Position Statement

I am a hardworking and highly flexible person. I work well both as an individual and as an integrated part of a team. Due to my years of experience in hospitality I have learned how to carry out multiple tasks under pressure with ease and how communicate and lead a team successfully. I am exceptionally focused and professional when it comes to work ethics. My aim is to establish a professional role within the animation industry as well as becoming a versatile and reputable practitioner. I have had the drive to become an animator ever since childhood; therefore I have spent 6 years in art school preparing for it. My strengths lie within character design and 2d animation, however I am capable of working in a 3d format.
See work and further info:
https://gretanarbutaityte.wixsite.com/gnanimation

Creative CV

After we had a CV workshop Mike gave me a few notes on my CV and I changed it accordingly. After the cv was put together I figured it would be cool to work on it appearance. Last year we did this, by making your creative cv look artsy. So I looked up how other people go about it-

I liked this one because it's clean and clear. It's not very show off-ish and I always like simplicity however I wish it had something more to it.

This cv is nice because of the little logos, I think thats really cute also the qr code seems like a cool thing, probably worth looking into.

 This cv is very contemporary and you can really feel what the guy is all about. It feels like his personal style is coming through and it does seem like a super graphic designer cv. I also like it that its' very hipster, the way Graphique is spelled,  as well as the talk bubbles.

This cv seems really clean and bright, I like the circular charts for her skills, as well as logos for interests.

Now this one is my favourite, I like line down the middle, it looks very aesthetic and like a time line in a way, also the beautiful little frames around it, really feels like a cv for a fashion job and it would definitely pop out for me amongst other cv.

I figured I would go about my cv the same way I went around my website, I put up my inverted sketches in the background and it looked really cool and animation like. So basically I did the same thing but divided it in two sections- personal stuff and professional info like education, experience-

I did not put my picture on there because I felt like it would just be too heavy for the design, at this point I wanted the cv speak for itself. But overall I am really happy with it and I have already used it while applying for Mother Volcano internship!

Final Presentation notes

Throughout cop I have researched and learned a lot of cool things. I really enjoyed researching what I did because I feel like it will be very beneficial to me later on in my career, animations like amazing world of gum ball or regular show are the shows that inspire me and they are aimed at children, so definitely happy with where cop took me. It was really cool to try something new as well as collaborating with people. But the best of part was definitely getting paid.

 Before and after lille I started to rethink my brand and in general my creative presence. I figured if I applied to a job it would be tricky to send my work, and just in general I needed to be more professional now that I actually have to get out there. Since my waitressing job was getting really bad and I cant afford not to work it was that extra push for me to start looking for something else to pay my bills, so I made a website for my work. AS well as updating my other social media pages, to be more pro active and I figured it would aid my applications in one way or another. I also made some business cards, because lille was the upcoming networking opportunity for me and I wanted to be ready for that. I used the same ident from last year however, I liked it and I didn't want to change it.Extended practice was the most beneficial experience of all this year. I got a chance to set a brief for myself, learn so many new skills and ignite my oldest passion which Is dance.I was very happy that I finally had a chance to create a choreography, and for 2 minutes which takes ages but it was so cool to be back on the dance floor, even though I wasn’t in shape anymore to execute it the way I wanted to myself, I am very grateful I had such a dedicated dancer on my side. She was very patient when I didn’t have a clue of what I was doing as well coming through when I was pushing her.I learned editing, which I knew I had to learn at one point or another, I picked up quite quickly but it made me realize as well what kind of mistakes I was making when filming the footage so at this point it was more creative problem solving than editing.

The animation festival in Lille was definitely the highlight of my year.

I met and hung out with so many amazing people. I made some really cool friends that I stay in touch with to this day.We went to lots of masterclasses and a studio conference thing, it was basically studios from around Europe talking about what they do. And we had Michael Dudok from Red Turtle talking about the movie, it was really insightful and interesting. And the we had like 4 days to create a projection mapping animation. It was really intense workshops and we were grouped up with people from other countries so it was a very interesting collaborative experience. Also we worked in Ankama studios which is a very popular and cool studio in France, we got a tour around it and I was really excited to find out they use Flash. The studio spaces were so modern and nice, I could easily imagine myself working there. And the main event- the screening of the projections on the Lille opera house. It was literally surreal for me, there was a massive crowd and that was the moment it synched in the magnitude of the work we produced and it just highlighted the whole festival for me.

SO in a nutshell I couldn’t have asked for a better final year.

