Days at The Beach (2017)

"You have all waited patiently, and now the day has finally come... or should I say the"Days"".

Terrible puns aside, my Final University Animation has been finally completed and is ready to be shared with you. An animation which is close to heart and tells a wonderfully light hearted story...

"Days at The Beach" is about a little boy named "Billy" who goes off exploring the seaside, making friends with an unlikely acquaintance and getting up to mischief. The story comes with a poetic narrative which I narrated and written myself. I found that having a poem to tell the story was one of the most important features, creating a memorable and fun adventure. Inspiration towards this animation came from the things I used to do as a kid while down at the local beach, collecting sea shells and fishing until the tide comes in.

"Collaboration" was the key element towards this animations success and it has payed off incredibly well. Having Matthew Dixon (Watercolour artist), Simon Parton (Musician), my own talented father Carl Billingsley (Poetry) and finally, James Rhys Hill (VFX). Being a part of a talented team, it was truly humbling with an end result of a story which I am really proud of. It has opened a door for me which was out of my reach previously, allowing for more possible collaborations in the near future.

I hope you all enjoy this story as much as I did animating and making it.

Stay tuned for more future content...

- Dave (May 2017)

Matthew Dixon (Watercolour Artist)

Matt is responsible for creating all of the Watercolour stills and backgrounds of the animation. Using g Photoshop and watercolouring techniques to merge and blend colours, he has helped to add more depth and scale towards the environment. Matt's un - paralleled eye to detail has helped him to create many more interesting visuals which he has produced for his own works.

Simon Parton (Musician)

A returning collaborator, Simon Parton has produced music for two of my animations. Those being this one and "The Spirit". Simons ability to use a wide range of instruments, along with his detail to emotional pieces of music help separate him from other musicians I know of. In Days at The Beach, Simon has adapted a classic rock soundtrack to supplement the bright and beach like visuals of my film.

James Rhys Hill (VFX)

James Rhys Hill provided help with the compositing and editing of my film. I found it a rather difficult task to edit out loads of the blue screen in After Effects. I came to James asking for help and he happily accepted, using After Effects and Nuke to colour correct and rota scope the imagery to try and balance the fore ground from the blue screen in the background. Even with some pixel lines around the characters left, James has done a cracking Job with keeping the characters details intact.

David Billingsley (Myself) (Director, Animator, Compositor)

I had directed, animated, made and composited everything which you see in "Days at The Beach". My role was to mainly direct and lead the production of this film. I had built the characters (except for the clothing which was done by tailors), the sets and some props (some were made by people in the second year of my university course. Afterwards, I animated the characters and lastly after receiving edited footage from James Rhys hill, I edited and composited everything from Simon and Matthew in After Effects, producing the final result.