Local Companies

Local animation and illustration companies

After deciding to move back to Hertfordshire at the end of this year researching local companies to Newcastle didn’t seem like a great use of time because it wouldn’t apply to me as much.  I want to gain my experience locally if I can and local for me I would say stretches into London so companies within London are what I looked at.  The mill, Framestore and studio AKA were the big names that initially came to mind.

Framestore

Framestore are mostly a postproduction company that works with other film, FX and animation companies. They are based in central London as well as having branched out to Montreal, Los Angeles and New York.  They have worked with lots of big company such as Galaxy, Pepsi and they are currently working on Iron man 3. The work they do is very well known and always has a very perfect finish to it. Not necessarily the way my work looks and my style but to be able to work for/with a company like this would be such a dream and the experience I would gain would be invaluable. The work they do I think would also expand my portfolio and skillset massively because they use of a lot camera trickery and compositing techniques that we have touched on in the course but I’m not especially confident in using the methods, and Framstore use these skills to a very high standard so watching and learning the skills from them would be a great experience.

The Mill

The Mill like Framesore are a leading company is visual effects, their clinents are also very well known for example IKEA, Lucozade and Old Spice, and the work they produce is often of a similar style and quality. They have also branched out into America in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago and their UK base in central London so they are a very similar company to Framestore in general. So being so similar to Framestore the massive amounts of experience and skills I would learn would be very similar too so the Mill is another Local Company I would like to work for.

Studio AKA

Studio AKA again are London Based and are located in the center around Soho but they differ to the other two companies in their work. Studio AKA are an animation company with a variety of directors that produce work for adverts but also personal work. They are innovative and having a variety of directors their animations vary in style and content and I think this makes them a very versatile and successful company. The be able to work for or gain experience with Studio AKA would be incredible to see how these directors work from ideas to completion and how the animation industry itself works. They do also have US representation so they are branching out but they have seen most of their success in the UK and won lots of awards for their work including BAFTA’s. I first knowingly saw a studio AKA animation at the Pictoplasma festival in berlin and it received a round of applause and for me stood out as the best thing I saw there. Seeing an animation from a company that I enjoyed so much means it would be great to able to meet and network with the people responsible and gain valuable industry tricks and skills.

Blue Zoo

Blue zoo are another BAFTA award winning animation studio based in central London. Their work is not something I knew a great deal about before visiting the website and taking a closer look at their work. They seem to deal mainly corporate based work but a lot of it is in different styles I really like. Their work for animal planet in low poly was something I particularly liked, as low poly is something I have been experimenting with myself.  They also work in a variety of mediums, 3D, 2D, mixed media and motion graphics, and this is something I currently do and I think gaining experience with this company would allow me to continue to develop all the areas of my skillset.

Seed Animation

Seed animation is another central London based animation company with what I found to be a very impressive show reel. They seem to have a small staff base, which makes me think a lot of the work is outsourced but as a company they have quite a specific cartoon like style that was evident throughout the show reel. Another impressive animation company that I would love the gain experience working with.

Passion Pictures

Passion Pictures are yet again a company situated in the center of London but the style of personal work is different again, I would describe it as retro and vintage. The style of the work is often washed out colours and grainy filters to either mimic or give the impression of old footage, a style that I actually really like as I found it different from what other companies are offering and producing. The style of their commercial work was more in keeping with what I have seen in other companies. The commercial clients like the Mill and Framestore are big names for example they produced all the animations for the 2012 Olympics, which is one of the most watched things on TV. Unlike Framestore and the Mill though they produce animated work as well as quality post production and film editing so more of an all round company and this is really appealing for me because the vast amounts of skills they posses and would be able to teach someone like myself would be endless.

After looking at these animation companies that are leading the way in London it gave me a real sense of what I’m aiming for and what the viewing public and clients are looking for. I’m definitely going to pursue gaining experience with these companies and getting in contact with them even if its just to find out a little bit more of their workings because learning about the industry is what I’m focused on doing. 