Online Presence and Promo stuff

Portfolio

Showreel tweaks

I showed my showreel to a few people and I decided to update it a bit.Mike advised I would take the jumping cat gif out because its old and it just doesn't work so I figured I change that as well as putting a snip from my final year project-

Visiting Lecturer Bianca Ansems (notes)

Freelance animator, storyboard artist for amazing world of gumball.
Bianca is very flexible in her design and adjust to the brief accordingly. She talked about how flip flopping between what you want to do isn't necessarily bad because eventually adds up. The thing she loves about working in a studio is the factor of team work and on a team you achieve more than you would alone.
Bianca mentioned how sound design can help aid the story in so many ways as
She also talked about what isn't like coming from an unsupportive background. It was very inspiring to hear how she overcame the stigma of artists in her family being discouraged from art. She ran away from her home and sewed her parent when she was 18 then got into arts school. She failed her first year but her tutors supported her through it. She was very inspired by Disney and was motivated to reach that level. She strongly recommend to get into internships because it helped her understand how to work in a team and studio. Bianca emphasized the importance of sound design, she didn't understand the importance of it until she saw how sound design aids building a story as well as color. Color is not just a single selected color on photoshop, it's more lively if it is a mixture of other colors.
When being a freelancer it is important to be your own boss as well as an employee. Take care of your self negotiate good terms and be careful about set budgets because you end up working more than you should. "do good work (be consistent), be good to work with, and meet deadlines". Hire an accountant!! It will save you loads of money in the bottom line. Keep in mind that your dayrate is tax included. Don't take a free job, because exposure is not a payment.
Gumball-
It is a privilege to work with a director that can draw because it makes it a lot easier to communicate design ideas. Gumball was originally supposed to be 3d.
She showed us videos of the studio, writers and how story boards are pitched. The animatic is important because it has to already make a reaction when you show it to other people. It is important not to take yourself too seriously. Also it is important to bounce of each others feedback, it's never personal. Layout is like a door from pre  production to production. Animators work.on top of the layout.
She showed us loads of designs and animatics and told as loads about the animation pipeline.
She advised not to go out there looking how you can get something from someone. Talk to people you actually enjoy talking to, build relationships with people you like.
There is five factors to consider when taking a job:
Money
Satisfaction
Is it a good addition to the portfolio
If it's worth it (deadline/ money)

Never underestimate the deadline you can deliver, always give yourself more time. If the deadline is impossible don't take it.

Mother Volcano studio

Since I was applying for an animation job at Volcano I figured it would be best to research it as well especially since the application seemed to demand some prior knowledge about the studio.

ABOUT MOTHER VOLCANO
"We're a forward thinking illustration studio.
We're an independent creative studio based in the beautiful city of Porto working for clients and agencies all over the world since 2013.
We're a team of illustrators with extended skills.
We approach illustration with an interaction and code thinking to create beautiful, relevant and exciting work.
We will help you reach out, engage and inspire in a hyper connected, tech driven and social world whatever it is you're working on: a new brand, a new product, a new campaign, a new app, a new game or something else that hasn't been labelled yet."
It seems like a very vibrant and innovative studio primarily focused on illustration, however expanding to animation as it seems.The crew don't seem to take themselves too seriously and another cool thing i found out when I looked up the staff there is a Lithuanian girl working there as a junior animator! Her work seems very close to home and fits the studios profile s well-

Creating a Website

After I came back from Fete de l'anim I was really inspired and I got some drive to finally start applying for internships and job. Basically over the Easter holiday I have dedicated at least one full day for job applications. I applied for 2d Flash In-betweener with Amazing World of Gumball. Obviously its a long shot but I decided its better to apply than not. I went through animation jobs, jobs rapido, linked in and applied anywhere I could find. This gave me the motivation to create a website to showcase my work in a professional way. I created my website on wix and it was fairly easy, I used my sketches as background and made it very simple. Picking out what to put in the Gallery was really tricky, the work that I liked wasn't necessarily my best work. I kept asking friend and family what they think so I changed it according to the feedback.

So here is my website:

https://gretanarbutaityte.wixsite.com/gnanimation

Studio Soi

I came across this job of 2d key animator on the amazing world of gumball and it was at studio soi which is in Germany. So I figured I could research it a bit before I applied.

