Protest Animation

Protest is seasoned in local vernacular and tells the story of protesting through the eyes of the unsuspecting trini. It reflects the cultural nuances of Trinidad and Tobago through the creative expressions of the spoken word. The call and response element of the storyteller to his audience is invoked by the line at the end of each situation “Protest, dat is Protest”. The marriage of the animation and the spoken word engages a wider viewership as they are immersed into the experiences of the protagonist. The story includes characters created by storyteller Taharqa Obika and to be illustrated by Seon Thompson. These Characters are central to everyday life for many a Trinbagonian. I have been working on this for quite some time now and finally I am getting a bit more time to get it done. I would be putting up images of my process as I go along so stay tuned.

Protest Animation Poster

The Making of The Bah Johns

So every time I show people my Bah John key-chains they always ask me 'how were they made' This video was actually done more than a year ago and was sitting on a hard drive somewhere so I finally decided to pull it out and show you a little inside into how it all came together for the Bah Johns.

The Making of The Bah Johns from Seon on Vimeo.

Portrait Artist - 1D Project

Portrait Artist - 1D Project from Seon on Vimeo.

This is the first film in the 1D (One Day) Film Project. Basically the project is a challenge to create appealing films in a day. Every day we interact with interesting people, situations and environments that may never be experienced again by anyone else. So why don't we just pick up our video cameras and share these experiences with each other. Get out there and make something, become a part of the 1D Project.

Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival 2010 Promo by Buhwamoder

Check this out. Buhwamoder took the TTFF Vendor promo and chopped it up into PIECES!!!

TTFF 2010 short film ident competition

I am no film maker but I enjoy coming up with interesting concepts no matter what the medium. So when I saw that TTFF was having a competition for youths under 28 to come up with a storyboard or script for a 30-60 second ident, I decided to participate. The concept needed to be based on their theme "You're in Focus", and for me that meant documenting something that we see every day but not necessarily notice - Highway Vendor.

Storyboard for TTFF 2010 short film ident.

On our way to work on our nation's highways, we see them plying their trade, precariously weaving in and out of traffic, selling everything from drinks and snacks to fruits and car accessories. This is what I think we should strive to represent more in our work as creative people. To view the other three idents that won and also to get more information about Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival 2010 check the link HERE

Rough Cut Film Camp

This 10 sec animation was done for the opening of rough cut film camp. Rough Cut Film Camp is a six weeks film workshop where secondary school students can learn the rudimentary aspects of film making. I also created the logo for Rough Cup Film Camp.

 

Rough Cut Film Camp Logo

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Rough Cut Film Camp from Seon on Vimeo.

Anti-Everything - Iz D Man

This animation was produced at Full Circle Animation studio (I work there) for a local band called Anti-Everything.The song 'I'z D Man' is the lead single off of the Decision 2010 EP. 'Decision 2010' is a four song EP and content package centered on the theme of Trinidad and Tobago's 2010 General Elections. You can check them out here. This is the team that worked o the animation:- Rene Holder, Luis Vasquez, Judah Modeste, Makesi Aquan, Marcus Marshall, Alexander Rodriguez and myself. We all had our own varying styles coming in to this project but we came together and pulled it off in about eight days. This is the end result.

Animae Caribe Television AD

This 30 Second animation is an adaptation of the poster i designed for the festival. It did not make it to television but it played on the festival website, the 'Big screen' in Port-of-Spain, and during the festival. I got assistance from Stefano Caines and Alexander Rodriguez with the composition and animation. Thanks guys!

Animae Caribe 2009 AD from Seon on Vimeo.

Small Ting to the World!

The animation reaching places that i can't reach yet!! In July it was screened in Caribbean Tales Film Festival in Canada. This was the first time my animation made it in a Film Festival outside of Trinidad so that was big for me.

Apparently the response was good because a few weeks later I was contacted (via Facebook) by a guy who saw the animation in the film festival and was interested of making it a part of a Caribbean Short film showcase that would be screened in Rode Loper Film Festival in Amsterdam and the Shoot Me Film Festival in Hague. His name is Emiel Martens, the Executive Director of Caribbean Creativity, an organization that promotes creative expression from the Caribbean. Yuh done know i was all for that so I send my stuff to him and that was that. Small Ting becoming ah Big Ting!!

Caribbean Creativity Flyer


Emiel Martens and Douwe Dijksterhuis from Caribbean Creativity

The Table in front of the screening tent with information about the Caribbean showcase.
(yuh see d little postcard with d octopus on it, that was done by Luis Vasquez for Animae Caribe. D thing reach Netherlands Big up Yuhself !)

A screen shot of my animation in the Shoot Me Film Festival.

Small Ting Mentality gets an Award

Animae Caribe Animation and New Media Festival has always been a outlet for local and Caribbean animators to get their work out there. I entered my animation in the 2008 animation festival with hopes of just getting my work screened and seeing the crowd's response. I was extremely pleased to find out at the end of the festival that i won the 'Most Outstanding Caribbean Animation' in the festival.


I still believe that i am not an animator i am just someone who enjoys creating animations.

Small Ting Mentality

The creation of the animation "Small Ting Mentality" has been a real challenge for me, from learning Anime Studio in a few weeks to trying to figure out After effects. I enjoyed it thoroughly. This is it check it out.

Small Ting Mentality from Seon on Vimeo.

Anti-Smelter

The anti- smelter uprising in Trinidad was a serious and major issue in 2007 and I took this opportunity to express my views visually through my work. I experimented with everything from propaganda posters to animation and even chalk art. I was very serious about most of the issues I dealt with in my work but overall I was just trying to have fun.



This piece entitled 'Stop D Smelter' was created in Photoshop and Illustrator. I enjoyed do this piece and the comical image of 'Uncle Patos' helped it even more. At the time i was researching a lot of Soviet union propaganda posters and i got inspired.


Chalk art has always been an integral part of Animae Caribe and i have enjoyed creating unique pieces. This was done at UWI for the festival.




Graphite animation created in Photoshop, Premiere and Crazy talk. Just experimenting.

The Beginning of Small Ting!!!

Now how i came about creating this animation is a crazy story in itself. It was final year UWI, film and video class, and i had to produce a three minute piece for my final assignment. I knew i wanted to create an animation but was not sure what to do. 'Thank god for weird coincidences because if it was not for Taharqa Obika and our collaboration, the Small Ting Mentality animation would be non existent. I met him in the computer labs at UWI, where he overheard me talking about my project and then he introduced himself as a storyteller trying to get his work out there. After that we just clicked, i brought up the idea of taking one of his stories and animating it and he was cool with it. You can join his group on facebook here.



So these are my preliminary sketches of the main character. I final design was created in Anime Studio which was also the program i used to animate the character. The drawings below are caricatures of the storyteller. Photoshop was used to color the drawing.