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-