Studio Soi is an independent animation studio based in Germany. It was founded in 2002 by seven animation directors with the aim of developing a longstanding collaboration. During the last 10 years we have been able to build up our ideal working environment in Ludwigsburg, next to the famed Institute of Animation, drawing on a combination of new talents and many years of experience.
Their productions have won worldwide acclaim and numerous international awards and have been watched by millions. Studio Soi have been given the opportunity to work and consult on some of the most exciting projects out there. With a roster of outstanding directing talent working across a wide array of media; including CG, drawn animation, stop frame, mixed media and live-action, Studio Soi has earned itself a reputation for highly creative storytelling, for visual innovation, and for quality in the field of animation.
Studio Soi attract clients who value taking part in the creative process, and we seek to be both a haven and a collaborator for artists and clients who also aim to push their work forward, to explore and create something new.

So I applied for the job because why not? I got a reply pretty quick but I am still waiting for a final verdict, probably since I haven't heard of it since, I didn't go past the first round but worth the try.

Animation Studios: Arcus

Following my job hunt research I decided it would be great to look into studios that I would ideally like to work for and have them on my radar incase any vacancies opened up. This required me to reflect onto my swot analysis. Considering my strengths are within 2d animation and Adobe Animate and one of my weaknesses is that I am easily throw off by challenges I would stay with what I know. This means I would look for studios that specialise within those fields. Fist studio that caught my eye would be Arcus.
"We are a 2D animation studio that creates broadcast animation, promotional videos, video installations, inhouse original content and develops new IP.

We’ve enjoyed producing work for the likes of CBBC and E4, partnered with local and national agencies and brought outdoor events to life with spectacular animation based art installations.

So if you’re after any sort of animated content, be it for Tv, the internet, music videos, games, apps or projections on the moon, or if you’d just like to learn more about us and what we do, then please get in touch."
Their showreel seemed very light, dynamic and playful. This is exactly the kind of work I would like to be doing.

Specialties
Animation, Script writing, Illustration, Animation workshops, Art installations, Story Boarding, Motion Graphics, Character Design, Stop Motion Animation, and 2D Animation

Guillaume Renard masterclass (notes)

Focus Visual Design notes: Outro studio

Outro studio- studio from Barcelona. "we do everything and nothing at the same time" this studio was started two years ago.i really loved their intro because it is very outside of the box, contemporary, and with a cool sense of humor. Their studio is designed to feel like you're at home while you're at work.
The first project was fiubcn.com the theme was revolving around launching a rocket like launching studios and careers. It was sort of a networking event helping last year student be discovered and showing their final year projects and portfolios.
The commercial for Etnia Barcelona  brand. They're approach usually is to find a best solution for the brand. They were asked to create an info graphic but after some testing they realized was not working. Instead they proposed to create a story. They used 2d and a little bit of 3d just to create some more depth to the imagery. During this project they learned how to collaborate with different photographers along the way.
During Outro studio presentation i got this impression that they are a very fresh and youthful bunch. They seemed to have a cool take on their briefs however it seemed a bit bizarre that they could not figure out how to render out 3d stuff with a 2d effect.
Overall a very contemporary studio, and it seemed that the staff really vibe with each other and it would be amazing to work in such a positive environment. The guys talked about inviting other animation studios over to play Foosball and since they're so thoughtful of people having a good time as well getting along with other animation studios it definitely seemed like the kind of people I'd love to work for.

http://www.outrostudio.com/?lang=en

Focus Visual Design notes: Nexus

After the networking event we had an opportunity to see some of the top studios from around Europe talk about what they do. It was very interesting to see these presentations about studios and some of them really stood out out to me as contemporary and very cool. One of them was Nexus studios.
Nexus- is a creative studio based in London and Academy nominated.Nexus does not only do animation but also live action, interactive art so it's a very versatile studio. It's 180 seat studio, it's one of the few studios that the directors work next to and along side everyone else.
The augmented reality project they worked on seemed really impressive given that they worked on it before pokemon go.
The work they showed us was cool but the presentation itself was really funny because something kept going wrong, either the videos wouldn't buffer, which made me think how important it its to get ready for a presentation otherwise it can become awkward really quick and the audience is less engaged
The 1600 project was a huge hit in american news it was an app that you would point your phone in a dollar bill and an augmented reality animation would take you through four Seasons of the white house which was a stellar educational/interactive idea.
All in all Nexus seemed very cool and innovative, it is definitely a studio I'd love to work at.

The Final Projection on the Opera House

Due to me blogging on my phone the whole event and some of the blog posts got stuck in draft mode on my phone I had to screenshot some of it. So here are my notes from the final mapping-

Also somebody filmed the whole event so here it is-

Fete de L'anim: Testing projections on the Opera House

Thursday night we finally had a test screening of our projections. Finishing off the animation was satisfying enough but actually seeing it being projected on a gorgeous opera house was an exhilarating experience. My group was happy with the projection so we decided not to change anything for the opening. It was really interesting to see other groups work as well, some of them were unfinished or needed some tweaking but overall it looked like this will be a great show!

