The Making of Robin Robin | Aardman’s Stop Motion Short

After graduating from Wimbledon College of Art in 2008 with a degree in Set Design for Stage and Screen, Dan started out as a Freelance Animator, Set Designer, and Model Maker, before taking an MA in Animation at the Royal College of Art from 2010-11.

His 2011 MA graduation short, Slow Derek, premiered at the BFI London Film Festival in 2011 before screening internationally at over 40 film festivals and winning the Grand Prix at Animated Encounters and Animayo.

In 2014, Dan co-founded Parabella Studios with Mikey Please, where they produced shorts, idents, and commercials with commissions from clients such as Nike, E4, and Kamasi Washington. Their relaunch trailer for the 2017 series of The Great British Bake Off earned the pair a Cannes Lion Silver award for Film Craft in Animation.

In 2019, Dan and Mikey joined Aardman to co-write and direct the animated musical special Robin Robin, which premiers on Netflix in autumn 2021.

After graduating from Wimbledon College of Art in 2007 with a degree in Technical Arts and Special Effects, Mikey began his career directing music videos for artists such as Jeffrey Lewis, M Ward, and TV on the Radio.

His 2010 MA graduation short from the Royal College of Art, The Eagleman Stag, premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and went on to win over 20 awards including a BAFTA for Best Animated Short, Special Distinction at Annecy, The Wholphin Award at SXWS, and Best Graduation Short at the British Animation Awards. The film was included in the Future Shorts festival, playing internationally in over 400 cinemas, and was shortlisted for an Academy Award.

His second short film, Marilyn Myller, premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, went on to win Best Short Film at the British Animation Awards, a Special Jury Prize at the Chicago International Film Festival, and the McLaren Award for Best British Animation at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

In 2014, Mikey co-founded Parabella Studios with Dan Ojari, where they produced shorts, idents, and commercials with commissions from clients such as Nike, E4, and Kamasi Washington. Their relaunch trailer for the 2017 series of The Great British Bake Off earned the pair a Cannes Lion Silver award for Film Craft in Animation.

Mikey joined Cartoon Network In 2018 as Episode Director on Elliott From Earth, overseeing 16 x 11-minute episodes, which premiered in March 2021.

In 2019, Mikey and Dan joined Aardman to co-write and direct the animated musical special Robin Robin, which premieres on Netflix in Autumn 2021.

Dave Alex has been working as a Cinematographer / Director for over 35 years, specializing in the wonderful world of Stop Frame Animation.

Along with fellow filmmaker, Dave Borthwick, he co-founded the film collective Bolex Brothers in the early 1980s.

Collaborating with Aardman since the mid-1980s on early classics such as Creature Comforts and the Sledgehammer music video Dave Alex went on to work as Director of Photography on the Wallace & Gromit short films (The Wrong Trousers, A Close Shave, A Matter of Loaf and Death) and TV specials (Wallace & Gromit at the Proms, Wallace & Gromit’s World of Invention) and countless commercials.

As well as occasionally directing commercials and short films he has continued his role of Director of Photography on the feature films 'Chicken Run,' 'Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit,' 'Shaun the Sheep Movie,' and 'Early Man'.

He has worked as DoP on series 4, 5 & 6 of Shaun the Sheep and Aardman’s latest animated short Robin Robin. Dave Alex was Cinematographer on the feature films ‘The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists’ and ‘Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon’.

He was made a fellow of Arts University Bournemouth in 2013 for his contribution to Cinematography and Animation.

From an early age growing up with Star Wars, Ian had a keen interest in special effects, in particular, the stop motion based movies from such greats as Ray Harryhausen and Phil Tippett, and this was a big part of the reason that he ended up specializing in this area of animation.

Born in Bristol, Ian first started to work as a Stop Motion Animator professionally in the late '80s, working at various Bristol-based studios as a freelancer. His first position at Aardman was as a Model and Prop maker on various commercials and short films including Nick Park’s Oscar-winning short “The Wrong Trousers”. Although he would work as an Animator at other Animation companies, his first time as an Assistant Animator at Aardman was on Nick Park’s Oscar-winning short “A Close Shave” in 1996. From that point on he focused solely as an Animator, becoming a Key Animator in 1998 on Aardman’s first feature film “Chicken Run”. After this, Ian was made a staff member at Aardman, working as a Key Animator on various film and series productions, such as “Wallace & Gromit Curse of the Were Rabbit”, “Pirates – An Adventure with Scientists” (senior Lead Animator), and also animated on Aardman’s first CG feature, “Flushed Away”, as well as his third Wallace & Gromit short “A Matter of Loaf and Death”.

Ian has also worked as an Animator for Oregon based company Laika, starting on their first Animated feature “Coraline” and then returning to work as both Stop Motion and CG Facial Animator on their feature film, “The Boxtrolls”, before becoming a staff member to work on the features “Kubo and the Two Strings” and “Missing Link”. After this Ian returned back home to work as Senior Animator on “A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon” and then moved on to be the Supervising Animator for the Aardman/Netflix short, “Robin Robin”. Ian is currently working as Supervising Animator on the Chicken Run sequel at Aardman.

As Outreach Representative, Adam travels to high schools, community colleges, and trade shows to educate prospective students about Gnomon’s academic options and provide information about careers in the entertainment industry. With over two decades of experience working in nonprofits, Adam has used his skills in visual art, photography, and design to create socially conscious initiatives in collaboration with art students and professionals. He has lived and worked abroad in Norway and the Netherlands while traveling Europe as a community developer and public speaker. Adam holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theology from LIFE Pacific University.