Zub Tales

Animex is a week-long festival and lecture series about animation, video games, special effects, and comics run at the University of Teesside in northern England. I first attended as a speaker back in 2009 and it’s become one of my favourite work-related trips each year since then. The depth and breadth of knowledge covered by the speakers mixed with great networking opportunities and a friendly social atmosphere is top notch.

When Gabrielle Kent, the head of Animex, asked me if I’d be interested in designing the mascot for the 2014 festival, I leapt at the chance.

Given my love of fantasy and the fact this event takes place in England, it seemed appropriate to create a noble knight. I wanted something cute and iconic, and the concept of a Kitten Knight took hold in these initial rough sketches.

Gabby really liked the concept. We bounced a few of the elements back and forth, trying out different poses and bits of armour until I had two line art versions to choose from:

Gabby picked the fully armoured one and I coloured it up with a pallet meant to work well with the festival’s black, white, and red colour scheme. From there I created a vector version so it could be scaled to any size the festival needs.

And, there he is! Kitten Knight is ready for Animex 2014. 🙂