Cocktail Networking Event

Following the final the video mapping workshop we were brought all the way to Valenciennes for a networking event
Unfortunately the career speed dating that took place earlier was not pn our program but we still had a chance to mingle with all of the participants in the aftetparty. During my workshops I made friends with one of my group mates, she was kind enough to introduce me to her boss Fabienne Giezrendanner at Zero de Condute productions. She was a very delightful lady, she works without digital 2d animation as well as me so it was right up my alley! She said unfortunately their not looking for any interns however she would like to see what I'm working on for my final year project. We exchanged business cards and I intend on following up and emailing her to ask her opinion on my extended practice project. Who knows she might pass it on to someone!
It was really amazing to have an opportunity to mingle with other students and practitioners and made me realize how much of a long way these things can take you in terms of job hunting.

Michael Dudok and The Red Turtle (notes)

The writer Michael Dudok from Red Turtle talked about making the movie and he said it was a lot of pressure to not disappoint studio ghibli as well as himself.
He talked about how he wanted the island to reflect how dangerous nature can be. Something that is not very populated, an untouched beauty. As a writer he thinks not in a verbal way but visually, he thinks about the shapes that he wants so hed draw them down, he wanted to explore the beauty of lighting. He wanted to create the attraction of the beauty but at the same danger. He wanted to exploit mud because he thinks it's beautiful, whereas others idea of beauty might be flowers.
The writer explored a new direction, where everything is realistic. But it is very appearant that the imagery is by him so it stayed within his style, because he has a taste for simplicity. The core team of the movie were french, situated in Angouleme, however they recruited people from other countries. When recruiting people they didn't check cvs but instead they tested them on their drawing skills. Other people that were recruited did not feel like they needed to adapt to the style of the movie because it was so natural.
Dudok also talked about how important it is to have chemistry between his crew and that everyone would have the same vision for the project. Appearantly Miazaki was not part of this movie, and Dudok did not hear a lot of reception from Miazaki, only some nice feedback of the integrity. This movie was a major factor of Miazaki coming back from retirement.
The landscape and music translated the characters emotions so there was no need for a dialogue. Dudok emphased how useful it is to use the Internet for imegary research because it can be a great creative stimulus.
In the preparation for the movie, they had to create the whole island just for themselves, helping situate the character. He liked doing research, because it should be a topic of fascination, and therefore it wa not a job but a hobby. Also it is interesting to research something that has not been established yet.

Fete De L'anim: Ankama studios

Our video mapping workshops took place in Ankama studios. I personally have not heard about it before but I have been told that Ankamas video game Dofus is a video gaming phenomenon in France so I was really excited to take a tour around a successful video game studio .Dofus is a Flash-based tactical turn-oriented massively multiplayer online role-playing game. I was really excited that they work mostly on Flash so I immediately asked about internships!
Apparently Anakama does not stop at video games, they make comics, boards games, animations, movies. The studio is very independent and offers many services, they have a 3d printer, printing resources, translators, even a restaurant and a gym! It was a really cool studio space and it was really awesome to see animators at work, it really made me motivated to work in such  studio. Overall an awesome experience!!

(our projection mapping workshops taking place in Ankama studios)

Fete De L'anim: Creative diffrences

Well into production we were given feed back that my animation part could use some more effects like stage lights or something to give it more of a performance feel. As we had a person responsible  for all the after effects stuff as it was his only strength, we delegated his task to him. What he did was put a strobe effect on the whole animation part, which essentially made the animation disappear in an epileptic flashing. My take was to put less of the effect and maybe play around with it, like sync  it with the bass or only during the morphing. He did not understand what I wanted so he told me to do it myself. This made me very frustrated because I ended up doing his job for him. Apparently when I left to go home he changed it back to constant strobe which really annoyed me the next day.
I ended up telling him not to do anything did all of the effects myself. In the end everyone was happy with the end result. I am happy with how the animation turned but I was not happy with my teammates preformace which I made really clear to him. The thing I took from this was that every group project will have creative differences, and it is important to get other peoples opinion before any fight breaks out. Also there will always be difficult teammates or slackers its important to stay cool and your best because in the end you have to put your name under the project.

