I was assigned to a second year, Sophya Kebets. She immediately contacted me via instagram. Her work is very humorous, simple and straight to the point. I was very much excited and nervous to work with her, as I’ve never really collaborated or worked with someone on their final major project.

Initially, we got off to a strong start as we had a meeting straight away. However, Sophya may have had a little bit of a creative block – so I didn’t hear from her until a week after our meeting. Thankfully, in terms of time, the tasks that I was given wasn’t so intensive. So I was able to complete them quite quickly in the last week of simulated work experience.

I think we could have had more conversations about the story, the theme and the overall aesthetic of her final film – but that is obviously pretty dependant on the creator.

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At the start of the 2 week simulated work experience, we set up a meeting on Teams to discuss what needed to be done. Initially, Sophya wanted a one point perspective line drawing. She hadn’t yet decided what colour palette she needed or wanted. The only specific things that she wanted from the background, was clean sharp lines and the size of the background to be 3000 x 1800.

Below is the one point line drawing perspective I sent to Sophya. I was thinking that she would come back with more details to add or something to change – but thankfully she said that it is fitting and I didn’t need to redo or add anything else to it.

I would have like to learn a few techniques, however I feel I would have been more of a hindrance than a helper. I honestly haven’t learnt any new techniques or skills.

The one tip that helped me out was understanding dimensions. Sophya wanted the background to be in a larger scale because she wanted the animation to pan or zoom in. That is something that I have recently learned, not necessarily on the course – but understanding aspect ratios gave me a little bit of guidance.

At this point, we had less than a week left of simulated work experience. She had asked me to collect a few colour palettes, mostly blues and maximum 6 colours per palette. She provided a descriptive reference for the colour palettes:

‘It would be the vibe of a lawyers office, but with creepy ish vibes (maybe more on the blues?)’

The colour palettes below are compiled from what I thought would fit the theme provided. The feedback I’ve been given so far is surprisingly good and Sophya seems to like what I’ve given her so far.

In terms of visual development and background work, I don’t think it completely aligns with the industry standards. Working in background and looking at the overall aesthetic theme of animation, is definitely a role that I’d like to pursue in the future. However, I don’t believe this experience has given me a real taster of what that could be like.

However, the experience was thoroughly enjoyable. I feel I was well matched with a very considerate 2nd year. Understandably, they have just started their project, so I was willing to offer any help in any way that I could.

The success of this collaboration was definitely our communication. There was always a to and fro with e-mails and at times we’d catch up at university.

I wouldn’t say there was many challenges in this experience, as I was very comfortable with the tasks provided. I guess, it was mostly nervousness on my part as I am more confident is certain areas of animation as opposed to others. At the beginning, I wasn’t sure as to what kind of person my 2nd year was and what tasks they would give me.

Taking from this experience, I’d bring hopefully provide a laid out plan of a rough story, some key beats and an initial colour palette. I would like to have a process or a project plan, so I can manage what I would need at specific stages of the timeline.