Just something that made me smile

HeatWave from jim billy wheeler on Vimeo.

Business cards ordered

got my business cards all ordered today and I'm happy with them and happy they're done. I'm looking forward to having a card to give out to people too and it feels like its all coming together for the end of the course.

i got some stickers ordered too, mostly because i like stickers but they'll be good to advertise myself with too. 

reviewing my skillset

 After looking through the skillset website and reading up on jobs in the 3D animation section I feel I have a better understanding of what’s required and what I want to do. I looked at the 3D sector because I feel it’s what I’m best at, what I enjoy the most and where the future of animation lies. I looked at a variety of jobs from runner to director and although it’s early in my career I have a basic plan for what I want to do.

Looking at the runner role I think its where I want to start, although it can be a job that needs no qualifications I think I would be more comfortable easing in with this sort of job rather than trying to strait away become an assistant or apprentice because I could learn about the industry and how it works because although I’m confident in my animating skills and understanding its working in industry and the skills that requires I need to learn. 

After looking at being a runner I looked at animation assistant and production assistant, the jobs are quite different in terms of how much animation or visible input I put into a project or companies work but they are the same level and would be the next step for me after being a runner. Being an animators assistant is something that with my skills at the moment and with my enthusiasm for the animation production side of things would better suit me at this moment in time but saying this I do have an interest in the production and parts of the editing process so after spending a year or two as a runner and seeing these parts of the industry I might want to go down that route. Also going down the producer route is something I think would be easier to use the skills I learn to produce for TV and film whereas I think the animation would limit me to just animating.

After being an assistant I would then want to go onto being an animator/producer/editor with people working under me, having one of these jobs would make me feel like I had achieved my goal and I had a job that I could be comfortable in staying in for years to come, its hard now to say because I wont know until I’m there. After taking interest in these jobs I’ve realized that I want something quite broad that encompasses a variety of tasks and works along side other jobs as appose to a very specific role like modeler or render supervisor.

Becoming a director is something I don’t know a lot about apart from experience is needed, its not a task I would want to take on now but it is a career goal I want pursue, being a director is something In my mind I consider to be a massive job and having almost complete creative control is appealing.

In conclusion I want to work in the industry, being a freelance animator is something I feel I would do on the side but having a steady job with a salary is something I want. I also know that I want to work my way up, learning as I go, I know it will take a few years to do so but I think patience and years of experience is something I’m going to need in this industry. 

My strengths and weaknesses

I think at this point in the year my strengths lye in my digital work, my 3D work is now my best work which is a change from the beginning of this year when i wasn't as confident in the program. My other digital work like after effects editing, photoshop and illustrator are all at a good standard too, i want to improve them more but those improvements will come in time. My weaknesses i feel are my drawing skills, my original ideas and my time management. Im good at deciding how I'm going to manage my time but actually following my time plans is something I'm not so good at, this discipline is something that i've seen slowly improve over the year but my discipline is something i really need when I'm going to be going into paid work. In terms of my drawing i do recognize i'm not as good at drawing as i could be or should be but I'm working on improving it by doing life drawing and sketching more just for the sake of sketching. I think original ideas is something that just comes to you though and what I'm doing to work on that is watching more animations on Vimeo and trying to look at more artists work in order to get inspired because inspiration is vital to produce something decent. Im happy though with how my skills have improved over the last 6-12 months and how I've worked on my weaknesses because i have seen an improvement in all of them.