Fete De L'Anim: Re adjusting animatic

Basically after we finished up our animatic we ran in through the people in charge of the mapping project and asked if we could proceed with production. We also had a teammate added to our group so we had to redistribute the workload, and despite the severe communication barrier (the new teammate only spoke Chinese) we managed to eventually agree on our parts and start animating. In the afternoon we were told that our soundtrack has changed which was actually a pretty big curve ball. We had to re adjust the whole animatic. And work from there. We managed to figure out that the intro was the part that was extended, which was the after effects part anyway, so it was not that hard to come up with some extra content to fill the gap. It was quite difficult to to regroup and there seemed to be quite a bit of confusion in the group about the whole animatic situation which set us back for a bit. The day was really long and confusing and I was just ready to go home as soon as possible and just wrap up a 12 hour work day... The thing I took from it was- when it is important to stay calm and collected when running into any problems, no matter how smoothly the projects goes there will always be a problem. I am just really happy it did not set us back as much as it could have and we got back on track the next day.

Fete De L'anim: Storyboarding and animatic

After our brainstorming session we went on to pin down exactly what we want to do, put it together on a storyboard, then an animatic followed by work flow distribution to each individual. The idea chose was Freaks and since we went through each others portfolios we worked around how to play into each others strengths. Since my signature style is squiggly lines, my team mates decided they wanted to incorporate thatharge o, so I was in charge of the character morphing in the end. The initial idea was having circus performers appear normal but turn into freaks in one way or another. Anita and I put together a quick storyboard for our animated parts, as for the first part would be effects on after effects we left that up to Bernard.

The next thing we needed to do was to put this into an animatic. I put together a rough idea on Flash and my teammates liked it and suggested we stuck with it. The next day I went through the animatic again to make some tweaks and refine it out a little. We had a new team mate join us, and since he did not speak of a word of English it was difficult to communicate with him but I guess its all the more reason to have a good animatic so we could just show him instead of telling him. Instead of having to add more work because of the new teammate we decided to re distribute the workload and since everyone would have a small part, we could focus on the quality a lot more. We had a tutor go through the animatic, he asked us to expand some scenes and shorten some of them, also to change a transition so according to that I re-adjusted the animatic. Now it's just the matter of getting on with animating!

Fete de l'anim: Brief and brainstorming

We arrived to Lille on Sunday night, and first thing in the morning we were briefed and immediately thrown into groups and asked to start working on ideas. The theme for the brief is circus and the point is to create projection mapping animation for a display on the Lille Opera house-

 As soon as I met my team mates I was relieved that there seemed to be an immediate chemistry. We managed to bounce off each others ideas and communicate really well. We were given a music library to pick track from and create ideas based off the music. There was quite a variety of tracks but all of us seemed to click to a specific one. We had a couple of hours to come up with concepts. We first got to know each other and what kind of work we do. I seemed to have a similar animation style as one of my team mates, so both of us specialized in 2d animation and the other one specialized in after effects which could be really helpful for the post production part. So far the project started off very positively and it's really exciting to see what we come up with!

SWOT analaysis

In order for me to pursue a career in animation I need to asses my own strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to create more effective strategies. SWOT analysis is just a good practice as a professional practitioner to keep your self aware of what you should be confident with and what to avoid.
My strengths-
I would consider my strengths to be 2d animation, especially when it comes to using Animate. I am very good at analysing und understanding movement and therefore frame by frame animation. Another on of m y strengths would be character design- creating believable characters and character concept work. I am good at drawing, its a skill that can always be developed further but I am happy with my ability to draw, stuff usually comes out the way I imagine it to, I also have done loads of research on how to draw human anatomy so that would definitely be something I am confident with. I would consider myself to be a sociable person and I get on with people most of the time. I have a thick skin due to my years of experience in hospitality so I am used to complaints and working with difficult people. I can be a really hard worker and I am always laser focused when Im working.

Weaknesses-
Time management is a thing that I always struggle with. I seem t get everything done on time but usually not to a standard I would like to. This means I don't dedicate time to perfect my work. I am not very easily motivated, and I would consider myself to be very tsk oriented. If I have a specific thing that I need to execute in a specific way I will not struggle at all, but when I have an abstract brief or something that is not specifically outlined I will really struggle. Extended practice is proving to be hard in that sense that It is very broad so I keep limiting myself t what I know and I rarely push myself to do something new unless I am forced to. More often than not I take a long time to pick up new skills and I tend to stay in my comfort zone. I can try to be a team player but often times I am more happier working alone. I can be communicative and collaborative but deep down this gives me load of anxiety and sometimes socialising feels like an extra task.

