What its all about...

My name is Dan Nicholson, I study 3D Computer Animation at Swansea Institute, now known as Swansea Met Uni. This ‘blog’ is designed to follow the progress of my final major project.

The project brief is to create a two minute animation of your liking, and over the summer holidays of 2007 I slowly formulated an idea which I thought would be interesting and original (and strange!), so here is the premise:

A newly discovered, apparently unintelligent Neanderthal-Human like specimen is found to have amazing logical intelligence, and is in the end exhaustively ‘tested to death’.

I have taken inspiration from many short animations and pieces of art I have come across over my time. My aim is to create a reasonably realistic slightly stylised piece in which the audience feel empathy for the main character. The message within the short is quite sober; however there are some slight dark comedic undertones.

The film is set in the early 1960's and is from the point of view of the scientists who discovered the specimen. The final piece will be graded to appear like it is filmed using early technicolour technology.

Visit www.dan-nicholson.co.uk for more information on this and other projects!