Jobs in the industry - Data Scope

Data Scope are looking for an animator who have experience with working in 2D and 3D animation. They want someone who has had a least 2 year experience with the games industry. Excellent knowledge of Flash as well as Maya or similar 3D program is a must. 

As you can see from the jobs that I have found there are rarely any that are suitable for graduates, pretty much every where you need experience in the industry. Something which graduates are not going to have. It may be that I will have to do a lot of freelance work to gain more experience. So then I can start applying for jobs. 

Jobs in the industry - High Score recruitment

High score recruitment are looking for someone to be a part of there team. The role is a cinematic Artist. Now High score recruitment are looking for people with experience and people without. The salary is based on the experience that people have. Here is where you can find where to apply.  This job could be perfect for those that have just graduated and are looking for work to gain experience.

Jobs in the industry - Nerd Corps Entertainment

Nerd Corps entertainment are also looking for a junior animator. The position is in Vancouver. They are looking for people with these:

Qualifications

• 1 year of experience in animation or film industry
• Degree/diploma in fine arts or animation or equivalent experience an asset
• Proficient in 3D animation packages
• Solid understanding of character posing, character animation lip sync and camera composition
• Able to take direction, collaborate, and be a team player
• Able to communicate in a professional and positive manner
• Able to communicate creative and technical thoughts and ideas
• Able to multitask, prioritize and manage time efficiently
• Able to work alone and collaboratively, often with multiple tasks and under deadline pressure
• Encourage feedback and new initiatives
• Able to adapt to multiple animation styles
• Must be open to direction and able to embrace change

Again this is a role that I am unable to apply for simply because they need someone with experience in the industry. This seems to be a problem that keeps occurring. The full information is here.

Images are subject to copyright.

Critical Report

Critical Report

During the course I have managed to learn many different skills in order to get into the animating and games industries. Some of the skills include hand drawn animation, model making, 3D animating, and sprite animations. For the last year I have concentrated more on model making. I have taken extra lesson in order to get my skills to a more professional standard. Not only have I being pushing myself to improve my skills in model making, but I have also been do extra work in order to get my 2D animating skills to a better standard. Now that University is coming to an end, it is that time to think about putting everything I have learned into the working world.

There are various companies around the world that are specialised in animation. Laika is one of them. Laika is an American stop motion animation studio that have moved on to 3D printing. At the moment Laika have no openings for model makers, hopefully in the near future there will be some. Before I can go to a big company like Laika I am going to need to get some experience in smaller industries. At the moment there seems to be lack of jobs in the stop motion animation industries.

Aardman is another stop motion animation studio, this studio is based in England. Aardman may be a stop motion animation studio but it is moving into 3D animation. This is another company that has no available jobs in the sector that I am hoping to get in to. Aradman animations is an amazing studio that has made many feature films such as Chicken run and Wallace and Gromit. It would be amazing if I could get into a studio like this.

I have managed find open jobs using a website called animated jobs. Marlborough Productions Ltd in partnership with Cartoon Network London

are currently looking for a 2D/3D background artist. This is something that I could look deeper into as I have done a lot of environment designs. It may not be my preferred job but at least it is a start. They are looking for someone who has worked with Photoshop, Maya and after effects. These are three pieces of software that I feel very comfortable using. Animated jobs is a very useful website when looking for work in the animation industry. I have managed to find a job that is aimed more towards what I want to do the job is at Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, they are looking for a set builder. This job includes model making a set and props. The main requirement is to have experience in model making and casting. Once I have gained more experience by freelance work then I will feel more comfortable in apply for jobs in the industry but it is very helpful to see what the companies are looking for.

My main aim is to have a job in model making for stop motion animations. My hope is to join McKinnon and Saunders on their model making team, but before I can do that I am going to need to improve my skills in model making. The main sector I would like to join in McKinnon and Saunders is the concept to model room which is where the modeller create models from the concept art that has been given. These models are unable to be animated and are created in order to get the correct look for the characters. In order to improve my skills in model making I will be spending the summer coming up with various character designs for me to model using lots of different materials such as Plasticine and Silicone. I will be continuing with the freelance work that I have been doing whilst at University, the freelance work that I have been doing is graphic design. The graphic design work that I have already done include poster and invitation designs.

