Marion Strunck

Background

Marion is a German animator that focuses on creature and character animation. She started off in Framestore workshop in Denmark after attending a small university that focused on mostly 2D animation, and few days of 3d animation which was based mainly on teamwork. University focused on cartoon-based animation.

Images taken from her blogspot.

Life After Uni

After university, she worked on her reel and made sure to have realistic pieces as the industry looks for those. After final year in university, she applied to many companies but got no replies back from any of them, that of course didn’t stop her as it shouldn’t stop any of us 🙂 After visiting FMX festival to network, she got feedback on her reel. People who review he work later called her offering an internship at their studio! This just shows that you should never give up and opportunities are everywhere if you put yourself out there. She worked on 2014 Paddington working on animating the pigeons and was kept on after the film was made. Two years later ILM contacted her and she has been working there for four months so far.

Schedule and Workspace

• Mostly it’s 9-6 regular hours.
• Receive a brief from a scene supervisor.
• Look at a lot of previs videos for reference and usually blocking stage is already completed for them.
• Daily meetings.
• Hierarchy is different as there’s a lot of supervisors.
• Multicultural industry with varied experiences in animation.

Projects

Work to Marion comes from model studios, sometimes big companies run out of time to finish their work do they send it odd to smaller studios. In London, industry has a lot of studios – pool of people and have many connections – help each other get jobs. Great job if you like traveling because there are many studios

Visual effects

People don’t realise how much time and effort is needed to produce visual effects and polish the shots. It can take anywhere from 3 weeks to 3 months for one shot. You need a lot of patience with that kind of industry. Always put the stuf you enjoy doing the most at the beginning of your showreel or mention it on your resume. The recruiters will give you more of the jobs you enjoy doing. Find out what stuff studio has done before, what films they’ve made and your favourite things they did. Know anatomy of creatures since it tells a lot about how the animal moves, when you finally understand the realistic you can begin exaggerating movement to make it more stylised .

Showreel

It’s important to know all traditional principles of animating. Even if you do a simple exercise the supervisor can see your skill set straight away. They like to see action shots, weight shots, mechanics. Best method for getting better is analysing the animations you actually like, then download it, draw over it, block it and analyse the poses. Follow people whose work you like e.g. start by searching on Vimeo, find out what they do now and how they do it. Most people are passionate in this industry so they would be willing to answer your questions.

There’s no rush and it okay to make mistakes. Animation is all about learning and learning should be fun. Always upload your work online, people will get talking about it. Create a stir! Get noticed!

Class Questions

What are the differences between uni work and industry? – Progress was immediate after getting into a studio since you’re basically forced to work.

When you were applying, what do you think employers were looking for? – For an up to date reel, it’s enough to have 3 amazing scenes, in visual effects it’s important that quality is extremely realistic. Feature animation is 90% acting, poses, character.

What do they wanna hear on interviews? Your knowledge about upcoming projects, how passionate you are about it. Make small connections with the industry.

Is 2D needed? – No, but it’s good to know principles of it.

BYOA

Marion also mentioned an awesome event held in London every month called ‘Bring Your Own Animation’. It’s where a bunch of people bring their animated pieces together and critique ones work. It would be awesome to have something like this in Belfast. It seems like a great opportunity to share your passion and get involved in networking.

 

 

 

Gerard Dunleavy

Introduction

A talented concept artist as well as an incredible matte painter and a VFX artist joined us today on a Skype session with the class. It was amazing to see how a previous student of our lecturer climbed upwards to become such an inspiration today.

Mulbury

Akira Squared

Nest Discovery

The Force Awakens

Images from Artstation

For this session it was a little difficult to hear what Gerard was saying due to bad internet connection so the words were getting cut off so I tried to focus on what he was saying rather than typing everything out as he spoke.

Background

After secondary school he took year off since he wanted to do a semester in Scotland but decided against last minute. Instead Gerard watched films, did a lot of painting/drawing trying to figure our his niche.

Starting off as a web designer, he knew he was more interested in 3D and visually based art. At the time there were no courses based on such thing so he stuck with things that were the closest to his taste. At the time, 3D softwares were just popping up, therefore there were no tutorials covering such subject. Gerard bought his first Maya book to learn tutorials from it as there were no other sources available. He completed his masters degree with Gregory and has been working with BBC for 2.5 years. In 2012 Richard Smith – a Scottish screenwriter, was working on a short film later turning it into a feature. Gerard was contacted by him and it turned into a full blown production. His job was to render and model which kept him busy throughout January up until May.

Current Status

His current job involves being an environment technical director and a matte painter – painting and figuring art problems. He also works with character design, organic design and is currently working on Assassins Creed this year.

Surprisingly when visiting California he was afraid of his work being not up to par but seeing others’ work he felt that he was much better than previously thought. When Gerard gets work he sketches based on his first impression of what the given task should look like. Having had looked at zero references in the beginning guarantees that he will have at least one drawing dine by the end of the day. Research can be overwhelming at times and you might not even begin drawing once you get sucked into it. I think this is sound advice not to get crammed with ideas and draw afresh and original piece before all else.Biggest regret is not doing enough life drawing in the beginning. Even drawing people while you’re on the bus/train, coffee shops etc.simply drawing people in general is a useful technique to train.

