Thursday 9th June, 6pm

So, I randomly saw this event being advertised on Instagram – and thought, why not? I didn’t do any research beforehand as to who was presenting. In the end, I’m glad I didn’t because I was quite shocked that it was a major film producer who had worked on ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit?’, ‘Lion King’ and ‘Pocahontas’.

He transitioned into the animation industry from being a theatre stage manager for several years. Howard stated: ‘An animator has to understand acting.’

Max Howard: What a Producer does?

• PITCHES: Hears countless of pitches day after day.
• BUDGETING: Balancing the creative vision with resources.

‘Choose your medium.’

‘Animation crosses time.’

‘Power of Animation can be used effectively.’

‘Some of the greatest stories do come from source material.’

‘Celebrate your mistakes and failures.’

I wish I could have recorded the whole talk, because quite honestly – it was amazing, and quite fitting. I had previously done a lot of research on roles within the animation industry ‘Animation Areas and Role Exploration’ and I was really toying between being a visual development artist or a producer – and quite frankly, I’d love to be a producer. Max Howard’s CV became the goal! He had worked with Disney, Warner Bros and consulted for a lot more. Bringing organisation and managing a budget to something chaotic like animation production, brings me such joy. It sounds very strange, but I am very much content with being the ‘organiser’. I feel like my own creative juices and visual eye can really lend to the animation production. As for my own ideas, I am very content with just continually trucking along and producing animated short films as an independent animator.

Zoom Chat: 7th June 2022

Our zoom chat was rescheduled a couple times due to conflicting work schedules.

I have to say, after I had spoken to the other creative directors (Steve and Christian) – this conversation was lacking. My conversations with the other director were fruitful, they offered industry advice and commented quite highly on my current work. Both conversations were more of an informal chat – which was absolutely lovely because I could really gain an insight to the animation industry.

However, the conversation with Alixe was quite formal and not very fluid. She wasn’t asking about what I am currently doing now, she asked me about how I found the studio and doing a possible internship there.

So – it very much felt like an interview. She offered me an UNPAID internship where I would have to write a covering letter and a list of things I wanted to learn. She also mentioned that she would be tutoring me in her spare time and name dropped a few upcoming projects. I just had a gut feeling that this opportunity was not right for me at all – in addition to the fact that I do not all advocate for unpaid internships.

I felt that it was a more ‘how can we utilise this person’ than providing them with an experience or entry to the animation industry.

The meeting ended quite abruptly – I passed on the details to people who may want to take up this opportunity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PshWnekDwgw&t=6s

Zoom Chat: 24th May 2022

Over a period of time, I have been e-mailing various animation studios about possible work or internships. And I have surprisingly been receiving responses and offers to have a quick chat over zoom.

Steve Waugh is the Creative Director at Coffee and Tea TV, he moved to London and worked as a runner at Mainframe and then Prime Focus.

We had an interesting conversation about the industry. I relayed to him that I was wrestling with the idea of becoming a producer or a visual development artist. He said that it would be very unique for a producer to have a ‘visual development eye’. So, that made me really reflect. I have a lot of skills and experience in production management, and I love to organise. If that opportunity is in a creative animation setting, I believe I would thrive.

‘100% recommend learning AE. From tech point of view, I’d know that inside out.’

He was very interested in my work and put me on a list to work with Coffee and Tea Media in the future. We connected on LinkedIn.

So, I decided to update my website and do a basic showreel because I wanted to apply to summer internships.

Here is my showreel for this year:

Below are screenshots of my website, I’m still currently working on it:

I wanted something that was in your face and really showcased my work – so I am fully in love with the front page and the simplicity of it. I still have to curate the pages a little bit more, but I feel that when I continue to research how I fit into the animation industry – that will all fall into place.

Summer Internships

I ended up applying to The Line Animation for background work – still haven’t heard back yet – so I doubt, I have got the gig. Other than that I applied to another internship at Golden Wolf – but unfortunately didn’t get that one – so I might apply next year!

After I had pieced together a showreel and updated my website, I was keen to get my work out there. One sad Thursday, I went through a list of 32 animation / production studios based in London. Whether they were on the look out for people to work for them or not – I was still going to send a brief introduction e-mail.

To my surprise, Christian Hopkins (Creative Director of Picturesmith) got back to me. We had a lovely e-mail exchange, he stated that unfortunately internships for this Summer were filled, but – he’d keep me in mind for next year’s internship.

