After over a four year departure I have finally got around to revisiting my 'Bella Bear' project which some of you here might remember :-)

I have taken one of my favourite shots from the short Bella Bear film I made back then and started to rework it following my spell at Animation Mentor and having worked on a few small film projects. Here is the original:

Original

And here is the newer version.

Revisited

It went a bit wonky at the end cos I added a refraction index to the glass on the spaceship of 1.4, but it is entertaining even if it isn't quite right.

Better?

I will be tarting things up to try and make it more showreel worthy over the next few weeks. It was rather fun getting to grips with the program again after such a long break - I felt like a beginner again…

Very cool, Gazz! Nice to see them coming back to life!

Yes, that does look better!

Welcome back to A:M!

If you model the glass dome so it has thickness like real glass would, you can avoid the fishbowl look.

I did :-)

Robcat, do you know if it wasn't for you I would ever have done that course at Animation Mentor and learned so much about animation. This led on to bigger things to - thanks buddy

Really starting to enjoy being back with my old project. With all the stuff I have learned I will be applying it and trying to finish this project at last...

There are occasionally some days where you feel like there some justice in this world... case in point... when Gary returns to Bella Bear after refining his animation skills at Animation Mentor.

That animation is looking very smooth Gary!

Hi, Gary.
Looking forward to seeing further development on Bella Bear.
Would love to hear more about your recent work on the Graham Chapman movie. Are you able to say anything or are you wrapped up in a non-disclosure agreement?
It seems that most of the book is available on YouTube, read by GC. Very amusing and I can imagine it translating to screen very well in typical Python style. I hope that you can shed some light on that project in the near future.

@Paul



All I can do at this stage is point you at the website: Project Chapman 3D and say that the directors didn't want any Terry Gilliam style animations. The whole film is animation no real stuff and in a variety of styles, should be out in March. If you look at the website and the credits shoot you will see me prancing around there with all the other animators.

Sorry if this is slightly off topic - back to Bella Bear :-)

I was sure I had warned you off of that.

D'oh!