During this week of free periods I decided to go to the Manchester animation festival per Annabeth's recommendation. I decided to attend two of the Animated answers sessions at 11:00am and at 12:30pm, I felt this would help me get some guidance on some doubts that I was having on the future of the course.
The first panel of animation experts were Tom Box of Blue Zoo animation, Cliodhna Lyons of brown bag films and Bill Gordon a director from Brown bag films. During the Q&A session I was fascinated to learn that Lyons had a degree in comic book artwork and had travelled to places like New York and went to other countries to learn new art styles and stories. I was feeling rather inspired by this.
The topic of the talk was which size studio works best and from some of the questions asked by the audience I learned that the size of the workshop doesn't dictate an animators social life and if it was small you couldn't very well hide and you would learn to socialise with other members of your team. Tom Box told us that even a huge hit studio can originate from a small group of people just as it did for him back in his college education.
I was beginning to wonder if someday I would be part of a group that turns into a big studio and perhaps it put my work in the creative collaboration module into perspective.
One element that Lyons brought up was about the software she used and how some have similar characteristics, elements and tools. This to me felt like the similarities and differences between clip studio and Photoshop. As others asked questions, I was feeling a little nervous to ask any questions, but I decided to pluck up courage and decided to ask about how you want to start a project but for some reason you couldn't seem to start it. However the session ended and I never got the chance. However what I learned from this was that you have to make something happen as Lyons said
"If there's nothing happening make something happen constantly make new work." I was feeling inspired by hearing these words and it helped me gain insight.
The next sessions talk was on switching specialisms, which to me was an important topic of interest. Stephan, a student of our group recently asked me about what I wanted to specialise in, my three main topics were 2D, Stopmotion and Concept art. However I was having difficulty choosing what to approach as I have a fascination with all of them. I felt perhaps this would help me gain insight.
The panels on this topic were Matt Palmer of TT Games, Adam Redfern a freelancer and Dave Dekeser of Brown Bag films. In introducing themselves I was more intrigued by Dave's story who did art purely for himself and liked to enjoy the freeness of life but could quickly get bored so he decided to focus more on his artwork.
This I felt I could relate too as I wanted to do animation but could get bored of it at a young age and decided to focus on perfecting my art style and work on mastering my knowledge of digital painting. While I take my work seriously I myself like to enjoy the freeness of life and sometimes my interests change over time.
Palmer from TT talked about before game engine animation he was interested in stop motion puppets and he advised that we just kept going on what we wanted to pursue and have fun with it. However they also suggested if we did our work too quickly we would have to do reshoots much like a live action film, this spoke to me in terms of my 2D animation work hence why I try to take it slow.
In terms of switching specialties the panel experts advised that we should pursue as many areas of the industry as we could as it helps to have knowledge of this such as story boards or perhaps even Maya. I felt this placed the modules of Animation 101-103 into perspective as it was trying to get us to learn different medias of the animation industry.
One element that Adam Redfern explained was how a personal story told badly could in fact look good on our portfolios, which to me didn't make sense but I couldn't question an experts logic. One thing I took away from this when switching specialisms is that whilst you miss doing what you did, you start to love what you've done in another specialism.
Dave said to us "The more you convey in a small amount of time the better you'll learn about the industry." Which did seem to tell me that the more work I do on different subjects the more I will learn about a particular area of industry.
Looking back I would think attending theses sessions helped me gain insight into some concerns and thoughts I've had about my animation course and the future beyond it. I was beginning to see the benefits of attending these festivals and what I could learn from them. I will consider looking at attending more of the festivals activities and see what else I can learn from them. However I do also need to consider the time I need to do my module work during this free week more specifically the dialogue performance exercise.
In hindsight I should've asked my questions sooner in the sessions so I would get more advice and knowledge, if I wasn't so nervous. In conclusion I rather enjoyed the Animated answer sessions and will look at attending more festival activities. In future I shall ask more questions at these sessions and be more confident in asking them.
The first panel of animation experts were Tom Box of Blue Zoo animation, Cliodhna Lyons of brown bag films and Bill Gordon a director from Brown bag films. During the Q&A session I was fascinated to learn that Lyons had a degree in comic book artwork and had travelled to places like New York and went to other countries to learn new art styles and stories. I was feeling rather inspired by this.
The topic of the talk was which size studio works best and from some of the questions asked by the audience I learned that the size of the workshop doesn't dictate an animators social life and if it was small you couldn't very well hide and you would learn to socialise with other members of your team. Tom Box told us that even a huge hit studio can originate from a small group of people just as it did for him back in his college education.
I was beginning to wonder if someday I would be part of a group that turns into a big studio and perhaps it put my work in the creative collaboration module into perspective.
One element that Lyons brought up was about the software she used and how some have similar characteristics, elements and tools. This to me felt like the similarities and differences between clip studio and Photoshop. As others asked questions, I was feeling a little nervous to ask any questions, but I decided to pluck up courage and decided to ask about how you want to start a project but for some reason you couldn't seem to start it. However the session ended and I never got the chance. However what I learned from this was that you have to make something happen as Lyons said
"If there's nothing happening make something happen constantly make new work." I was feeling inspired by hearing these words and it helped me gain insight.
The next sessions talk was on switching specialisms, which to me was an important topic of interest. Stephan, a student of our group recently asked me about what I wanted to specialise in, my three main topics were 2D, Stopmotion and Concept art. However I was having difficulty choosing what to approach as I have a fascination with all of them. I felt perhaps this would help me gain insight.
The panels on this topic were Matt Palmer of TT Games, Adam Redfern a freelancer and Dave Dekeser of Brown Bag films. In introducing themselves I was more intrigued by Dave's story who did art purely for himself and liked to enjoy the freeness of life but could quickly get bored so he decided to focus more on his artwork.
This I felt I could relate too as I wanted to do animation but could get bored of it at a young age and decided to focus on perfecting my art style and work on mastering my knowledge of digital painting. While I take my work seriously I myself like to enjoy the freeness of life and sometimes my interests change over time.
Palmer from TT talked about before game engine animation he was interested in stop motion puppets and he advised that we just kept going on what we wanted to pursue and have fun with it. However they also suggested if we did our work too quickly we would have to do reshoots much like a live action film, this spoke to me in terms of my 2D animation work hence why I try to take it slow.
In terms of switching specialties the panel experts advised that we should pursue as many areas of the industry as we could as it helps to have knowledge of this such as story boards or perhaps even Maya. I felt this placed the modules of Animation 101-103 into perspective as it was trying to get us to learn different medias of the animation industry.
One element that Adam Redfern explained was how a personal story told badly could in fact look good on our portfolios, which to me didn't make sense but I couldn't question an experts logic. One thing I took away from this when switching specialisms is that whilst you miss doing what you did, you start to love what you've done in another specialism.
Dave said to us "The more you convey in a small amount of time the better you'll learn about the industry." Which did seem to tell me that the more work I do on different subjects the more I will learn about a particular area of industry.
Looking back I would think attending theses sessions helped me gain insight into some concerns and thoughts I've had about my animation course and the future beyond it. I was beginning to see the benefits of attending these festivals and what I could learn from them. I will consider looking at attending more of the festivals activities and see what else I can learn from them. However I do also need to consider the time I need to do my module work during this free week more specifically the dialogue performance exercise.
In hindsight I should've asked my questions sooner in the sessions so I would get more advice and knowledge, if I wasn't so nervous. In conclusion I rather enjoyed the Animated answer sessions and will look at attending more festival activities. In future I shall ask more questions at these sessions and be more confident in asking them.
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