so let’s see what it grows into.
So, one year on from the big hype of 3D TVs and broadcasters starting to beam into our homes, what is the future of 3DTV or does it even have a future?
The short answer is yes, it does have a future and a place in our homes but it isn’t going to replace 2D television. It will be an option for a niche market that want to watch an event or special one-off program/film in 3D. I don’t think anyone sees us all sitting down to watch our daily soaps or the news in 3D. What added value would we get from that? more »
