Adam Phillips (animator)
Adam Phillips | |
---|---|
Born | Adam Phillips 29 January 1971 Narromine, New South Wales, Australia |
Nationality | Australian |
Other names | Chluaid |
Occupation | Animator, filmmaker, game designer |
Years active | 1993–present |
Known for | Brackenwood |
Style | Fantasy |
Website | bitey |
Adam Phillips (born on 29 January 1971) is an Australian freelance filmmaker and animator whose online alias is Chluaid (pronounced 'Clyde'). His main body of animation work, for which he is best known, consists of flash animation compositions published on his website Bitey Castle and on the flash portal Newgrounds (there, as of March 2010, his movies have over 14 million views and he is one of the highest ranked artists). He is the creator of the Brackenwood series.
Adam Phillips was a featured artist at the Adobe Design Center for the month of December 2006.[1] The alternate soundtrack for the YuYu in that link was composed by Lee Miller.
Contents
Biography
Adam Phillips was born and raised in Narromine, New South Wales. He displayed a precocious artistic enthusiasm early in life:
My mother recognized my talent for drawing when I was a toddler, and she maintains that I could hold a pencil correctly before my two legs could support me. I would sit on the floor for hours drawing spiders on my fingers and toes, and filling sheets of butcher's paper with doodles and scribbles."[2]
In 1989, Phillips moved to Queensland to find work, and was later injured in an industrial accident. During his convalescence he dedicated himself to drawing, and in 1993 was hired by Disney to work as a tweener in Sydney. He was promoted in 1995 to the position of character animator, and in 1998 to effects director, a role in which he worked on several sequels to well-known Disney films.
In 2000, Phillips began his first animations in Flash, focusing on stories remembered from his childhood. Phillips is a devoted Ween fan and his flash work soon grew to include an official video for the Ween song Transdermal Celebration, as well as a winning entry in the cartoon category of the Flash Forward Film Festival in early 2003. Later that year, Phillips created Bitey of Brackenwood, the second episode in his Brackenwood series and runner up in The Greatest Story Never Told (TGSNT) flash competition. During this period, Phillips also began writing book chapters for flash guides.
At the end of 2004 Phillips left Disney "to pursue [his] own interests." Since that time he has produced much content for his Brackenwood setting, including Prowlies at the River, said to be in the Top 5 Most Influential Flash Films of all time. The movie also won the TGSNT 2 competition's grand prize. He has also continued to do outside work as a freelance animator, writer and special effects designer for clients such as Kelloggs, BioWare San Francisco and Wizards of the Coast (Dungeons and Dragons).
Adam was a frequent collaborator with Electronic Arts' BioWare San Francisco studio, working with the studio on three Dragon Age-branded games. His collaboration included creating all of the art and animation for the browser-based Dragon Age Journeys.[1] He set the art style for the Facebook/Google+ game, Dragon Age Legends, as well as animating the opening cinematic and providing concept art for the game's main characters.[2] His art was also used for Dragon Age Legends: Remix 01, a collaboration between BioWare San Francisco and the Flash game developer PixelAnte (also known as Evan Miller).[3]
Additional to plans for a television series and various books set in his Brackenwood world, Phillips is teamed up with a co-writer, working together on a cinematic Brackenwood feature film.
Selected works
Brackenwood
- Auld Sage – Auld Sage sings a song from Coldplay. Although not an official episode of Brackenwood, it is the first look at Brackenwood and one of its inhabitants.
- Bingbong of Brackenwood – The first official episode of Brackenwood, which introduces Bingbong.
- Bitey of Brackenwood – The second official episode, which introduces Bitey.
- Prowlies at the River – Brackenwood episode 3.
- littleFoot – Part 1 of Brackenwood episode 4. – Created after Prowlies at the River.
- the YuYu – Part 2 of Brackenwood episode 4. – The first episode to be sponsored by Newgrounds.
- Waterlollies – Brackenwood episode 5 – Sponsored by Newgrounds and fan donations (also released via YouTube by the creator himself.)
- The Last of the Dashkin – Brackenwood episode 6 – Sponsored by Newgrounds.
Other animations
- 30 shorts in 30 days
- Pokies – Phillips' first flash
- Night Shift
- HitchHiker
- Taken – for Halloween 2005
- 3:33am – for Halloween 2006
- Frank
- The Wish
- Angry Man
- Transdermal Celebration music video, as mentioned above.
Books
- Flash MX Most Wanted: Effects & Movies – has a chapter in which Phillips describes his work on Hitchhiker: Part Two.
- New Masters of Flash: Volume 3 – one of the chapters is written by Adam Phillips, studying lighting effects in depth and their implementation in Flash (focusing on the Brackenwood flashes).
- Bitey Castle Academy: Flash CS3 Animation – ebook chapters sold individually from his website, teaching Flash for graphics and frame-by-frame animation. The first two chapters are free.
Awards
- 2003—Flashforward (New York City '03): The Hitchhiker: part 2 wins the Cartoon Category.
- 2004—Flashforward (San Francisco '04): Bingbong of Brackenwood (Finalist in the Cartoon Category).
- 2004—TGSNT: Bitey of Brackenwood (Runnerup)
- 2005—TGSNT: Grand Prize for Prowlies at the River
- 2005—Flashforward (San Francisco '05): Prowlies at the River wins the Cartoon Category.
- 2006—Flashforward (Seattle '06): littleFoot wins the Cartoon Category.
- 2006—Annecy International Animated Film Festival (Annecy, France '06): littleFoot officially nominated in the Internet Category.
- 2006—Flashforward (Austin '06): the Yuyu wins the Cartoon Category.
- 2007—Flashforward (Boston '07): 30 Shorts : 30 days wins People's Choice.
- 2008—Newgrounds: Waterlollies : NG Tank Award for Best Movie of 2007
- 2008—12th Annual Webby Awards: The Brackenwood Series : Official Honoree, Animation
- 2008—12th Annual Webby Awards: The Brackenwood Series : Official Honoree, Best Use of Animation/Motion Graphics
- 2010—W3 Awards W3 Awards: The Last of the Dashkin : Silver Award Winner
References
External links
- Bitey Castle website – Site contains Adobe Flash content embedded, which requires the Flash browser plugin to be installed.
- Sarus Lessons – introduction to learning Sarus
- Adam Phillips at the Internet Movie Database
- Adam Phillips at Newgrounds
- Adam Phillips 3 part interview on Coldhardflash
- Review of Prowlies at the River on Newgrounds
- ColdHardFlash's analysis and review of "the YuYu"
- The Daily Crumb's review of 'Waterlollies'
- Adam's Agenda
- Adam Phillips' Twitter