The APPeal of Pok Pok

 The first two stories I wrote for Pok Pok have become episodes on their official YouTube channel.

Pok Pok is an educational app for kids, and they have an associated YouTube channel that does gentle learning and entertainment videos using toys and characters from the app.

I was approached about working with them, and was happy to agree to write storylines for them. I've done a lot of toyplay before, so this was nothing new - but it's always nice to make some charming, simple little tales for younger audiences (especially when my other job is making robots punch each other!)

It's a lot less script intensive, the team like to adapt things as they shoot and match the particular voice they want. But I'm generating concepts and writing out the full plots for them to take into the studio.

The first episode is about Gardening and the second is a mystery about a Giant Egg! (with another in production on the way!)

Enjoy!

Gift of the Gabba

 Like the prodigal child I was brought back for another round of Yo Gabba Gabbaland promo cutdowns for the second season of the Apple TV show.

10x Episode excerpt cutdown clips
10x Songs
10x YouTube Shorts

You can see them rolling out on the official YouTube channel from today!

emojinal Times

 Bit of a throwback to when I worked on emojitown in 2022. I came on board as a creative producer around episode 36 - helping to shape the interpretations and animation from the scripts, sadly not able to write on the show (although that was the plan if the second season was greenlit!)

I did get to do a couple of voices - but a lot of my creativity went into the thumbnails, especially for the compilations (as they tended to be thematic rather than episode specific) some of my favourites below.

The idea was to create imagery that worked as an engaging YouTube thumbnail, whilst also working as a standalone piece of art or titlecard.

(I didn't 'create' these - they were made by the wonderful animation studio, but I would brief them and sometimes give preliminary character designs and layout sketches of what I was imagining.)

A bit of a Souls-like themed bossfight thumbnail - with a touch of Monster Hunter.

Horror thumbnail, some Stranger Things references as well as the Mystery Inc. gang from Scooby Doo

Superheroes - I designed most of these personas from scratch (Jo's came from E33 Superheroes and Jess' was loosely based on her look from the same episode.)

More superheroes - again, only Unicorn Man and Poophead had existing designs (from a previous compilation thumbnail.)

A really fun Spider-Man reference in this one for the Fleas episode.

Thanksgiving compilation. I just thought what is the most disruptive thing Poophead could do for the holiday.

Julia compilation - had fun leaning into her artist roots for the different styles in the background.

Far from the only thumbnails I worked on - but it's fun looking back on the show after so long.

MCM London Comic Con

 Absolutely mad! Surreal! Crazy!

I'm a big ol' nerd, so I've been to many comic cons in my time, including the prestigious MCM London - the biggest in the UK.

But to my astonishment my work on Transformers: CYBERWORLD has led to me being on a flipping panel! About the show! Such an honour and wonderful experience.

I still can't believe the response we have received from the fandom - and it was really, really great getting to share the experience with a bunch of engaged fellow nerds from the glitz and glamour of the stage.

(Not that it was a massive thing, but still huge to me.)

I fully blacked out and don't remember what I said. But I would do it again for sure - hopefully the show continues long enough for us to visit a convention again in the future!

I was there alongside my fellow writer Ryan Denham, Voice Director Joe Lewis and four of the five amazing voice talent we work with on every episode: James Alexander, Jessica Carroll, Shogo Miyakita and Jack Ayres!

Our gracious moderator was also one of our Executive Producers Tayhan Mustafa.

We played the full theme song and also showed a small snippet of that weekend's episode. As well as having an audience Q&A.

I'm so humbled and thankful, and still can't believe it happened!

R-L: Shogo Miyakita, Jack Ayres, James Alexander, Jessica Carroll, Joe Lewis, Tayhan Mustafa, Ali Lightfoot

I was listed on the website!

(Big shout out to James for kicking off and organising the whole thing for us!)

Omchat

Updates on the illustration I did for the Omcha tea labels. My work has started rolling out on the products!

I got some beautiful official product photos from owner Meg, and it's really amazing to see my images sitting within context on a real product. That people can buy!

photos provided by Omcha.

In the Feels

 As I mentioned in my last post, I'm very much head down in Transformers: CYBERWORLD. It's a lot of fun and I'm very much enjoying it, despite how intense and stressful it can be sometimes.

That being said, I am still putting my feelers out for other things. I've had a couple of conversations and my fingers are crossed to work on some more exciting projects.

I'm more than happy to work on things alongside Transformers and I'm looking to keep writing that show for as long as they'll let me.

I'm also really, really keen to look into the Doctor Who preschool show that is being developed. I've been sleuthing for leads for a while and I haven't got anything concrete yet. I'm a big fan of the show and sci-fi in general and my experience in kid's entertainment just feels like an ideal fit.

If you happen to be reading this and know of anything or any way I can get in touch with the people working on the show - please let me know!!
(I'm just super keen, guys!)

Transform and Roll Out!

 I've been deep in the Transformers mines for some time and not surfaced for air - but the show it doing really great!

We're up to Episode 9 which is the end of the first mini-arc in the story, and there's a compiled version of all the episodes so far available on the channel right now!

That's just under 45mins of pure Cyberworld goodness, and ideal to catch up if you've not been watching until now.

Give it a watch over on the Transformers Official YouTube.

New episode (10) will drop on the 4th of October, so keep your eyes peeled!