Contact me: jason@groundchuck.co.uk

WRITER / DIRECTOR (LIVE ACTION)
I have just completed work on my live action short film "The Visitation" starring Paul Darrow (Blake's 7, Little Britain) Carole Hayman (Ladies of Letters, Hard Choices) Tracy Bargate (28 Days Later) and Sangeeta Sabharwal (Zee TV). The film, which I also wrote and edited, is a humorous mockumentary about the paranormal which asks the question "where does reality end, and fantasy begin?"

COMPOSITOR / ANIMATOR
I have ten years experience as a compositor in the Animation industry using Adobe After Effects, Combustion and Animo. I have contributed to a large number of well known TV commercials in a wide variety of styles from the traditional, such as Silentnight, Charmin, and Mr. Sheen, to art-house such as ADM, Mall of America, and the Euro 2004 for the BBC. I have also worked on numerous short films such as "Meat and Electricity" directed by Martyn Pick, "Mr. Rivet" directed by Luc Chamberland, and "Eva Goes to Foreign" directed by Neil Ross.
 

ET3 "Entertainment"

Directed by Murray John. Art Director Richard Sutton at Red Bee Media. © Bermuda Shorts Ltd 2008. One of six new idents for the Greek national TV station ET3. Animation and compositing were done with Adobe After Effects. Click here or on the image for a quicktime movie.

ET3 "Modern Landmarks"

Directed by Murray John. Art Director Richard Sutton at Red Bee Media. © Bermuda Shorts Ltd 2008. One of six new idents for the Greek national TV station ET3. Animation and compositing were done with Adobe After Effects. Click here or on the image for a quicktime movie.

ET3 "Sport"

Directed by Murray John. Art Director Richard Sutton at Red Bee Media. © Bermuda Shorts Ltd 2008. One of six new idents for the Greek national TV station ET3. Animation and compositing were done with Adobe After Effects. Click here or on the image for a quicktime movie.

ET1"Joy"

Directed by Ranko Andjelic. © Bermuda Shorts Ltd 2008. One of three new idents for the Greek national TV station ET1. A combination of hand-drawn and computer generated animation composited in After Effects. Click here or on the image for a quicktime movie.

ET1"Serenity"

Directed by Tibor Banoczki. © Bermuda Shorts Ltd 2008. One of three new idents for the Greek national TV station ET1. A combination of live action and CG animation composited in After Effects. Click here or on the image for a quicktime movie.

South Beach Living "Trainer"

Directed by Susi Wilkinson. © Bermuda Shorts Ltd 2008. American TV commercial combining live action and hand-drawn animation. Composited with Cambridge Animation Systems' Animo and Adobe After Effects. Click here or on the image for a quicktime movie.

Elite Coffee "Biker"

Directed by Sharon Pinsker. © Sharon Pinsker 2007. This commercial combines Live action, watercolour and Flash animation. Composited in After Effects. Click here or on the image for a quicktime movie.

Mr. Sheen

Directed by Uli Meyer. © Uli Meyer Animation Ltd. Traditional animation scanned and composited with Cambridge Animation Systems Animo and Combustion. Click here or on the image for a quicktime movie.

Eva Goes To Foreign

Directed by Neil Ross. © Uli Meyer Animation Ltd. An award-winning film describing the dangers of drug-trafficking by so-called 'mules', usually roped in by ruthless drug dealers. Animation was done in Flash and After Effects. Click here or on the image for a quicktime movie.

Greene King "The White Swan"

Directed by Leigh Hodgkinson. © Slinky Pictures Ltd. One of a series of sponsorship idents for Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway. Animation was done in After Effects and Flash, compositing in After Effects. Click here or on the image for a quicktime movie.

Greene King "The Dog and Duck"

Directed by Leigh Hodgkinson. © Slinky Pictures Ltd. One of a series of sponsorship idents for Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway. Animation was done in After Effects and Flash, compositing in After Effects. Click here or on the image for a quicktime movie.

Greene King "The Marlow"

Directed by Leigh Hodgkinson. © Slinky Pictures Ltd. One of a series of sponsorship idents for Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway. Animation was done in After Effects and Flash, compositing in After Effects. Click here or on the image for a quicktime movie.
 

Five is Ten

© Foreign Office Design 2007. One of three short features to celebrate the tenth birthday of terrestrial channel Five. This was animated and composited entirely in Adobe After Effects. Click here or on the image for a quicktime movie.

 

IKEA

Directed by Max Hattler. © Bermuda Shorts 2008. Designed in Photoshop and composited with Adobe After Effects. Click here or on the image for a quicktime movie.

ADM "Paint"

Directed by Martyn Pick. © Martyn Pick www.martynpick.com. This was a very effects intensive commercial, Adobe After Effects and Painter were used to combine live action, watercolour and 3D animation. Click here or on the image to see a quicktime movie.

Nickelodeon "Straw"

Directed by Will Barras. © Bermuda Shorts Ltd. One of several short idents created for Nickelodeon. Click here or on the image to see a quicktime movie.

Mr. Rivet

Directed by Luc Chamberland. © Animation Workshop. This short film was made by students at the Animation Workshop in Viborg, Denmark, under the tutelage of Luc Chamberland, a hollywood animation director. I composited the film with Adobe After Effects and Animo. Click here or on the image to see a short clip.
 

Orange

Directed by Michael Schlingmann. © Uli Meyer Animation Ltd. This Israeli commercial for Orange sim cards mixes 2D and 3D. I composited and animated it using a combination of Adobe After Effects and Animo. Click here or on the image to see a quicktime movie.
 