He asked if I wanted to jump on zoom call to get a better understanding of where I’d like to fit within the animation industry. We talked about colour theory – as I am very passionate about colour – and suggested reading: ‘The Secret Lives of Colour’ – as I intend to work in the visual development area of animation. We also talked about the current programmes that Picturesmith is currently using – Adobe AE was a very popular topic and we talked about animating characters within After Effects. He also suggested a free programme called DaVinci Resolve as it is really good for looking at colour grading and editing.

Overall: I’m quite shocked that my introductory e-mail landed me a conversation with a Creative Director that I would love to work for. And even more shocked that he liked my work!

Update: We connected on LinkedIn!

In my previous post, ‘Animation Career Talks‘, I researched various people who are currently within the animation industry. From listening to their talks, I’m gradually getting to grips with the roles – personally, I’m gearing towards the visual development area of animation.

However, I found these videos below – which will shed some light on some animation jobs and what they entail.

The video above was really helpful, as it was a quick run through of a few roles within the animation industry and what they entail.

The Roles + Descriptions

1. Show Runner / Series Director / Creator: Pitches their own ideas to a studio, essentially the director of the project.
2. Director / Episodic Director / Head of Story: In alignment with the overall story provided by the ‘Show Runner / Creator’.
3. Assistant Director: Works closely with the story team, storyboarding and mentoring the story team.
4. Producer / Line Producer / Executive Producer: Making sure the project is running on time, and use of budget.
5. Production Coordinator: Help coordinate logistics and comms.
6. Production Assistants: Entry level jobs, similar to production coordinator – provide the needs for all depts.
7. Writers: Working closely with Director, and write out the screenplay.
8. Script Coordinators: Technicalities of the script, up to date script.
9. Storyboard Artist: Translates the script into storyboarding.
10. Storyboard Revisionist: Adjusting the storyboards.
11. Animatic Storyboard Artist: Help with identifying changes for the animatic.
12. Editor: Timing and pacing, just for the animatic.
13. Assistant Editor: Entry Level, helping editor.
14. Art Director: Overall vision and mood for the story, key concept art – overviewing all of the art dept.
15. Character Designers: Options for the characters, lineups and turnarounds.
16. Prop Designer: Design the props, non living things.
17. Layout Artist and Background Designer (2D): Draughtsmanship of the set. Line work.
18. Background Painter: More responsible for colour.
19. Visual Development Artist: Overall look of the project, draw / layout / colour and texture.
20. Colour Designer and Stylist: Colour keys or Scripts.
21. 2D Animators: Animating the characters.
22. Key Animator: Key frame animator.
23. Inbetweener: Inbetween Animator.
24. CG Modeler / Modeler: Creates the 3D Model.
25. Rigger: Rigs the model.
26. CG Animator: Animating the model.
27. Look Dev Artist: Textures, Lighting and variations of the character.
28. FX Animation: Special Effects animation.
29. Lighting Artist: Make sure the lighting is consistent.
30. Graphic Designers: Marketing Purposes or credits, logos.

Summary, My Top Roles:

1. Show Runner / Series Director / Creator: I feel like I would be competent enough to do this role. However, I am more inclined to be somewhat of a freelance, independent animator / film maker.
2. Producer / Line Producer / Exec Producer: My skills as a project manager would definitely come into play here and I think I’d work really well in this department. However, I feel there is not much creativity within this role – and that’s something I am definitely looking for. Production Assis. + Coordinators are an extension of this role, but entry level roles.
3. Background / Layout / Prop Designer: This role is very much in my ‘comfortable’ category. I think anything encompassing background design would be quite interesting to work on.
4. Visual Development Artist: This is the role that I currently aspire to be in. I love colour, texture and style. This role includes overlooking style and the vision of the animation.
5. Art Director: I think I would thrive in this role, if I ever got the chance to do it.

To really fully understand the roles and areas in animation, I started to research the ‘behind the scenes’ aspect to the animated films that I love and found talks / documentaries of people talking about their experiences within the industry.

LinkedIn Learning Talks

Sharon Ross: 2D Character Designer

Ross’ Definition of Character Design

‘Hopefully you get an idea of the sense of who he is from how he looks, like age, sex and physical attitude, things like that, but also personality traits and things like that. So we start from the script and then, with input from the director, we do designs before the storyboards usually and then after that’s done we end up doing turnarounds of the character so that you can see them from all angles, so the animators know exactly what they’re going to look like.’