I will be entering various competitions to get my name out there. It will be competitions such as Loop De Loops and 11 second club. I will also be looking to enter my work into festivals. My aim is to make sure that I improve my skills and carry on doing animations whilst looking for and applying to jobs in the industry. Not only will I be entering competitions but I also have a plan to do a short series on YouTube. YouTube is a very good tool to get my work out into the world. The short series is going to be 2D animated. I will also be looking into creating stop motion animations that will be approximately 30 seconds long. The whole idea is to constantly put work out there to get my name into the industry. From my last visit to the Bradford animation festival I managed to gather various business cards in which I hope to keep in touch with those working in the companies. Whilst at the animation festival I managed to speak to Barry Purves who gave me some great advice. His advice was to keep the animations short. It’s all about quality not quantity. The quality of my work is what will get me noticed. So for the next year I am just improving on my skills as well as looking for freelance work.  

 In the mean time I will be looking in to other options if I am unable to succeed in model making.  My main secondary option is to go into 2D animation. This option means I am able to look at games companies and animation companies. I have been learning a lot about sprite based animations, this then enables me to look into games companies as a 2D animator.

Crytek is a games industry that is currently looking for a 2D animator who has at least 2 year experience with Photoshop or painter. They are wanted the employee to have experience with working in a game engine. At the moment I am helping to make a 2D platform game, my responsibilities in making this game is to create all the animations, the animations that I am making are sprite based animations. I am also leading art director and concept artist. The job is in , Germany. I am willing to relocate if I need to. So if I am unable to succeed in the animations industry I am willing to move to the games industry.

Data Scope are also looking for an animator who is able to produce 2D and 3D animations. However they are looking for someone who has had 2 Years’ experience in the games industry. This is something that I do not have. In the games industry they tend to want someone who has already had experience in the games industry. It is a common problem that I come across. I am going to need to gain experience with in the industry to get anywhere. I will look more into junior level jobs first just to gain a bit of experience.

High Score recruitment are currently looking for a junior cinematic artist. They are looking for someone who is interested in film making, photography, have understanding of camera technique or terminology and having Maya experience is favourable. This is something that I could apply for and would help me to gain first-hand experience in the industry. They are not asking for anyone who has experience, this role may help me to learn more about the games industry.

All the jobs related to games, I managed to find on the games industry website. This website is very useful when looking for any jobs in the games industry. They have various roles going ranging from lighting artists to 3D animators and so on. They have various companies who advertise using this website such as Crytak and Big Planet. It is good that I have managed to find a website that has a lot of advertising for jobs that I am interested in as they are there for when I am ready to start applying for them.

I have taken a look into the games industry but my main aim is to be in the stop motion industry, this may be very difficult as there are currently not many jobs going in the area that I want to be in. I will be sending in my show reel to McKinnon and Saunders as they are happy to take a look at artists work and when I visited McKinnon and Saunders they were enthusiastic to see my work, and to see want current project I have going on. Whilst looking for jobs and applying for jobs in the animation industry, I will be keeping in touch with the people who handed me business cards including Mark Shapiro form Laika animations, and Nancy Phelps from Sprocket animations. I will be constantly attending animation and games festivals. As well as entering my work in to them. The main way that I will present my work into the industry is be sending show reels for them to look at as well as directing them to my YouTube channel so they can see the full videos. With my models I will be presenting an online portfolio to show off my best models. My next step is to get on Linked in so I am able to advertise myself as a 2D animator and a model maker. This is something that is very important as companies are always looking on Linked to find the perfect person for the roles going. I have updated my Cv ready to be submitted for jobs, I will be updating my CV on a regular basis and I will make sure that it is updated to suite each role that I am applying for. If I am unable to get any freelance work or experience over a year I will then look to apply for a Masters course in model making. I have already taken a look into the master’s courses going and I am very interested in joining one. However firstly I want to at least try to get into the stop motion or 2D animation industries without need to do a second course of learning. If I am honest I am pretty tired of learning and want to finally get myself out there into the working world. During summer I will be carrying on with my current job to help fund my life style as well as to help fund me making short animations. So I will be working as well as creating animation to help my skill improve. So this is my plan for when I leave University I have two other options if the first one falls through. I am trying to keep myself with back up plans as you never know what will happen. Hopefully my first option will succeed, and I wouldn’t mind too much if it was the second one that was successful instead as I do love to create 2D and sprite based animations. I feel that I am prepared and have given myself a timescale of 1 year to start to gain experience and if that doesn’t work then I will be looking in to the master’s course. 

Jobs in the industry - Stoopid Buddy Stoodios

Stoopid Buddy Stoodios have a job going that is where I want to be working. It is a job doing model making. It is set making and prop making. Something which I love to do. I am unable to apply though as I am inexperienced.The main requirement is to have experience in model making and casting. Once I have gained more experience by freelance work then I will feel more comfortable in apply for jobs in the industry but it is very helpful to see what the companies are looking for. You can find more information about the job here. 