reflecting on the year

With hand in only 2 weeks away i've started to think about this year and the course as a whole and how its met expectations. I started the course not really knowing what i was getting myself into i was just enthusiastic and ready to get going, i soon learnt that the course was a lot broader than i thought and the work that i could possibly produce was too. My first year i was really just finding my feet and learning programs id not worked in before or wasn't confident in but this year has been a lot faster for me in terms of developing my skills. This year my 3D work has improved massively and my confidence in cinema 4D is pretty high at the moment and this is something i attribute to how the course is set out and how I've been guided and decided myself what i want to do in terms of work after the course. I think a job in 3D or post production is going to suit me best and I've improved my skills according to this, and according to what i enjoy. This year i've also done some work experience and started applying to jobs and i put this down to confidence in myself and my abilities and this confidence id say has been the best part of my year. This year i've also done group work, followed briefs and undertook the task of creating a short by myself from scratch and this has all just been adding to my portfolio and improving my skills.   Ive also been trying to improve some of my other skills like my drawing and digital painting something i wouldn't really of had the time or patience to do in the first year or before the course. So i feel ready to get myself out there and get into industry now and its just a matter of getting my portfolio to the best it can be to do this.

inspired for text - only god forgives

this si the trailer for only god forives which ive watched a few times, i really like the imagry from the whole trailr but the main thing ive been looking at is the neon text used, i really liked it and wanted to do something simialr for my final show title. So i started playing around on cinema to see if i could recreate it and im close, i still need to get the lick flickering to get it more realistic and the text isnt crisp enough in my opinion, a better font too maybe but have a look

nearly finished

i made the image even darer to make black dominate the poster and added a grain to take some of the crispness away from the picture but keeping those lights i liked so much, i went with white font like my research advised me to and i even tried to make it authentic with some condensed text at the bottom, its not quite finish and i don't think its quite there yet in terms of being a poster but I'm happy with my layout and how far its come from just modeling a street corner for the sake of it.

Gangster poster

This first picture is after looking at the dark moody posters of other films i deiced mine needed to be the same, i was really happy with how my light faded off into the background and the strong shadows i got. This picture before i made it a poster is some 3D work i'm really proud of and shows off my modeling skills and ability to light a scene, skills i don't feel i had coming into this year and doing projects in 3D and just generally playing around with cinema 4D has allowed me to develop these skills and become really confident in 3D

this is the first rout i took in creating my poster, the godfather and scarface posters both had a style similar to this where colours were flat and objects were only separated by black or white, in this case black. i liked this look but the only thing i felt i lost with this edit was the lights, i didn't like how they changed and after flicking between this and the original i could help preferring the original.

Street corner - gangster stuff

After i started modelling that street corner i posted a picture of a little while ago i decided i wanted it to lead somewhere and what it was really making me think of was early to mid 20th century gangsters and gangster films. What really came to mind with gangster films was the posters that go with them and how iconic some of them have been so i decided to have a closer look at a few. 

The first ones i looked at were some gangster classics like the godfather, scarface and goodfellas 

The colour schemes are the first things that hit you, they are all dark with the main feature being black and white, good fellas slightly different to the other two because the picture is less edited and other colours are visible but this is i think is because goodfellas is more modern than the other two films and posters of that time (90's) were all of a different style. With the godfather and scraface though just 3 colours were used, black white and red, and this are now famously identified with these films and the genre itself so if i was going to create a poster then these 3 colours may help me be effective in my work. 

The next posters i looked at were for gangster series id watched at those were sopranos and boardwalk empire. 

These two shows are at opposite ends of the time scales with sopranos being set in modern america whereas boardwalk empire is set in the 1920's, these time differences obviously effect the content of the postes but that domination of black is still there and the use of white features in both posters with white text from boardwalk empire which was becoming a pattern. the lack of red in the boardwalk poster i put down to the content of the show, the show is based around political aspects and the gangsters and characters are not solely italian like the other films so i think the red is more of a sicilian/mob colour than just a gangster colour. 

A couple more posters i looked at were the departed and the untouchables 

these two films are gangster and mob based but also followed characters from the other side of things and in these films you found yourself cheering for the good guys this i think is why the posters differ again from the others. The white text is still being used, red is used in the departed poster and both posters are dark and moody but they feature on a good/guys as well as the mobsters. the untouchables poster is also similar to the goodfellas poster and this i attribute to the year it was made(87) as much as i do the genre because as i said posters from similar times share characteristics. 