Silentnight "My First Bed"

Directed by Darren Vandenberg. © Bermuda Shorts Ltd. I composited this commercial using Adobe After Effects and also did the paint and trace using Animo. Click here or on the image to see a quicktime movie.
 

Mall of America "Just Be Yourself"

Directed by Sharon Pinsker. © Bermuda Shorts Ltd. I used Adobe After Effects to combine watercolour animation and graphic elements. Click here or on the image to see a quicktime movie.
 

Hubba Bubba Bubble Tape "Sour Lab"

Directed by Mark Waring. © Bermuda Shorts Ltd. For this stop-motion commerical, I used Adobe After Effects for rig-removal, colour grading and compositing. Click here or on the image to see a quicktime movie.

TCM

Directed by Michael Schlingmann. © Uli Meyer Animation. This PROMAX Award winning ident for Turner Classic Movies was composited with Animo and Adobe After Effects. The special effects were created in Adobe Photoshop. Click here or on the image to see a quicktime movie.

Charmin "Absorb-bubbles"

Directed by Uli Meyer. © Uli Meyer Animation Ltd. I composited this commercial using Discreet Combustion. Click here or on the image to see a quicktime movie.
 

Nutty Bottom

Directed by Sean Hayden. © Uli Meyer Animation. This series of short stings for Nickelodeon's autumn season featured Nutty the Squirrel in his nut shop. The cut-out style animation was done in Adobe After Effects. There were about 20 in total. Click here or on the image for a selection.
 

Triaminic - Bear

Directed by Run Wrake. © Bermuda Shorts 2007. I animated this cut-out style commercial in Adobe After Effects. Click here or on the image to see a quicktime movie.

CBBC

Directed by Mario Cavalli, Tibor Banoczki. © Bermuda Shorts Ltd. Cutout-style animation on the last three of the four letters in this ident. Compositing was done with Adobe After Effects. Click here or on the image to see a quicktime movie.

MTV Hits

Directed by Jason Guest. © Bermuda Shorts Ltd. I designed the elements with Adobe Illustrator and animated and composited with Adobe After Effects. Click here or on the image to see a quicktime movie.

Euro 2004 for the BBC

Directed by Martyn Pick. © Martyn Pick, www.martynpick.com. This job involved a combination of animation and compositing using Corel Painter and Adobe After Effects. I also designed a billboard poster based on the animation I did of Portuguese player Figo. Click here or on the image to see a quicktime movie.
 

Pontiac (Pitch)

Directed by Murray John. © Bermuda Shorts Ltd. This was a pitch for a music video that was also a promotion for Pontiac cars. For legal reasons it was never made. This pitch was done in four days. I composited the job with Adobe After Effects and also animated some scenes. Click here or on the image to see a quicktime movie.
 

Meat and Electricity

Directed by Martyn Pick. © Martyn Pick, www.martynpick.com. This short live-action film about an architect suffering a nervous breakdown featured a title sequence and special effects which I created in Corel Painter and Adobe After Effects. Click here or on the image for a short clip.
 

Summer / Winter on Nickelodeon

© Uli Meyer Animation. There were two seasons of these short stings made with After Effects and simple cut-out animation. The summer season was directed by Michael Schlingmann, whilst I directed the winter season. Click here or on the image to see a quicktime movie.

Dexter's Laboratory Christmas Special sting

Directed by Uli Meyer. © Uli Meyer Animation. Dexter was animated using the Animo vector animation program. Compositing was done with Adobe After Effects. Click here or on the image to see a quicktime movie.
WRITER
As well as my short film "The Visitation" and numerous Interactive Fiction games, I wrote the screenplay for the short animated pilot "Fred Bastard", directed by Uli Meyer, which was shown at the Annecy Animation Festival in 2001. The episode follows Fred’s attempts to raise rent for his embittered landlady, Miss Hand-Shandy, by selling his beloved television and buying lottery tickets with the proceeds. Click here to watch it on You Tube.

EDITOR
I recently taught myself how to use Final Cut Pro in order to edit my short film "The Visitation", and now have a good working knowledge of the program. I also edited "Eva Goes to Foreign" using AVID.

WEB DESIGNER
I designed this website myself using Dreamweaver and Flash.

DESIGNER / ARTIST
I studied Graphic Design at The University of Humberside in Hull, (now the University of Lincoln) graduating in 1992. Though I specialised in animation, I am still a practicing artist and designer. Click on the ART link for a selection of my design and illustration.

GAMES WRITER / PROGRAMMER
Interactive Fiction (otherwise known as Text Adventure Games) are best described as a type of game in which you play the main character in a story. To make one requires a combination of creative writing and programming skills. My games are written using a specialised object-oriented programming language called TADS, which is similar in some ways to C or Pascal. One of my games, "To Hell in a Hamper" has been nominated for five prestigious XYZZY awards as well as winning the 2003 Adrift End of Year Competition.

PERFORMER
As a youth I was heavily involved in amateur dramatics. I won several prizes for poetry and prose reading as well as attaining two LAMDA examination passes; Grade 5 with distinction and Grade 6 with honours.

TEACHER
Before moving down to London to work in animation I completed a PGCE in Art and Design Education at De Montfort University, and so am fully qualified to teach art and design from primary school level up to 'A' Level standard. Once or twice a year I fly to Denmark to teach Adobe After Effects and Animo to degree-level students at the Animation Workshop in Viborg.