 Images are subject to copyright

Business card

Here I have a finished Business card. I have used the logo that I had created previously, I then added on 2D animated characters. I would have added on the models I have created but they all had a background and I just wanted the characters to be on a plain white background.

Show reel 2015

I have come up with a show reel of all the work that I have created whilst being at university. I hope to improve my show reel throughout the next year whilst improving my skills. I have used my best pieces of work since starting at Leeds college of Art.

Well here it is:

Jobs in the industry - Crytek

Crytek is an independent video game development company. They have worked on games such as Far Cry, Warface and many more. Crytek are looking for a 2D artist who is able to do 2D animation within a game engine, however the are looking for someone who has had previous experience with in the games industry, something that I do not have. The job is in Germany so you must be willing to move, something that I have thought about a lot recently. I can confirm that I am willing to move if it helps me get into the industry. You can find the full details about this job at:
  http://www.gamesindustry.biz/jobs/crytek/frankfurt/germany/uk-and-europe/2d-artist-creative-services-id77014

It would be amazing if you could get into a company like this and have that experience on your CV.

Image subject to copyright

Animating within video games - Flob writing

I was asked to create writing that went along with the game Flob, the idea is to create letters out of the main character. This is to show that the character is literally just a blob that can change its' shape into anything. Here are the sketches I made.

These are the numbers coloured in using the same colour scheme of Flob and here is also the finished writing.

Freelance work - Invitation designs 3

These invitations are for the future client that I was recommended to. This time it was very different I didn't have much art direction, the client had it all planned out. The colour scheme was Turquoise and purple, the client also wanted photos of her daughter on to show how she had grown up. The client gave me step by step of what she wanted and here it is.

Freelance work - Invitation designs 2

This time the invitations didn't have a theme or a colour scheme. I basically got to create something that was appealing and all my own art direction. The only thing that needed to be on the invite was that it is a 50th birthday.

Here is what I had came up with, I didn't create any mood boards as she really was happy for me to use my artistic skills to come up with it.

I decided to go for a black and gold elegant themed as I felt it suited the client.

Freelance work - Invitation designs 1

As a freelance worker I was asked to create invitations that go with the theme of 60s/70s. There colour scheme is to use bright in your face colours.  I first created so mood boards to show the client here they are.

The client like the idea of using a dance floor and like silhouettes to be on them. Here is the final Invitation.

The client was really impressed and she then passed my details onto another future client.

Jobs in the industry - Epica Studios

This is a job for Junior animators. They are asking for someone who knows the main principles of animation and understands them vigorously. Here's what they have asked for

Responsibilities

• Work from storyboard/animatic to create animation sequences as assigned by director
• Strong understanding of the principles of animation, lip-sync, and camera composition
• Complete assigned animation within scheduled timeframe
• Block movements in rough animation, refine and polish to completion in final animation
• Address required revisions and modify shots as requested
• Based on the production schedule and resources available, ensure and maintain the quality, style and continuity of your animation
• Anticipate, communicate, and troubleshoot any creative or technical issues with assistance from key stakeholders
• Actively participate in production-related meetings by offering thoughts and ideas
• Assist with and complete production-related assignments
• Keep current on animation techniques and technology
• Ensure the director’s instructions are carried through Recommend any team training needs to lead animator
• Carry out duties in a professional and positive manner
• Be a positive and creative force on the team
• Degree/diploma in fine arts or animation or equivalent experience an asset
• Proficient in 3D animation packages
• Solid understanding of character posing, character animation lip sync and camera composition
• Able to take direction, collaborate, and be a team player
• Able to communicate in a professional and positive manner
• Able to communicate creative and technical thoughts and ideas
• Able to multitask, prioritize and manage time efficiently
• Able to work alone and collaboratively, often with multiple tasks and under deadline pressure
• Encourage feedback and new initiatives
• Able to adapt to multiple animation styles
• Must be open to direction and able to embrace change

Qualifications

• 1 year of experience in animation or film industry
• Degree/diploma in fine arts or animation 
• Proficient in 3D animation packages
• Solid understanding of character posing, character animation lip sync and camera composition
• Able to take direction, collaborate, and be a team player
• Able to communicate in a professional and positive manner
• Able to communicate creative and technical thoughts and ideas
• Able to multitask, prioritise and manage time efficiently
• Able to work alone and collaboratively, often with multiple tasks and under deadline pressure
• Encourage feedback and new initiatives
• Able to adapt to multiple animation styles
• Must be open to direction and able to embrace change

The information has been gathered and can be found at http://www.animatedjobs.com/jobs/junior-animators/

Jobs in the industry - Great Marlborough Productions Ltd in partnership with Cartoon Network London

The job that is on offer her is a 2D/3D background artist. They are asking for someone who has a strong knowledge of creating a 3D set, someone who can work at a fast pace, confident with photo-realism, comfortable with graphic design and knowledge of real world lighting and photography. 

