I've always loved dinosaurs. Have I ever said that? Well, I do. And when it came time to do our big end-of-course film project at Yoobee, I immediately thought 'Holey moley, I can make a dinosaur film!' Although I would have loved to do it old-school - with stop-motion, hand puppets and guys in fakey kaiju suits - I figured that since I knew my way around motion graphics, going for an animated version would be a more doable option. I could create the 'film sets', vegetation, props, characters and other peripherals on Adobe Illustrator, mass-produce them for whatever scenes or shots I needed, and bring them to life on Adobe AfterEffects - with the valuable assistance of the DUiK rigging system, which I used to great effect in my earlier motion graphics piece 'Mad Science'. I even had a place to set the story: the forgotten island of Tubonga-Laa, a south Pacific paradise I created as part of the Fight Squad project; home of such characters as Viki Tiki (mayor of the town of Mapu Neue), Mixology Bob (local resturaunteur) and the mighty Mondo Loa, God of Tiki!

They aren't in the film though: it was all about the prehistoric wildlife. Food Chain charts a 'day in the life' of a female Allosaurus named Alice, as she stalks a cocky young Saltasaurus called Sal; presented in a documentary-style fashion. Unlike the other films I have created at Yoobee, of course, this one had to tell its story without dialogue, narration or the benefit of expressive facial features on the characters - because my dinosaurs weren't of the cartoony, anthropomorphic variety - and was actually a serious, dramatic tale; despite a few moments of humour here and there. It was quite a job, both from a storytelling perspective and a getting-everything-animated-without-going-insane-first one (quadraped walk cycles are now the bane of my existence); but the end result is probably the most complex and detailed piece of animation I've ever done.... until the next time, that is.