Opportunities-
In order to further develop my drawing skills I could attend life drawing sessions at uni or the Fenton, this would help me to develop my portfolio as well. Networking events could help me use my social skills as well as getting used to socialising with people from my field of interest. This and any collaborative projects might help me become better team player and become less of an individualist. Being exposed to a collaborative workload would just help me to get used to it and make me less anxious about teamwork. Festivals, Animation related events and any pursuit of inspiration would help me become more motivated towards my work whenever I have a loose brief.

Threats-
This one I really struggle with because it essentially juts speculation about what could go wrong. But I would consider my biggest threat would be my competition especially when applying for jobs. Another big threat would be losing motivation. I really fear that I don't have what it takes and would eventually mess up and give up. But that is more of an internal tissue that I would need to sort out with myself.

Job Hunting Strategies

Lately I have been really fired to find another job because being a waitress is fine while studying in uni but I feel like it is about time live up to my full potential. So I did not really now how to start but https://www.animatedjobs.com was a great start. By the time had to fill an application I realised my showreel as well is portfolio is not that strong, in the way that I could confidently show it to a potential employer. But I decided to try anyway, another thing I decided to try out was LinkedIn and I was really amazed with how easy it was to create a cv with it and then apply to jobs. It keeps giving me notifications about potential jobs or collaborations and its a really good way to stay in the game.

Another thing I have learned from my research is to have a strategy and being selective about where you apply. It might be that you do not agree with the companies values or the job might not be what you expect. Its not just the matter of seeing the key word "animation" and then just rushing to the application page. But it is very handy that my living situation is not a factor, which means I can go where the job takes me. I applied to all sorts of jobs/internships around UK. Come to think of it, it does not even necessarily have to be in UK.By this point my main focus is to develop a strong portfolio so I could be more confident when applying for a job.

Business Cards

Recently I have been looking into any business card ideas. Business cards are very important as well as handy because you can hand them to other people so it makes it a great networking tool. But in addition to that business card can be a way to give off an impression of you as a professional practitioner, and you always want to make a lasting good impression. I found a bunch of clever ideas people have come up with to leave a cool business card, therefore a cool impression.

I thought this one was really clever because the creators initials stand for the symbol of gold  from the periodic table and she designed her business card based on that. Makes this impression that her service is so expensive you couldn't afford it!

Business Cards

Recently I signed up to go to Lille Animation Festival which I am really excited about. I figured it would be a great opportunity to do some networking so I finally made some proper business cards. I made the design very simple because I image a business card is just for the purpose of exchanging contact information, as an artist I should leave the dazzle part up to my portfolio. I figure a small animation-themed picture would sum up what I do so I put up a screenshot of one of my current animations with an onion skin layer on to illustrate the motion part of the drawing. I made the typography metallic so it would pop  out a bit more. Also I imagine the business card can speak of how serious you are about what you do so I kept it professional.
Overall I am extremely excited about the business cards and I cant wait to hand them out in Lille!

Lifting Tower Brief pt4

When our work was finally submitted we got to see our the projections on the lifting tower. It was a really exciting experience, and later on it was displayed in Millennium square in front of the german market. Overall it was really cool to get some exposure as well as experience making commission work for a company and working with Lumen. The event was part of a bigger event which involved a bunch of christmas art installations being placed all around city centre so we got quite a bit of coverage. Also we got really fairly paid in the end so I was really happy took party in this brief, basically it was as a beneficial brief in every way.

Daily Doodles

Basically I have been doodling and the other day while being bored Max asked to look through my sketch book. He said he really liked my sketches and advised I'd scan them and put them on social media. I decided I could give it a go-

I was really surprised that it got so many likes, more than I have gotten so far actually, this gave me more motivation to try this daily doodle thing.

So I stuck with it for a bit and it gave me a few more followers and people responded very positively to my doodles so I guess you have the people what they want!