This jobs is basically for someone who has had experience with using mental rays and is comfortable with 3D modelling. The actual job can be found at http://www.animatedjobs.com/jobs/immediate-start-2d3d-background-artists/

LoopDeLoop - Empathy part 2

Here I have the finished designs and the finished loop.

I have decided to go with a child's toy for the background as it helps to link in with the triangle and square themed.

LoopDeLoop - Empathy

I have decided to do a second Loop De Loop. This Loops theme is empathy. The idea that I have chosen to do is very simple, I have chosen to use a triangle and squares as the characters. The triangle is isolated and alone because he is different from the rest of the group who are all square. One square is empathetic about the triangle and walks over to him. The square takes a piece of himself out to become a triangle to make the triangle feel less isolated. However the triangle takes the piece that the square had taken and uses it himself to join the rest of the group. That is where the loop then comes in.

Here are some concept designs that I have come up with.

LoopDeLoop - Gravity part 2

Here I have a finished character and a finished loop. However I was late so wasn't able to submit the animation. The animation was created in photoshop and each sprite was hand drawn.

Environment 

Character

LoopDeLoop - Gravity

Loop De Loop is a bimonthly animation competition, the theme for the month March/April is Gravity. I decided to do a short animation. Doing this helps me to improve on my 2D animation skills.

The overall idea of the animation is to have a small child jumping on a sofa, in which he then jumps off the sofa and lands on the floor. He then gets back up and carries on jumping on the sofa as ir nothing has happened. That is where the loop comes in.

Here are a few designs I have come up with.

Jetpack Joyride (Animating within video games research)

Jetpack Joyride is a side scrolling video game made for smart phones. It was developed by Halfbrick Studios. The game was originally released for iOS devices but was then released to all the other mobile phone and tablet devices. It is a very simple game, that you just run through the level, the level then gets harder and harder to beat. Once you die you go back to the beginning and start again. The aim is to beat everybody else score. You defeat there score by getting further than them. The further you go the more points you get.

I personally have played this game and is very enjoyable. Once I was told of the idea of the game that I was going to help build, I instantly thought of this one. However in Jetpack Joyride there are no bosses to defeat and it isn't a 2D platform game, that has different levels. The reason why I thought of Jetpack Joyride is simply because of the environment, The background is laboratory themed and has various obstacles such as laser and drones a lot like ours. Not to mention Jetpack Joyride is also 2D sprite based that has similar movements that we are going for.


Images are subject to copyright

Rayman 1995 (Animating within video games research)

Rayman is a platform game series that was released in 1995. Michael Ancel is the master mind behind this game. The original game is a 2D platform sprite based game. This is why I am taking a look into the first released Rayman game because we are creating a 2D platform sprite based game. Rayman is well known for it's vibrant colours used within the game. Rayman was released on Playstation 1, Atari Jaguar, Sega Saturn, Playstation 3, and Gameboy Advance. I am going to be using the a similar colour scheme. Vibrant colours is what draws the attention of young children.

I have been looking into Rayman the 1995 video game. Mainly because of the art style used especially the background. The background has really helped me to get an idea of a forrest background. Rayman has used various different types of trees. This research then helped me to take a look at all the the different types of trees for the Forrest stage in the game.

Images are subject to copyright.

Animating within video games - 2nd Environment designs

Here I have created some environment art for the second stage. The idea of the second stage is to be a Forrest setting. The Forrest setting will have animals like snakes and monkeys as obstacle instead of drones and acid. Here is some of the designs that I have come up with. They are only rough designs.

Animating within video games - Robot Sprite work

Here I have some experiment s that I have been doing with the robots. I have been trying to create a sprite sheet that can be put in the game engine. The sprite sheet isn't finished, and there are changes that need to be done in order to improve the movements. I have done an Idle sprite for the small robot, a Walk cycle and a weapons sprite. They are just very simple movements so I can get used to drawing out sprite sheet. Here's what I have so far.
Here is the idle sprite sheet:

Here is the walk cycle:

And here is the gun sprite sheet:

These are the sprite sheets in motion as you can tell there needs to be a lot of improvement.

Gun

Idle

Walking

Walking on the spot