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!)

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!

All Aboard the Transformers Omnibus

 My show Transformers: CYBERWORLD premiered just over a month ago - we're still deep in production, but I'm so pleased with how it is going and the reception it has garnered from the fandom.

If you haven't yet seen it, there is an episode 1-4 compilation released today that will catch you up on the story so far:

Transformers: CYBERWORLD on the TransformersOfficial YouTube channel

Do please check it out - and let me know what you think. New episodes will be going live (nearly) every Saturday until June 2026.

All on the TransformersOfficial YouTube channel. Subscribe to keep on top of it.

Transformers Tech-Specs

 In the run up to the show premiering on the 12th of July, we've been releasing a number of character stat profiles, as teaser shorts.

There'll be plenty more weekly as we get closer to Episode 01 (and beyond!)

You can see the full collection here on this playlist - which is updated regularly. Get to grips with our cast ahead of watching the show...

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7VEq3tXc6hvGGvp1gHbL0OhQoDYsz5qV&feature=shared

Til All Are Won!

The first official teaser trailer for the project I've been working on has finally dropped!

May I introduce Transformers: CYBERWORLD a brand new YouTube web-series from Hasbro Studios UK.

I've been working on this for nearly 10 months at this point and I've not been able to talk about it at all. But my name is on the IMDb and the show is officially announced so I am copping up to it.

I developed the show for series from a concept (and toyline) provided by the team at Hasbro, and I am the Head Writer for the 36 episode run.

It's so very exciting and I'm so pumped to share the show with the fandom and world. The first episode premieres on 12th July this year - just over a month away. We're still in the thick of production (and will be well up until the finale) but it's coming to life!

I've already seen the first few episodes coming together and hopefully you all love it as much as we do. The team is fantastic, the cast is brilliant, I can't wait for people to see what we've all worked so hard to produce.

Big love and big thank.

Sad Firetruck Noise 🚒

 It would seem that the show reboot I was writing for has moved production internally. There are still 3 and a half episodes I wrote that have not yet been produced - if they make it to launch I will update here.

My services as an animatic artist and writer are still available to those interested. Example below:

Fire Fire! Kidibli Premiere 🔥🔥

 The first episode of the Kidibli reboot has gone live! In fact, the first two episodes have!

The first about waffles in the toaster is the final version of the pilot that I created the animatic for. The second is an episode I actually wrote(!) about a cat getting stuck in a tree.

Watch them both below here:

This was a really fun project to work on, and figure out the brand new format for the show. There's a couple more episodes I have written that should come out in the next few weeks, so keep your eyes peeled!

It was great to work closely with Jeremy Krause again, and fellow writer Jessie Stephenson (quite possibly our first project since Popeye!) looking forward to many more as the series progresses.

Kidibli

 In the wake of my departure from WildBrain, I was given the fantastic opportunity to work on a series refresh for the studio Animaj.

They were looking to revitalise their digital show Kidibli - bringing a similar energy to what was produced for Kiddyzuzaa.

I had the pleasure of working with a number of my former WildBrain/Kiddyzuzaa colleagues for the project, and I hope it continues to be a lot of fun!

My role, initially, on the project was to help produce an animatic for the pilot episode, that would be used as part of the internal pitching to greenlight the full series. Written by the incomparable Jeremy Krause.

Originally this was about glue and had a slightly different execution.

But then the team pivoted to an episode about misusing a toaster (and starting a fire.)

I'm very happy with how the animatic turned out. I used a combination of assets provided by our fantastic illustrator Courtney Summers, along with my own drawings and some real photos of an actual fire engine toy that I bought for the project.

The idea was that the show would have a mixed media look, swapping between live-action, stop-motion and hand-drawn animation for different moments.

Being a wholly illustrated 2D animatic, it was important to express this visual distinction as much as possible - hence the different styles throughout the piece.

I'm thrilled to say it was a success and the project is going into production. I am on board as a writer and storyboard artist for the show. I will share more as things progress!