Visiting professional Fraser McLean

Fraser McLean is an animation practitioner running the Animation Centrifuge.
He started off the talk of showing a short out of Who Framed Rodger the Rabbit.
When he was in school he was the only one who moved on to an artistic career because a lot of his peers were discouraged by their parents.
He was lucky enough to go to a school that encouraged art and took it very seriously. He talked about how there is two types of money - clean and dirty, also what it's like working for commercial purposes. He said the three things that are most important are creativity, technology and unfortunately cash, how ever undignified it might seem, but making adverts pays the rent. The best animation is collaborative. As a child MacLean had a chance to cultural events like ballet, Japanese puppet theatre, mimes. His parents were very supportive of him being interested in art. He was fascinated by animation on tv but he didn't have a chance to see Disney. The first time he saw a Disney he was motivated to draw. At his time animation was something clever people did on the other side of the world. Moreover nobody used the planes so travelling somewhere far away was something unbelievable. The reason MacLean teaches art history is because we are going to be the history. And learning from people before us helps us be better. He talked about the painting "an old woman cooking eggs" by diego velazques. He talked very passionately how the settings of the painting is almost alive. There is something really haunting going on the scene, basically he was really influenced by this painting. Drawing is a way of practice, basically he drew all sort of observational stuff, his drawings were really amazing. He we very inspirational when he talked about practicing and getting better at what you like. The drawings his tutors hated, were the drawings that got him hored at disney. He said that the movie industry is a little bit of creativity and a lot of organisation and discipline. You need creativity as the driving force but most of the execution is about problem solving. Then he talked about being a sound effects producer on a movie and how he moved on to Disney and worked on Who Framed Rodger the Rabbit, how complex it was to do levels of shading that would match up with the live action footage.
Overall Fraser McLeans talk was extremely inspiring. It was refreshing to see a professional practitioner so enthusiastic about what he's been doing for years as well as providing so much insight into the industry.

How to be professional

When you have to speak to someone- clear on what you want. Sometimes it's better to get im touch by calling or in person, but you need to consider what suits you. Do homework about where you're applying or who you need to speak to. Let them understand who they are engaging with. Be concise. Flatter them but don't "brown nose" just to show off you did research on them. Tell them what you enjoy but be open to any way in. Subscribe to job boards and respond quickly. Being prepared and efficient is very important. Basically the early bird with a good portfolio gets the job.

Be courteous. You should not demand or expect anything from people you apply to because you're not employed yet. Don't be rude, everyone has a long memory. Be respectful. Politeness costs nothing.

Everyone starts somewhere so learn to make a good cupnof tea if necessary! Internships are easier to find than jobs because it is a way of testing you risk free. Everyone gets rejected so don't be bitter about it.

Lifting Tower Bried pt3

After testing some ideas and making some initial animations we were asked to have a feedback session. Basically all of the groups came together and showed what they had, it was very close to the deadline so it was expected that at this point we had some finalised stuff. Most of the animations I saw were really cool. Mike gave us some really good feedback as well. The feedback I got was to maybe change the transition scene into a Leeds skyline instead of a forest. Mike really liked the snow idea so he suggested to take the same animation but change the attribute into candy canes or something like that and book I'd have a few more animations. He also like the triangle/ xmas tree test and asked to extend the animation on the swinging triangles. We did not have much time to fix everything, so I managed to  make some more snowing stuff animations, I made an additional one as well where I played with snowflake shapes I also fixed the xmas tree/triangles thing like Mike asked-

Lifting Tower Brief pt.2

This is the lifting tower we had to create projections for. We had to take into consideration the building, its texture, the audience and the theme which was christmas.
After all of our workload sorted I just wen on doing tests and playing around with ideas. We were told to use simple shapes and bald colours, so I just played around with those ideas-

So in this one I played around with the idea of a christmas tree and then try to play around with the visuals and see what comes out of it. You can see the marks for the window and the anchor point for the triangles because (again) it was a test. Another thing I did, was some snow. My team wanted to make it a bit more original so they asked me to make the snow flakes triangular.

I also made a quick test of transitions, as it could transition the scenes one from another-

Lifting Tower Brief pt1

Recently we were offered to take part in a paid brief. I jumped at the chance because it kills two birds with one stone- experience and a bonus on PPP. We were briefed on the project and basically we a month to get it done we would work in groups and we would have to create christmasy projections for the lifting tower. It was really exciting because we had an opportunity to work with people from other courses and for me it was interesting to do projection mapping for the first time. The idea was to create tasteful projections because the location of the display would be in a business part of city centre but nothing that children could watch. Also ideally it would compliment the building it would be display on. We were also instructed about the colours, it was recommended to work on dark backgrounds, contrasting bright colours because the projection usually washes down the colours so you cant really see tones or shades. Also it would be a brick building so we need to consider the texture , if the designs are too thin it might distort the image. I was grouped up a bit later on so my group already had an idea they work working around. I felt a bit useless teamwork wise when we were brainstorming because I could bring any ideas to the table, the idea was to play around with some characters like a yeti, penguins, snow  and stuff like that. We ended up deciding on who is responsible for what, so the illustrator dude was responsible for the all of the designs and attributes and the rest of us were responsible for animating. I took up doing fillers, basically transitions between animations, and Lauren and Emma did the main animations.