Showreel and General Advise

Keep them short and sweet with best work at the start since employers will know your skill set within the first 20 seconds.

Do the thing first that will have the most impact on the final result. Write down how much roughly it should take to finish and even if you’re not done within that time frame, go on to something else. Come back to it with new energy!

Laura Livingstone Skype Session

Introduction

Today we had another Skype session with a talented senior producer from Armagh who is currently based in San Fransisco but also has an office in L.A. Her job involves a lot of corporate work and she has many features on television. Claiming that her job is about crossing the boundaries she practices untraditional work flows. She currently works for Industrial Light & Magic.

 

Background About Her Journey

Even after 15 years being in the same industry, there’s always something new to learn. She began her education in DIT in Dublin studying communications in television and film which relied on hands  on experience. Her studies lasted for 4 years and straight away she got working as an intern focusing on documentary production, television shows and production coordination. Laura did most of her learning as she traveled, in Northern Ireland she traveled along side producers to study funding aspects of the industry, different levels of producers, i.e co producers, executive producers. It’s also an important aspect of the job to find suitable locations for the crew for projects as well as skilled workforce.

 

Time in United States

Transferring to Los Angeles – the heart of film industry, she started as an intern since she had to start at the bottom each time she moved countries. Over the course of 2 years, there were over 10 on going projects that never got completed. She felt impatient and decided to take the plunge once more and moved to San Fransisco.

 

San Fransisco

Going to San Fransisco looking for advice, she met with people who were based in L.A. and got advice to return and expand her education. She learned about post production, Shake and After Effects softwares that were used at the time. Learned how to manipulate pictures in post production process which she absolutely loved. Being an impatient person, post production meant that the work will eventually get finished and you would be able to see the final result.

As an intern she worked in visual effects sector which was 6 years ago. Iron Man 2 was her first ‘big girl’ job. It was amazing to work in an animation department with 15 talented animators at the time. It was a truly hands on experience as you learned on the job and she didn’t even need any animation courses (hiyoo) to oversee a project. She relied on artists and animators to explain their work process in order to explain how to arrive at that point.

 

Glimpse Into the Job

 

Most of her time she spends making sure everyone has everything they need since it can get tense and anger may arise within the workplace. It’s difficult to be productive if their space is not set up, it means a lot of downtime might occur and delays travel down the line until all department are affected. Most of the issues arise simply from miscommunication. This causes most problems (people saying it’s taking longer than I thought/I didn’t think I needed to mention it) some people sit and stew causing tension. Producers don’t like surprises – she can’t fix the problem it if she doesn’t know about it.

 

NIM Labs

NIM is a browser-based management tool which helps in tracking the post-production pipeline from the beginning to the very end. It holds similar characteristics to Asana that my team and I use. NIM takes care of an entire studio, you can assign tasks, it’s great for data management and communication, helps you to keep and eye on deadlines. Laura uses this to project out financial reports and shares information directly with the clints so they can comment on the work as it’s being produced.

 

What is Laura Looking for in a Resume/CV

Industry awareness; know what everyone is doing. When you’re applying for a position you should know about their work and especially about the stuff they’re currently working on. e.g “Oh I’ve seen you’re starting this project! I think I can bring x,y,z to the table” -make a little connection!

It’s important to have some sort of experience written on your Resume. Be aware of new releases/plug-ins. Get mentoring whenever possible and remember that people are much more generous with their time and advice than you might think. Alway try to contact people and make connections and surround yourself in an industry environment wherever possible. Don’t be afraid to reach out even if you get rejected, there will always be someone willing to help.

Software– can this person use it? Does this person have what we are looking for. She will check where they live if they’re available on short notice. Check if they worked with the studio we know – how’s the person?  When she needs an artist she looks for them herself based on connections; doesn’t have time to deal with hr and appointments. Internships help to get the foot in the door.

 

Class Questions

Lorna– When you first started knocking on doors what do you wish you knew then that you know now? She was surprised how generous people were, wishes she wasn’t as shy at making connections in the beginning.

How do you find the balance between work, family, friends, etc? It’s still is a struggle, she tries to find it every day, she’s good with other people’s time but she never done it seriously for herself until she had her daughter. Had to restructure her time so everything is managed before she leaves to go home. It’s a demanding industry but priorities change over time.

Rebecca – How do you find it juggling couple of different projects at the same time? It’s still difficult to get used to different people’s skill sets/way of talking. It’s difficult to explain to clients the work produced because they can’t see it – they get nervous. It’s just a matter of getting yourself in the zone.

 

Some Last Words

Always keep in mind that your boss/people you work with got different education. They might not know what you know and vice versa and their methods may differ from yours. Surround yourself with smart people who know what they’re doing and best of luck!

 

 

 

Carlos Huante Skyping Session

Images taken from http://www.carlos-huante-monstruo.com

For this Skyping session, we had an opportunity to connect with Carlos Huante; an innovative designer. His work mainly focuses on  creatures and other organic living things. Situated in L.A., our lecturer managed to book a talk and give us a glimpse into the works and life of a talented designer.

