Thursday, 24 May 2012
One Sugar Please
Milky Tea! I recently discovered this great company that has only been going since 2005, who's style and general work is really fantastic. It all looks so tactile and natural yet with a great cartoony feel to it. They support the advertising and entertainment industry producing creative print, moving and interactive CG work. Working with some major brands including Sony, the BBC, Lloyds TSB (who's style of advert I love) and specialises in 3d character design work. It would be such a great opportunity to work here and something I think that I would be suited to, however they don't produce as much animation, mostly just the stills to advertise. Which wouldn't bother me that much as I could animate in my spare time :)...I hear you laughing, I don't think I'll have much spare time either! :p
Canada...That's viable right?
Well I have been hankering after working in Canada for a while now, they have such a great atmosphere there and scene for arts and have always been at the forefront of animation. I have looked into a couple of schools there as I feel my skills could greatly benefit from a whole school focused on animation and full of passionate and hardworking people who want the same as me. I have looked into VanArts and Vancouver Film School, hooooowever...they come at with fairly hefty price tag. Just a one year course can cost as much as £20,000 o_O I know I know it's a ton of money but I can dream can't I?
I posted an animation on here, just before Christmas I believe, that I really liked the style of and so I did some diggin'! It was called 'Ormie' and produced by a company called ArcProductions, who are based in Toronto Canada and specialise in CG animations and special effects. They have worked on animated features such as Gnomeo and Juliet, 9 and Hoodwinked. If you head over to their website and view their reel, it'll give you a better idea of what kind of work I like, including their stories and animations styles. It really inspires me to work harder and up my game, with a view to moving there in the years to come. This would be towards the end of my action plan, as it is kind of my life goal for now to work in Canada.
I posted an animation on here, just before Christmas I believe, that I really liked the style of and so I did some diggin'! It was called 'Ormie' and produced by a company called ArcProductions, who are based in Toronto Canada and specialise in CG animations and special effects. They have worked on animated features such as Gnomeo and Juliet, 9 and Hoodwinked. If you head over to their website and view their reel, it'll give you a better idea of what kind of work I like, including their stories and animations styles. It really inspires me to work harder and up my game, with a view to moving there in the years to come. This would be towards the end of my action plan, as it is kind of my life goal for now to work in Canada.
Website research and a little help from a friend
Upon finishing University I am going to create my own website to host all of my work. I plan to get as much drawn stuff up there as possible as this is quite important as I have found that a lot of modelling jobs and animating jobs require you to be a good artist with a sound knowledge of the human anatomy. Which coincidentally I have some basic knowledge of as I did human biology at A-level, which included some anatomy...
Anyhoo I digress, I have spoken to one of my friends who has just completed a graphic design web-based course, where she created a few websites and is quite fluent with Dreamweaver. Thus, she has agreed to help me out when making my website. This is definitely going to be invaluable help as I wouldn't know where to start with something like that.
Right now however, my blog is doing me just fine, and now that I've had a vimeo account for a couple of months my work is getting out there and across all of the social media platforms.
After speaking to my web design friend, she suggested that I first find a relatively cheap web hosting site and see if the domain name I want is available...preferably www.robertbeard.co.uk or .com. Apparently I shouldn't really go for the cheapest as they can be less secure and people can hack into the website and edits it themselves...that would not be cool! It's pretty cheap and easy to do this part anyway, no more than £20 from a domain registering website.
However I need to speak to her a little more before I feel confident enough to just buy it and begin making the website...she also needs to free up some of her busy schedule to do this too.
Anyhoo I digress, I have spoken to one of my friends who has just completed a graphic design web-based course, where she created a few websites and is quite fluent with Dreamweaver. Thus, she has agreed to help me out when making my website. This is definitely going to be invaluable help as I wouldn't know where to start with something like that.
Right now however, my blog is doing me just fine, and now that I've had a vimeo account for a couple of months my work is getting out there and across all of the social media platforms.
After speaking to my web design friend, she suggested that I first find a relatively cheap web hosting site and see if the domain name I want is available...preferably www.robertbeard.co.uk or .com. Apparently I shouldn't really go for the cheapest as they can be less secure and people can hack into the website and edits it themselves...that would not be cool! It's pretty cheap and easy to do this part anyway, no more than £20 from a domain registering website.
However I need to speak to her a little more before I feel confident enough to just buy it and begin making the website...she also needs to free up some of her busy schedule to do this too.
Wednesday, 23 May 2012
Job Sites
Over the past couple of months I have joined a handful of job and media websites in a hope to improve my chances of finding a job.
The first I joined was AnimationBase, this has a great range of CGI jobs from modellers to animators and even producers and directors. I have found that there are a lot of junior jobs posted here recently and I intend to apply for as many as I can now that I have a showreel! I had been holding back as they all require this but I didn't have any work good enough to go in it until recently.
ProductionBase is more of a live media website, where it hosts jobs for working in television from more of a journalistic or film-making approach, but every now and then have something creative on there, so it's always worth a check.
