RAMPIRE!

Rampire! by Mat Greaves, graduate from the University of Central Lancashire

Who?
RAMPIRE! was my final year project at the University of Central Lancashire. It was written, directed and animated by myself; with sound design by Matt Jones and Jay Appleyard as the Narrator and Farmer Saxon.

What?
A Saxon druid makes a sacrifice to the Gods to bless his clan’s journey across the northern valleys… a newborn baby Ram. The God’s punish the sacrifice with death and curse the valleyside.

A thousand years later, RAMPIRE! rises from the dead to wreak revenge!

Why?
After watching a lot of Hammer films and old cheesy American horror flicks; I decided that I wanted to make the first Northern animated comedy B-movie horror; parodying and paying homage to these old low budget movies while giving it the Northern treatment.

How?
I used a Wacom Bamboo graphics tablet to draw the storyboards and backgrounds in Photoshop and animate the film in Adobe Flash. After Effects was used for editing and visual effects.

Next Project?
Me and some classmates are starting up our own animation studio in the North West “Studio BoomBoom” Like us on Facebook to keep up with our latest projects: https://www.facebook.com/studioboomboom

I’m also currently working on the second episode for a viral sketch show called “Nightmare On Parent Street” written by Jim Davis and Sal Thomas, demonstrating the trials and tribulations of parenthood. You can find episode one on their YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3b9XnhDI0kQ

Which animated film would you like to have made?
That’s a tricky one, Disney Pixar’s Up is a fantastic piece of storytelling with stunning visuals.
But I think I’d rather have made something like Ralph Bakshi’s Heavy Traffic, which is just so unique and personal in its style and its characters. Whilst being grossly cartoony, exaggerated and controversial; it explores a lot of different subjects in a bold and interesting way.