 

About Himself

From a young age he knew that he always wanted to do drawing. Since it’s such a wide subject, he in a way winged his career as there was no space for him; no grand plan. Being artistically competitive by nature, naturally he wanted to be the very best at what he did. His desire to bring classical drawing to all of his work sparked an interest to work in an animation section. Some of his work can be seen on television so I reckon he’s living the life he was striving for.

 

Community College

There being no direct labels at the time, he was actually a designer from the very beginning, even if he did not know that at the time. Carlos attended community college to see all the artists at work in there. Seeing how poor it was at the time, he decided it was not challenging enough and there’s no opportunities for him to get anything out of it. Afterwards he attended an art center and took a life drawing class. After befriending a nice fella who worked on He-Man series, he managed to end up as a runner doing layouts.

 

Job Opportunities

Ruby-Spears hired him to draw chipmunks for Alvin and the Chipmunks.  It was a fun project  and Carlos still considers his first drawings to be just as valuable as his current creatures. He landed himself a job the following year as a designer for Ghodtbusters animated series and he was just twenty years old at the time!

Later on he met a guy, who knew a guy who introduced him to another guy who hired him while he was still working on the series because one of the designers left. At the time he was an illustrator who managed to hold two part-time jobs and even preparations for marriage at 24!

 

Final Words

Since our lecturer trailed off of the conversation and Skype began to get choppy, it was difficult to maintain a flow in the conversation. He mentioned a few pointers of how he usually asks for a script a week before starting on the project to have some time to marinate. There has got to be a structure in order to be creative. It’s difficult to create a piece without a foundation since you’ll end up grasping at straws and begin to create mediocre work. It’s important to at least know the background and environment, for example, a creature so your personal touch can be added  but you will also have a sense of direction – a feeling of completion.

 

 

 

 

Talk presented by Niall Carlin

Double Jump Studios Talk

As part of our learning in Creative Enterprise, there is obviously going to be small tasters of what it’s like to be part of a creative enterprise. We had a talk by Niall Carlin, an entrepreneur who talked about his journey in how he started off as an ambitious student to Double Jump Studios creator and owner. His studio is situated in Belfast; a possible work placement option, so I was all ears.

About His Company

It’s a motion graphics video production company that specialises in helping the clients form a strategy in creative work, present the content in best light, producing videos in various formats, i.e 3D or live shoot and also giving advice and ensuring that the content is produced though appropriate media channels.

Lucky Generation

Although we live in the world where everything is available at our fingertips, it has some major downsides when it comes to creative work. There’s unlimited resources available online and in theory, everyone is able to learn technical skills making the competition greater. People have similar skill sets to you making you less special and unimpressive. It’s hard to stand out when things such as design, 3D animation and photography can be learned by anyone with motivation and free time. Your learned skills become less valuable.

How to Stand Out?

General rule is to be better than the competition and find your own niche to stand out. Buckle up and learn the stuff no one likes; design theory, colour, typography, composition etc. It’s important to learn the skills that cannot be learned based on a tutorial. There’s no step by step solutions when it comes to creativity nor is there a correct answer to a creative brief.

Follow Someone You Admire

You need a hero! Even the best artists and animators have someone they admire and strive to be like. It’s nice to compare yourself to someone with a superior skill set once in a while to get a wakeup call on how rubbish your work is compared to theirs. Naturally you’d want to improve to get to their stage. Everyone has to start somewhere and it’s alright to create ugly stuff before it starts improving.

Infamous Gap and Jobs

Even if you follow your hero, he is also constantly following someone better than him which creates a gap between you two. You may get to his level some day but he’s on a journey too. However, if you’re happy enough with your skill set and refuse to attempt in closing up the gap – you won’t get the job. There will always be someone who is willing to work harder and willing to improve.

Practice

All day every day, one step at a time. It’s important to put your work out there for critique even if you’re uncomfortable. Each step should be treated as a learning experience. Criticism is good for creating thick skin until it turns into a leathery hide. It won’t be possible to land a job if you can’t take criticism and and learn from it since it will happen all the time. Join a community of same interests and share your work with others to gain feedback.

Deadlines

You have to be realistic when it comes to deadline completion. There will be times where you must sacrifice your abilities to make the result better with limited time. If you try to perfect it – it won’t get done. Time is the budget in this industry and it might rule your creativity. Time management skills are essential to learn as well as learning to work with a team.

Ask Why Not How

Technical skills can be learned while creative ones are of utmost value. How the creative decisions were made is more important since technical skills are already readily available.

Don’t be the Best

It might sound weird as most successful people constantly chant at how you should always push yourself to be the best. It’s easy to fall into an ego trap while in reality your learning stuff is sloping down and you end up not pushing yourself anymore. It’s important to always keep your brain occupied and learning from others. Put yourself in challenging places where you know the least. Move on when you’ve reached your peak because your skills will only progress by being challenged constantly.

Be great. Know people. Be cool.