Roundup

Roundup #022 - Bye 25! Hi 26!

Gavin Strange

13 Jan 2026 — 4 min read

Hello there! It's been a while hasn't it!? How you doing? Surviving or thriving? Or just skiving? Sorry it's been a while since me last update, the big project I'm directing at Aardman had its big shoot in December, so it's been full steam ahead on that, it was great fun! I'm starting the new year going into our CG & Comp stage, so lots of fun things ahead!

In my passion project time it was all still pinball focused! I have a totally separate 'behind the scenes' post in the works about how the 'Gnarlybot' virtual table came to life, but the project isn't quite complete yet, there's a really exciting final phase happening with the incredible VPin Workshop collective so stay tuned for that!

What I have done though is do a video edit showcasing where it's up to so far, so that gives you a good idea of how it's looking, check it out!

The other side to this is the actual build of my virtual pinball 'machine' itself. I wrote the massive mega-blog of 'Part 1' earlier this year (go make a cuppa and give it a read, it's a big 'un) but since then it's come on a lot more, working with my dear friend Jack Hayward to make a very special 'cabinet' out of aluminium extrusion and perspex, so stay tuned for that!

What I did make time for at the end of the year was a cheeky wee video edit of my creative 2025. Featuring a lil' bit of (nearly) everything I got up to in 2025, I really enjoying doing things like this as it forces you to assess what you've done and what you'd like to do more of / less of! I hope you enjoy:

That's all from me for now, hope you enjoy the rest of the update - have a good 'un!

- Gav.

WHAT AM I PLAYING?

As is tradition, at the end of the year, a bunch of us gather virtually in GTAV to have an evening of larking about in Los Santos. It always makes me howl like an absolute loon as we just fart about and amuse ourselves causing chaos!

0:00

/0:07

When I wasn't mucking about in Grand Theft Auto, I was playing virtual pinball! I've been playing some fantastic tables (You can find them all at VPUniverse):

Guns 'n' Roses - Data East 1994 [VPW]
Big Bang Bar - Capcom 1996 [VPW]
White Water - Williams 1993 [Flupper]
Die Hard - Original [VPW]
Tales From The Crypt - Data East 1993 [VPW]
Johnny Mnemonic - Williams 1995 [VPW]

There's loads of games out there that I've got my eye on too, in particular a couple of killer pixel-art side-scrollers. I'm a big T2 fan, so the fact there's a modern-day pixel-art side scroller is amazing, get in my eyeballs!

Continuing that theme is the new Marvel brawler 'Cosmic Invasion'.

WHAT AM I LISTENING TO?

December was just an awful lot of Christmas music to be honest, but amongst all of that I did very much enjoy the latest Andrew Huang x Rob Scallon's 'album in a day' where they created the whole thing in an open Guitar Center store!

WHAT AM I WATCHING?

We spent all of December watching Christmas movies (Elf, Klaus, Home Alone, Noelle, Arthur Christmas, Die Hard), as is our family Friday movie night tradition. Once we were out of the festive period we managed to watch the final season 5 of Stranger Things, which was great!

We've also just started watching The Studio, which is also great! Incredibly stressful but good fun!

Looking forwards to the Stranger Things finale behind the scenes doc thing too!

WHAT'S CAUGHT MY EYE?

It's been a while since I've done one of these blogs, so there's loads of digital trinkets that have caught my eye. Apple's 2025 holiday film was lush, with a comedy spot featuring a bunch of awesome puppets! Human-made stuff FTW!

On a puppeteering note, who knew we needed a Jim Henson Workshop x Magic The Gathering crossover!? It's so good! I don't play MTG but now I want to, purely on the strength of this!

On a total gear shift of topic (pun intended, I think!?), this Yes Theory video on Japan's drift culture is rad. As a not-so-closeted fan of the ridiculous Fast & Furious franchise, this is great!