New Blog! - Gentle Giant

I wanted to hop on here and say that I am bringing back the blogging but to a fresh new blog which is - Gentle Giant. I want my university blog to exist here in the stratosphere of blogger forever, but for updates on how my new animated short - The Green Glider is coming along as well as other animation tidbits, illustrations, kick abouts and the general smorgasbord of my thoughts surrounding creative things in the works; Gentle Giant will be it's home from now on.  If you'd like to keep up with that kind of stuff please have a gawk and add to your reading lists using this link, I'd love to see some familiar faces :) X

The Kick About #4 - Orpheus (1950)

Inspired by the film Orpheus (1950) I knew exactly what I was going to create when I seen the new prompt for this weeks kick about, It was the night before my birthday and I was sitting out in the tiny garden in my previous London apartment, I was drinking red wine and smoking a cigarette and frankly was feeling rather shit, not sure if it was the birthday blues or if was a amalgamation of other things but my neighbours behind my house were having a party;  they recently installed some outside lighting which surrounded their roomy garden in a blazing warm hue that lit up the brick of their apartment like an beacon in the night.

In my garden there is a full length mirror that is perched against a rickety garden shed that is full of art supplies and spiders. The light from the neighbours garden was reflecting brilliantly against the mirror - it looked otherworldly placed against the black shed and darkness of my garden, like the light didn’t belong in the darkness. I thought to myself I wish that that was a fucking portal so I could step through, leave this place and see some happy faces. The neighbours next door continued to dance and sing into the night.

I really enjoy these kick About's over at Red's Kingdom! it is completely opening my eyes to seeing the potential in the mundane. Hopefully sooner rather than later I can save up a few bob to get a good camera so I can take things a step further,  a good camera will help inspire me to not only see but also capture composition, angles, light and shadow. Ideally I wanted to take the mirror plopped against my rickety garden shed and bring it around London with me, placing it and tilting it in the right direction to capture the light against the dark.. someday I'll get that camera.

Dance of The Happy Shades - A Micro Short

Dance Of The Happy Shades from Graeme Daly on Vimeo.

For the Metropolis kick About Prompt over at Red's Kingdom I was drawing and animating the creative responses using a particular set of brushes that is always my go to,  I was in my bathroom and opened up my medicine cabinet and just as I did the light from outside was shining into the window and through a crack of the medicine cabinet door, it was creating this brilliant concentrated brush stroke of dancing illuminating light that mimics one of the brushes I love to use in Photoshop. I took out my phone and filmed myself opening and closing the medicine cabinet door over and over again... as I knew this would not last long because of how pinprick precise the light was in that moment.

I went back to animating and drawing the Metropolis prompt and assumed I could incorporate the light somehow but nothing came of it, so I decided to keep it in the vault. Flash forward to now and not having any idea what to incorporate into the newest prompt over at Red's Kingdom “Dance of the Happy Shades” I realised that I could work with the video’s to produce something... So I started to play.  A lot of what is going on fell into place through experimenting by mixing all the videos together, playing with blend modes, light, shadow and shapes. The stunning song is Grey Drops by Sergey Cheremisinov, I based the imagery around the song as when listening to Sergey’s unique pieces I imagine something odd and intriguing coming to life, something with a lot of texture. That fuzzy crackle and that wooden creak that spontaneously hits - I envisioned things moving in the shadows that shouldn’t move.

The best thing about creating like this is something magical happens by itself, As I was swinging the medicine cabinet door I noticed that it looked like the light was giving way to these phantom spectres, which were projecting part of themselves away and then consuming themselves again with every swing of the door, Everything started to intensify and became apparent when I edited the film together and then I ended up with story thanks to a peculiar bit of light in my medicine cabinet. 

Dance of The Happy Shades - Original Footage from Graeme Daly on Vimeo.

The Kick About #2 - Metropolis

The second creative dosage of the fortnightly kick about over at Reds Kingdom was created using the prompt "Metropolis" It couldn't have came at a better time as I am currently manifesting a 3D Metropolis, inspired by the Concept Art for my current animated short - The Green Glider 

With this prompt I wanted to capture the energy and constant movement that encompasses a Metropolis - Like a long exposure shot caught in an instant with lots of energy in the line-work and brightness in the blinding city lights,  I had a go of animating it too as I want to incorporate such elements into The Green Glider so it felt good to get some practice.

