James has covered a lot of ground this week, from Scrooge’s bleak old school to Belle’s garden, to some Christmas Future layouts. All these are line art studies, with all tones removed for this stage. The emphasis on architectural details and composition.
I’ve been making animations since I was nine years old, filming on a Super 8 camera! Since then, I’ve worked across television, film and independent projects, collaborating with studios and broadcasters including Disney, BBC, Channel 4 and Netflix.
I studied Animation at Senior College Ballyfermot in Dublin before training in Visual Effects at Walt Disney Feature Animation in France. That led to work as a classical drawn effects animator on films including Disney’s The Tigger Movie and the title sequence for Thunderbirds.
A love of storytelling drew me into storyboarding and filmmaking. After training at Aardman Animations, I worked with studios including Aardman and Blink Industries on series such as Shaun the Sheep, Dennis & Gnasher Unleashed and Alley Cats, collaborating with talented teams across the UK animation industry.
Alongside commercial television work, I develop and direct independent films - most recently the award-winning animated documentary No One is an Island(2024) - that allow me to push my artistry and tell more personal stories. Through comedy, drama, or quieter moments of reflection, I’m fascinated by animation’s ability to bring people of all ages together — communicating stories through character, rhythm and visual language.
At heart, I’m still driven by the same thing that started it all: the simple magic of drawings coming to life.
