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
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.
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