I also couldn’t help but pay homage to Metropolis by Fritz Lang - it’s one of my favourites!  Those harrowing tunnels with the workers heads hung low as they approach the underbelly of the city always stuck with me.”

The Kick About #1 - Moon In A Bottle

The kick about at Red's Kingdom is underway, the first prompt being Moon In A Bottle by Max Ernst,
I enjoy creating using a process like this, trusting there's method to your madness to end up with something in the end is what I am attempting to put into practice nowadays - it's basically a form of automatism.

I think it's important to know that you can peel it back - If something works you can turn your thinking cap back on and try and make sense of it to understand why. That golden moment when something clicks and the piece starts to make sense is a feeling I crave every time.

Max Ernst -Moon In A Bottle 

At first I tried to think of how Moon In A Bottle made me feel, the way that the painting bends around towards you makes it feel encapsulating, it brings an uneasy feeling like something is trapped... or maybe thats just lockdown?? also what the hell is that red and purple thing in the middle? so many questions too difficult to answer... so I started to paint.

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〰️I envision a beach with textured hard shells and unfamiliar effigies hiding in the sand and waiting to pounce at the twinge of life

Manifestation 1

 Manifestation 2

〰️But the moon illuminates, it casts a glow on everything, a bottle on the other hand is man made - it could be plastic - it could be glass, it could be melted or it could be hard like a shell? But it too reflects and can glow.

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 Manifestation 3

     Manifestation 4

Manifestation 5

 Manifestation 6

 Manifestation 7

Manifestation 8

It's Been a While...

Long time no see blogger... I apologise for the lack of updates here, truth be told I really miss it and want to get back into the swing of things - I forgot how cathartic blogging is as well having a time capsule to relive all the creative endeavours that projects relinquish over time.


Who would have thought that I would leave one basement albeit a lot more nerdy and multicoloured and enter into a different one - I have been working as a runner at the Mill since the end of July last year, and although I can't complain as it is a job and I do enjoy it, it is sometimes really hard to not spend a good chunk of my day creating things (I've no excuse now). I do love being with the other runners, they are great bunch and I can't wait to give them a big hug when this is all over!

 Album drop coming soon...

Please enjoy this satire view of the life of a runner for the annual Christmas video competition. 

However when things are quiet in the basement where all of us runners reside (and when we are not jumping in slomo or eating our weight in Coco pops) you can bet I'm taking time chipping away at something. I would like to share an assortment of info and paintings that I created pre-lockdown while in the basement.


The title of the film is still up for debate... I am trying to keep it in the folds of my brain in the hopes that I will have one of those eureka moments and the film name will just come to me - I'll await patiently, or I probably should do some spider graphs. I can however share the Logline, it reads:

                         “One day, a man leaves his car on a motorway choked with traffic to find an oasis of nature and some peace”

The Oasis Concept Art 

The Metropolis Concept Art 1

The Metropolis Concept Art 2

The Metropolis Concept Art 3

The Metropolis Concept Art 4

Translating these pieces into 3D has been a lot of fun, I am trying to keep the original scratchiness and texture of the paintings and bring that into the mundane greyness of Maya, so far these are my efforts with the Oasis World, I am liking the look of the last couple of renders as they were more experimental, thanks to Phil Gomm who advised me to apply what I learned from Lost Boy when coming up with the art room where I was just experimenting to see where things went.

They resulted from throwing a bit of abstraction in the mix, taking inspiration from impressionistic painters from the likes of Monet to really get my own impression of this blissful slice of heaven.

 The Oasis Render 1

 The Oasis Render 2

 The Oasis Experimental Render 1

 The Oasis Experimental Render 2

The Metropolis World has been really enjoyable to toy around with, Ever since the many fuck ups but eventual successes with alpha maps during Lost Boy, I feel like I have a grasp about how to utilise them now. Alpha maps are fantastic because you can turn concept art into geometry within Maya to try and get the feel of the original paintings, they are my secret weapon for making Maya look less CG perfect.  

 The Metropolis Render 1

The Metropolis Render 2

Because of this Lockdown I am enjoying getting some sun on my pasty Irish face in my dainty, pip-squeak of a yard - a little alfresco creation station if you will and continuing to experiment while listening to the weird and wonderful lyrics of Glass Animals. I'll leave you with one of my personal faves and I'm looking forward to continue reviving this blog with more updates of this new passion project. X