Raphael & John Ollie //Civil Partnership by This Modern Love

A few of our favourite frames from Raphael and John Ollie's civil partnership in Galway. We really loved being part of this amazing, laid-back and heartfelt day.

We had to restrain ourselves from making a second blog post dedicated to Raphael's Dad's awesome dancefloor moves. The last two frames will have to do you : )

The Noble Beast by This Modern Love

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Hurley was my photographer's assistant last week on some landscape work.  There's paw prints on all my glass, he scared away all the grey herons and he ate my chamois. But he had a lot of fun so it was worth it. Here he is having a moment by Spelga Dam.

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Duke Special //Freewheel animation by This Modern Love

Up next in personal projects week…. an animation for Duke Special's song 'Freewheel'.

This is a few years old now, but I wanted to include it on the blog because my work with Duke Special has been, and is still, an important part of what I do. I've been collaborating with Gary at Sparks for seven years now, creating album covers, merchandise, books, and anything else that makes up the strange and magical world of Duke Special.

This was my first experiment with animation. I literally had no clue what I was doing when I started and I didn't know what hard work was until I encountered cel animation - I'm not sure I'll be doing it again anytime soon. Hats off to all you full-time animators out there.

This piece was a collaboration with many others, including Sparks (who hand water-coloured every cel) and director Ryan Suffern. My job was to create the world of the bears and hand draw each frame. It's a million miles away from the slickness of Pixar, but hopefully it has a kind of crude charm : )

Here's my other attempt at animation, also for Duke (it has an even cruder charm ; ) Warning - this one has been known to make children cry!

We'll get a couple in a bear costume yet!

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