Position Statement: Looking Towards the Future.

This year had a lot of ups and downs, but I honestly wouldn't have changed anything. My college experience has given me the tools I need to excel in the animation industry. Although finishing this, I need to start figuring out what I'm going to do now. Short term wise, I would like to finish my 3D animation as a full 360 degree video. I want to polish how it looks so it will be good enough to put into my show reel, and show it for exhibition week. Along with this, I plan on finishing the commission I had planned with my Swedish streamer friend. I finally have enough time on my hands to finish what i promised him. After the end of year show, I plan to take a trip around Europe and enjoy what I can of this country before I leave for at least 3 years. In the mean time I want to apply as an English teacher on the JET program, which will set me up in Japan. I'm going to keep working on my portfolio and art skills, and hopefully a few years from now my skills will be good enough to get into a masters program at the Animation Workshop in Viborg, Denmark. After that, I intend to push myself more onto the European Animation Scene, or maybe work internationally. I'm not sure yet, life is full of possibilities and I want to be able to live life to the fullest of my ability.

My Year In Retrospect - Year 3

Presentation Boards

Personal Portfolio

Bianca Ansems

Bianca Ansems was a really interesting speaker that came into our school today. Born in Amsterdam, her path to where she is today is certainly an interesting story. What i find most interesting, however, is that when she started out she couldn't decide between what style she wanted to use. I empathize with that a lot, as i never really got a hold of a creative style when i was younger as well. In her words, as a freelancer she likes to adjust her style to suit her and her employers needs. She believes that working with so many styles helps to create a cumulative effect on her skills as an artist. She has experience experimenting with stop motion as a form of animation, but her main source of employment is working at the London based Cartoon Network Studio as a storyboard artist for The Amazing World Of Gumball.
Back in 2013, Cartoon Network decided to pump money into Europe's animation industry by setting up an overseas studio. This is initially where TAWOG was picked up. The format for the show was a sitcom, which differed from most of the other shows running on CN at that time. It had a mixed media approach to the animation, which posed a lot of unique and interesting challenges that the animators had to overcome. She came on board on one of the later seasons.
Bianca gave us some tips on how to improve our storyboard art. She told us to make sure that comedic timing translates across the storyboard. She told us that its good to create some scratch voice recordings for matching with the animatic. She also gave us insight into what goes on in between some of the phases of their production cycle.
She told us about layout, which is a transition between pre-production and production. It sets everything up with 3D beforehand so that people will know how to animate what when they need to.

She also told us about some of the things that go into working as a freelance animator. She told us to trust that work will come to you, but not to get complacent. Networking isn't building a network of colleagues, but a trust network of friends that you can work with. She told us to do good, consistent work, and to meet deadlines, and give more than what is initially asked for. 

She said that we will have to deal with bullshit briefs, and we need to be able to work under those conditions. She recommended that you help guide your client to make smart decisions, but know what battles to pick and when. She said that as a freelancer, you are a company. 

As a boss, you get projects, negotiate with clients, watch, organize, and interact. Make sure everything is in writing. and that your clients know you know how much your art is worth. Make sure you write invoices, and that if they don't pay within 30 days, make sure to follow up or charge interest. 

As an employee, you are the creator, you need good skills, and you need to stay on schedule. You also need to take care of yourself, and know when you're overdoing it. Only ever work with bad clients once. Sometimes you work with day rates and sometimes you work with a budget, but when you work with a budget, make sure your standards are set for the project and you know when to jump ship if need be. 

As a freelancer, you need to get an accountant. It gives an air of profession and it give you more time to focus on work. 

You should register as self employed as soon as possible.

You also need to make sure that when you work as a freelancer, all the members involved in the commission has knowledge of what you're doing. The five big things you need to survive as a freelancer is: a steady source of income, satisfaction in what you do, a good portfolio of work, trustworthy contacts, and proper experience. 

Respect your client, and respect yourself.

Goldenwolf Studios Presentation

Today I was in a lecture hosted by two of the leaders of GoldenWolf Studios. They're an small animation studio based in London, England. They started getting work straight out of university almost, and they've gotten relatively larger since then. They mostly do Contract work and Commercial Work as a source of income. Their studio is relatively relaxed, as one of the aims for the studio is that its workers don't have an ego, and that a team mentality prevails. They strive for the best quality animation they can, not leaving any room for "just adequate" work. They regularly take group trips in order for their animators to have a healthy relationship with each other. They want their employees to be in the mindset that work is play, and play is work, because if you don't love what you're doing as an animator, you probably shouldn't be in the business. A few years ago, Disney XD hired them out to create some idents for their bumpers. They created 20 different show themed idents, all using similar colour schemes and palettes. A method they regularly employ is using 3D as a base for 2D animation. They explained to us that sometimes you will be given very strange briefs as an artist, and that you should roll with the punches and try to make the most out of what they're giving you. Most of their clientele are American, so they got the chance to work with WaWa, an east coast sub restaurant. They made an advertisement for them in the style of Heinz Edelmann, who then proceeded to sue WaWa on copyright infringement grounds.

After they explained the history of their company and clients, they gave us some advice for the application process, as well as how we should conduct ourselves when in the interview process. They told us to apply for everything, dont undersell yourself, but don't oversell yourself either. They told us that we need to help each other out when starting out, and not to burn bridges, as its not a smart thing to do in the long run. They said we need to network as much as possible.

For our show reel, they gave us a list of tips to adhere to regarding the quality of it. "does it look pretty? Is there competence in what youre showing? Can your employer use it with what they want to do?"

They recommended we get an online portfolio, and to e-mail prospective employers and make sure to follow up with them. They said not to turn up to a studio interview without e-mailing first. They said to ask for advice in regards to what you need, and that we are our own brand, and we need to own that. 

Fete D'Anim - Day 4

Today was a really good day. We managed to bump out all the kinks in the animation and got it turned in on time. Tomorrow I'll be taking a day just to decompress from all the stress I had putting this thing together. I couldn't have finished this project without the help of my partners, and all the work they put in as well. We went out drinking after the viewing, and celebrated a successful project. It was really cool seeing my name up on an opera house in full view of over 100 people, and this is an experience I wont soon forget.