Ross’ Take on Getting Work in the Animation Industry

‘… but the thing that I think might not be mentioned is developing your reputation. Your skills and your experience are of course vital for getting jobs but you shouldn’t overlook developing your work reputation. You definitely want to take pride in your work and do the best you can at all times. Communicate openly with your directors or coworkers. You can get jobs on your skills but the personal recommendation is a very important thing. I know that I’ve gotten jobs that way, practically all the jobs I’ve gotten were that way.‘

Ross’s Take on the purpose of Working in an Industry you love

‘So Steven Spielberg walks in, says hi to everybody and just immediately immerses himself in the maquettes. And that’s, what really amazed me was watching him, I could see that he really loved what he did. He was totally into every aspect of it and he was completely relaxed, totally unstressed, even though I’m sure he was being pulled a lot of different directions and it wasn’t about the business of anything it was about the creation of what he was working on. He was totally into every aspect and that really impressed me because I realized that he really did love what he was doing and that it was a great example to me that if I can do what it is that I love, rewards come from that and not only that but to love what you’re doing, when you do it, because that’s where happiness comes from too.‘

Lindsey Pollard: Supervising Animation Director

Pollard’s Role as an ‘Animation Timing Director’

‘I’m the last person to touch the show. Basically, anything that moves is my responsibility and I supervise a team of people. There’s two timers and then there are two people who are revisionists. What happens is, after the boarding stage, we work from tracks, so we listen, we spend most of our days with headphones on listening to the dialogue. We’re responsible for matching the dialogue to the movement. Of course, we’re looking at the storyboards and the animatic and we’re basically merging the dialogue with the storyboards and just making sure that anything that moves is moving exactly as it should.‘

‘I’m allowed to supplement whatever is not in the board. Secondary characters, or I think anything that’s going to add to the action in the board, that’s what my job is, is to just supplement. Not detract from the action, but to add to it.‘

Pollard Take on Working during a ‘Layoff’

‘…whenever there was a layoff, I would go and work at other studios, because I’m not one who likes to be idle. So I would go and work at other studios and pick up freelance and so that’s when I got a break working for Rough Draft Studios. I got to work on other projects at Rough Draft during the downtime, and then I would go back to “The Simpsons” for nine months at a time, and then work for three months at other places.’

Pollard’s Take on Job Opportunities and Networking

‘…and so what’s happening is, people are starting to look for work elsewhere, and I find, what is really inspiring is that there are job opportunities that are coming up, and instead of people hiding what they know, people are sharing what they know. Have you heard Warner Brothers is hiring, and there’s opportunities at Bento Box? I know that somebody’s starting up a new show within the studio. Have you talked to this person who’s in charge? I’ve got this job here and I would love it if you would come and work with me. The information is shared amongst everybody, which is really, that’s a positive thing, you know? As opposed to when a show shuts down, there’s that feeling of dread of like, am I going to be able to stay? What am I gonna do next?’

‘Just in general, people within the industry are incredibly friendly and the great thing about Nickelodeon, and I think any of the studios that I’ve worked at is that you can befriend people by just basically saying, “I have questions, do you have time? “Can you answer these questions for me?” I think that you have to make the effort and you have to follow up, because it’s very easy to knock on the door, but then you have to follow up, because people within the industry are busy and I think the longer that the industry lasts, the more schedules get tight.‘

‘There are always people coming through in tours and friends of friends who are interested in the industry and the ones who come back and get jobs are the ones who are persistent and who are very clear about what it is that they want to do. They ask the questions and they follow up.’

Pollard’s Tips and Tricks

‘Everybody’s always moving forward. I think, in terms of somebody who wants to be an animator, or somebody who wants to do what it is that I do, I think it involves a lot of focus. I think it involves somebody who likes details. I think that… you need to be ready to accept the fact you’re going to make mistakes. I think you need to be prepared to take direction. You have to be patient because you do the work, and then you don’t see it till three months later. You need to go back and redo some of the work that you do. You need to look for a mentor. You need to accept the fact that somebody will often redirect what it is that you’ve done, and you may have to redo it.‘

ScreenSkills Talks

Ruth Ducker: Series Animation Director

About Ruth Ducker

Ruth has worked in the animation, film and TV industries for 19 years. After working as a runner, her early production art roles included being a layout and previsualisation artist on TV shows Tractor Tom, the New Captain Scarlet, as well as the Norwegian film, Slipp Jimmy Fri, and the Academy Award-winning short, Peter and the Wolf. After this she worked as an art department designer and then an animator on a number of preschool long-form shows, progressing to become animation director on Jungle Junction for Disney Junior and then Boj for CBeebies. In 2014 she took her first series director role on Floogals for Universal Kids.