In speaking with a few people in the industry as well as ruminating over what it is I have enjoyed over the course so far. I think the thing I would like to try upon graduation, at least at first, is working as an animator.
Whilst the ideal would be to work in short form television, I think the best thing for me as a practitioner right now would be to continue developing my skills and knowledge in a studio environment.
I would love to get to a point of being able to tell my own stories and make work that I am passionate about, but I think more than anything right now, I just want to become the best animator I can be and learn from those doing it.
Having seen some of the professional submissions for LIAF, I was blown away by the creativity and skills of the makers. In the Animated Documentary programme, the programme that I directed the sting for, Our Uniform by Yegane Moghaddam (2023) and The Waiting by Volker Schlecht (2023), really inspired me in terms of the quality of their animation, but also the creative choices they made to make their films unique and make the subject matter soar.
Chatting with Eugénie von Tunzelmann, she gave some amazing advice when considering being freelance or working in a studio:
“you will be surrounded by so many amazing people. If you want to speak to a world expert in a specific field then, you know, they probably work with you. An example of this is when we started working on Interstellar, and we wanted to simulate how light moves near a black hole. We had a guy on the team, a hugely experienced programmer with a degree in physics and a masters in lensing of light, so he wrote the code. In some ways the fact that he was on the team was a huge stroke of luck, but that’s the advantage of a big studio – there’s likely someone there who’s got the skills, and you can learn from them.”
This idea of tapping into the talents of the people around you, expected and unexpected, is really exciting. The LIAF project was great because I was able to learn from the people around me, appreciating their individual skill sets and contributing my own. This most recent project, whilst I enjoyed learning new skillsets, felt much lonelier as a process.
ScreenSkills describes an animator as such:
Animators create still images that are played in a rapid sequence to create the illusion of movement. They are artists, actors and storytellers. They know how characters show emotion and have a good, technical understanding of the way things move. They make a believable world through the blend of realism and artistry.
This idea of being an artist, actor and storyteller, really speaks to me. It is something I am passionate about and animation, is the most exciting way I can think of for storytelling. Based on my research over this term, I think the next thing for me to do is network within the industry. Speak to professionals, visit studios, learn who is who and what skills I have that can benefit the industry. Whilst i’m pretty nervous about my next steps in the industry, especially after graduation, I’m also excited to see where I go next and what kind of animator and artist I have yet to become.