CreativeHeads.Net is a great website where they focus only on advertising solely for video game, animation, VFX and software/technology jobs. I find it's a great place to start when job hunting as it leads you to many companies' other sites.
JobRapido has been the best site I have found so far however, once you join you can setup 3 different keys words for the site to look for and you get emails everyday with new jobs that are being advertised. This really keeps it fresh with new job opportunities falling into your lap all of the time. I find it really useful and view it every single day. I have book marked about 10 jobs so far that I think I may be qualified for, and now that I have a showreel, again it's time to get applying.
The first I joined was AnimationBase, this has a great range of CGI jobs from modellers to animators and even producers and directors. I have found that there are a lot of junior jobs posted here recently and I intend to apply for as many as I can now that I have a showreel! I had been holding back as they all require this but I didn't have any work good enough to go in it until recently.
ProductionBase is more of a live media website, where it hosts jobs for working in television from more of a journalistic or film-making approach, but every now and then have something creative on there, so it's always worth a check.
CreativeHeads.Net is a great website where they focus only on advertising solely for video game, animation, VFX and software/technology jobs. I find it's a great place to start when job hunting as it leads you to many companies' other sites.
JobRapido has been the best site I have found so far however, once you join you can setup 3 different keys words for the site to look for and you get emails everyday with new jobs that are being advertised. This really keeps it fresh with new job opportunities falling into your lap all of the time. I find it really useful and view it every single day. I have book marked about 10 jobs so far that I think I may be qualified for, and now that I have a showreel, again it's time to get applying.
Sound
We spent all day today laying the sounds into Premiere and we are very happy with how it is so far, Mario and Jud are also happy with it but have suggested some improvements for the general feel of the sound. We are going to tweak these tomorrow and add some sounds they suggested, which we folio-ed ourselves this afternoon. This was much quicker than trying to find some ill-fitting sounds from the net.
All that is left now is to finish my action plan and to paint the boards in uni, the end is near!
All that is left now is to finish my action plan and to paint the boards in uni, the end is near!
Games Animation? Don't mind if I do
As I have progressed through this course I have taken an interest in games animation and wondered if this was a route that I'd like to go down. My brother is a games animator and has quite a lot of contacts within the industry so having a talk with him would be a great place to start. I have been looking at companies like Eurocom, Travellers Tales Games and Blitz Games, as I have noticed they had a few junior/graduate level jobs going. In anticipation of this, I have got hold of 20+ hours of tutorials for the Unreal Game Engine UDK. With this I hope to expand my knowledge of gaming animation and what is possible with the limited power of consoles these days.
Eurocom is a games giant based in Derby, they have worked on titles such as Crash Bandicoot, Golden Eye and Mortal Kombat. Realistically I could only apply to be an animator there, as they have very strict modelling poly counts that I have not been taught how to stick to efficiently. However I think it would be great fun and a great challenge to be involved with such a big company. I would be able to learn from a variety of people and really expand my knowledge. However it doesn't seem to have the close-knit intimacy of a smaller studio. This could lead to me getting lost in a corporate giant of a games company.
Located in Knutsford (not too far from my home town of Crewe) is games company Traveller's Tales. They have more recently made all of the Lego series from Star Wars to Harry Potter and Indiana Jones. These games have a great pace and can be played by any aged audience. Whilst predominantly being a games company Traveller's Tales has a TV animation branch and have produced a childrens' TV series called 'What's your news', currently airing on Nick Jr. UK, Nick Jr. Australia and other channels and has achieved great success in Canada. Being part of a company that I grew up with would be great, as they made a lot of the games that I played as a kid. I could also learn a lot from them as I obviously know little about games but have some knowledge of animation.
Rockstar Games has studios all over the world, predominantly in the UK, Canada and NYC. In the UK there is a studio in the North in Edinburgh where they currently have a few vacancies going, however I don't really feel qualified to do these as they are asking for experienced animators who have animated specifically for games before. This is things like walk cycles and run cycles or any other sort of cycle that will loop and always come back to the same position, enabling the cycles to blend seamlessly in between on another. However I am going to start practicing things like this so that I can increase my knowledge a bit more and all practice is good practice :)
Eurocom is a games giant based in Derby, they have worked on titles such as Crash Bandicoot, Golden Eye and Mortal Kombat. Realistically I could only apply to be an animator there, as they have very strict modelling poly counts that I have not been taught how to stick to efficiently. However I think it would be great fun and a great challenge to be involved with such a big company. I would be able to learn from a variety of people and really expand my knowledge. However it doesn't seem to have the close-knit intimacy of a smaller studio. This could lead to me getting lost in a corporate giant of a games company.
Located in Knutsford (not too far from my home town of Crewe) is games company Traveller's Tales. They have more recently made all of the Lego series from Star Wars to Harry Potter and Indiana Jones. These games have a great pace and can be played by any aged audience. Whilst predominantly being a games company Traveller's Tales has a TV animation branch and have produced a childrens' TV series called 'What's your news', currently airing on Nick Jr. UK, Nick Jr. Australia and other channels and has achieved great success in Canada. Being part of a company that I grew up with would be great, as they made a lot of the games that I played as a kid. I could also learn a lot from them as I obviously know little about games but have some knowledge of animation.