A lot of research for just some ideas but it really got me think for my poster. 

amazing 2d work

2013 Updated Reel from Kyler Spears on Vimeo.

2d although not usually my cup of tea i really do appreciate how impressive it is, this reel/short rough animation from a student is really good, the personality and expressions he gets from his characters is so good. His drawings aren't too complicated which allows him to use all the principles of animation to really add that realism to his work, worth a watch.

Just scrolling through vimeo

Demo from MAUMONT on Vimeo.

just checking out some stuff on vimeo and i found a demo reel i really liked from maumont. the animation is has a purposely rough hand done look to it although a lot of it looks to be done digitally, the main thing i liked about the reel though was how funny it was, some of the character conversations had me grinning and there was a character walk that i found really funny, this element of humor is something id love to bring to my work because being able to make people laugh is a real skill with animation.

some great simple animation

Adobe- CMO Explainer from VeracityColab on Vimeo.

this animation to explain adobe really caught my eye because its simple yet interesting, the colours are basic shades of white and grey with a red ball that really stands out, this use of colour proves you don't need the most complicated palette to make an effective animation. The idea itself is simple but has complicated elements and well thought out timing makes it an enjoyable little watch and it seems quite realistic where they've shown gravity.

artist inspiration - mcbess

after doing some screen printing i decided to look at some artists that worked in black and white and also printed themselves, the real stand out for me was mcbess, an artist i first saw when i went to pictoplasma in berlin and fell in love with his work strait away. His style is so defined and unique to him and his way of colouring characters and environments is so smooth, i browsed his work and found a few bits i really liked, the first being a screen print which really puts mine to shame.

time plan for the final 2 weeks

19^th- finish blog and get it up to a hand in standard

20^th- piece together progression file

21^st- finish progression file

22^nd- create storyboard and animatic for work based and create time plan for live brief

23^rd- creating artwork for printing

24^th- printing

25^th- creating live brief animation

26^th- creating live brief animation

27^th- piece together portfolio

28^th- finish any portfolio pieces

29^th- work based evaluation

30^th- creating show reel

1^st- write up portfolio pieces and evaluation

2^nd –finalizing any last bits for hand in

3^rd- handing in 

Final print....for now

heres the print i ended up with, i'm happy with it too, a few things i want to change if i did it again like making it line work cut out of solid colour which is something i saw a lot of at the studio and really liked, id also try and incorporate another colour but all in all a good first go i think. for next week im going to try something a little more complicated with 2 colours to try and produce a really nice print for final show. 

vinyl cutting

heres some pictures of the vinyl cutter in action cutting my banana logo out, then it being picked out in order to create the stencil, the stencil is then stuck onto a printing screen and its ready to go, theres a picture of the screen after we're done with it and just some of the many prints that we produced as a result.  

some screen printing pictures

heres a couple of pictures of heating up the screens once they've been coated in the emulsion, once the emulsion has dried after about 20 or 30 minutes then they are ready to be exposed onto. this was the technique that we used to do leo's prints but mine were done using the vinyl cutter. 

Screen printing

Yesterday me and a couple of others went to a studio to watch some screen printing and do some of our own, it was great fun and really interesting to learn, made me want a little space of my own and definitely got me thinking of all sorts of ideas i want to do with my work. the process was quite simple to follow but theres plenty to go wrong if you dont take care. The thing i liked most about the printing and the prints was the handmade rough finish it had, no 2 prints were the same and that really made it a unique way of doing things rather than just printing something out. We did both exposure prints and used a vinyl cutter to make a stencil to print with, both techniques had there pros and cons but it was the vinyl cutter that got me thinking about the things that i could do with stickers so thats given me some ideas for next week when we're going back.