Networking (lecture notes)

If you can't be found online you might as well not exsist!!
It is very important to put your work out there! Make decisions about how and where to present yourself, where to be professional and where to talk about personal points of view.
Generic template for websites are meh.. Take ownership! Develop a personalised WordPress, Blogger, Twitter and etc.
Make it clear that "I am available form work" it's important to make it clear that i need to get paid and am a professional. Avoid working for free unless it's really really good exposure. Always make sure to put your contacts on the website(s). Make it clear who you want to work with or what kind of work you want to produce.
Make it sort and simple- brief, no waffle. Look at how other people do it. Cross posting, news feed, keep it regular and fresh
SHOW OFF!! You are better than you think. Accept criticism if it's constructive. Get feedback and testimonials from clients and people you work with. Present your professionalism, show off whips, sketches- engage the audience.
Consider who you talking to. Spend some time crafting your posts.

My Academic Year Presentation

 So on Monday bright and early we started off with our reflective presentations about our academic year. From what I gathered during other presentations, is that everyone was freaking out this year as much and maybe even more so as I was. In a way that made me feel better, but then again I felt like if I would have reached out to anyone from the course a bit more and talked about how I had second thoughts about the course it would have helped to know that more or less everyone was going through it. But it was amazing to see what everyone came up with in the end and I really thought a lot of course mates woe took a new direction and their work looked exciting. It also gave me a few ideas on what people I would like to collaborate with next year or even after uni. As for my presentation, I think it went well, I did find repeating myself a few times and getting stuck, but in general I was happy with the way it went and I was not nervous at all. Mainly because I actually practiced it in front of a mirror. I felt a lot more confident talking about my work and I think my presentation skills have improved, but it is hard to say since I did not had a chance to see myself present. When I was rehearsing I thought I used my hands to much and was too fidgety so I kept that in the back of my mind while presenting. Alos I have made super cool letter head so I thought I'd show it off somewhere!

My Ident

I figured an Ident for my logo would be really beneficial because if I managed to create an actual page I would have my logo ident bouncing around in the corner, also I could incorporate it into my animation. So I though I should just go with something that reflects my animating style, which is squiggly lines!! I came with the idea of animating various motions with a random character and using the squiggly lines as a transition from one motion to another and them to my logo. Did not took me that long to make and I really enjoyed it. Can't wait to put it up on my showreel and so here is the ident-

Hunting for Job Opportunities

During PPP sessions we were really encouraged to pursue internships or shadowing opportunities in real studios to get some perspective on how things operate in real life and what is expected of us. I thought it would be exiting to try my luck in it. Realistically I know I don't really stand a chance because I started pursuing a summer job quite late. Last minute actually, but at this point of the year my motto is "at least I tried" so might as well give it a shot. I have researched some local studios and emailed them asking for info on any job opportunities they might have, and so far the search has not been successful because most of the studios have not got back to me, but the few that did said they are not looking for anyone at the moment. I can't afford a week, lead alone a month without getting paid at the moment so I was hoping for some paid internships. But beggars can't be choosers so I would tae what ever I would get just for experience.

So the studios I tried to get in thouch with were- Hungry Sandwich Club, Little Motel Motion studio, Distant Future studio, Teabag, Motiv productions. I tried to contact local studios because my financial situation really restricts me from moving commuting somewhere far away. If nobody gets back to me I will just keep spamming until they do, because I am definitely not looking forward to being a waitress for another year.

Fun In The Sun

So I have noticed recently that my work is mainly sketch work. I figured some a bit more refined work would do my portfolio. I decided to do some kind of a dynamic sketch. I started off with a rough idea-

Once I felt like the sketch was dynamic and and I was happy with it I proceeded onto refining it:

I resided the dog to make it a bit more proportionate to the girl and I have made him facing forward because I wanted to emphasises the facial features of my characters.

The I applied a mask for the characters and started off doing the shadows. Back hen I was making posters with Wing for applied I discovered clipping masks which made my life so much easier. So I applied that to this drawing.

Then I applied a separate layer of high lights incase I wanted to re adjust it and if i did not like it it would be easier to erase. Once I was happy with the colouring I moved onto the background.

I did not want the background to take any attention away from the characters yet help set the action for them. So I figure simple field with couple of trees would do.To finish it off and give it a bit more depth and highlight the characters, for darker contrast I put it some mountains in the back. So here is the finished drawing.