Rockstar Games has studios all over the world, predominantly in the UK, Canada and NYC. In the UK there is a studio in the North in Edinburgh where they currently have a few vacancies going, however I don't really feel qualified to do these as they are asking for experienced animators who have animated specifically for games before. This is things like walk cycles and run cycles or any other sort of cycle that will loop and always come back to the same position, enabling the cycles to blend seamlessly in between on another. However I am going to start practicing things like this so that I can increase my knowledge a bit more and all practice is good practice :)
Tuesday, 22 May 2012
Pack up and ship out, I'm heading South...or am I?
As part of my research I have been looking all over the country at animations and games studios, and have come to the conclusion that I would happily relocate to any job that I got. I am still young and have nothing really tying me down at the moment so I vastly increase my opportunities.
One of the companies that I looked at in the South is the London-based Framestore, who often have a lot of junior jobs going and specialise in a lot of areas of television and design. They produce a mostly digital and CGI work in the form of commercials and advertising, which is another area that interests me. This is due to the shorter turn around for these projects, allowing you to keep your work fresh and not get bogged down in a very long term project. They pride themselves in producing photo-realistic content that can be viewed anywhere, regardless of the file size restraints.
Framestore also produce feature animations, with their most widely acclaimed being 'The Tale of Despereaux' and I would absolutely love the opportunity to work on something like that.
Another London-based company that I found interesting is Blue-Zoo Animation Studio, who again produce a lot of commercials and specialise in CGI. They produce great digital work for channels like nickJr., BBC Three, The Disney Channel and others. Their style and renders are what interest me the most, how their characters and sets all look so tactile. Learning how they do this would be so interesting and such a great experience
Framestore also create a lot of series work for childrens' TV. They have recently had huge success with a series called 'Tree-Fu Tom'. A kids TV show based in a magical forest that aims to get kids up and active. The main character does this by getting the audience to do the moves with him as he channels the magic of the forest to achieve whatever he needs to achieve in that particular episode. It's a great idea in a format that is recyclable.
They currently have a 6 week Maya Generalist/Animation Internship position available for up and coming Maya animators that I am going to apply for, now that I have my showreel and CV finished. This starts in July and has been up for a few weeks so I'm sure there will be a LOT of strong competition!
Studio AKA are also a London-based company that I find great inspiration from. I look through their work, as I like perusing all of these sites, hoping my work will one day be as good as theirs! They are a multi BAFTA-winning animation company known for their innovative work.
They produce a lot of really wonderful stylised work, again work like commercials and short feature films. You'll easily recognise their work like the Lloyds TSB and Green Flag adverts. In terms of feature films, they have produced some great work in Varmints; telling the story of one small creatures struggle to preserve a world in danger of being lost forever through recklessness and indifference. Another fantastic piece is Lost and Found, which tells the story of the journey a young boy takes, when approached by a lost penguin to return him to his rightful place.
One of the companies that I looked at in the South is the London-based Framestore, who often have a lot of junior jobs going and specialise in a lot of areas of television and design. They produce a mostly digital and CGI work in the form of commercials and advertising, which is another area that interests me. This is due to the shorter turn around for these projects, allowing you to keep your work fresh and not get bogged down in a very long term project. They pride themselves in producing photo-realistic content that can be viewed anywhere, regardless of the file size restraints.
Framestore also produce feature animations, with their most widely acclaimed being 'The Tale of Despereaux' and I would absolutely love the opportunity to work on something like that.
Another London-based company that I found interesting is Blue-Zoo Animation Studio, who again produce a lot of commercials and specialise in CGI. They produce great digital work for channels like nickJr., BBC Three, The Disney Channel and others. Their style and renders are what interest me the most, how their characters and sets all look so tactile. Learning how they do this would be so interesting and such a great experience
Framestore also create a lot of series work for childrens' TV. They have recently had huge success with a series called 'Tree-Fu Tom'. A kids TV show based in a magical forest that aims to get kids up and active. The main character does this by getting the audience to do the moves with him as he channels the magic of the forest to achieve whatever he needs to achieve in that particular episode. It's a great idea in a format that is recyclable.
They currently have a 6 week Maya Generalist/Animation Internship position available for up and coming Maya animators that I am going to apply for, now that I have my showreel and CV finished. This starts in July and has been up for a few weeks so I'm sure there will be a LOT of strong competition!
Studio AKA are also a London-based company that I find great inspiration from. I look through their work, as I like perusing all of these sites, hoping my work will one day be as good as theirs! They are a multi BAFTA-winning animation company known for their innovative work.
They produce a lot of really wonderful stylised work, again work like commercials and short feature films. You'll easily recognise their work like the Lloyds TSB and Green Flag adverts. In terms of feature films, they have produced some great work in Varmints; telling the story of one small creatures struggle to preserve a world in danger of being lost forever through recklessness and indifference. Another fantastic piece is Lost and Found, which tells the story of the journey a young boy takes, when approached by a lost penguin to return him to his rightful place.
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