Alex animating

Why this industry interests me 

I am drawn to this type of role, working within a team with an ongoing series and partially because of my work style, I need a team to help keep me on track, and gaining feedback and advice from other higher or lower in the industry is always helpful. Another reason is that many animator grow attached to or fond of the characters, series animation more often than not indie animation series’ gain a following that provides a community around that show.  

How the pipeline works 

The pipeline works like most animation pipelines, with a 30 minute episode taking 3-5 month to create end to end depending on the style, complexity of the scenes and whether there are any delays. Episodes often overlap in production keeping studios busy however this means any delays in any place in the pipeline holds up the whole rolling operation. 

The skills needed  

The specific skills needed for a recurring animation show or series are consistency, being able to create consistent drawings and actions, so that it doesn’t become confusing for the viewer. This becomes difficult for new animator joining a series halfway through and having to learn about and understand the characters, how they move and think, and they be able to match their animations to past ones. Storytelling is also a big part of series animation, with the incredibly fast turn around, writing, storyboards and animatics and to be made quickly and be able to get across the plot efficiently.

My path towards getting there 

Networking seems to be the most common piece of advice given to animators, as it’s a tight knit industry, so that would be my main thing to focus on. I also need to be able to show consistency in my portfolio, and adaptability within character design, style and mood within a scene.  

Why this role interests me

I am very much more interesting in visuals, fluid animation that brings a character to life, I struggle with the skills needed to storyboard or produce, and I very much have an insterest in the games industry, I have made  video game sprites for a past project and I really enjoyed the process of animating, testing and adjusting, as well as being able to have other people experience what I’ve made. 

How the pipeline works

Reading a blog post on the games animation pipeline by Harvey Newman who was a 3d animator working at Lionhead at the time, the process is much the same as the regular animation pipeline, writer to artist (to model builder and rigging teams if 3D) then its handed over to, and distributed among the animation team, then depending on whether it is a test animation for the game or a final animation the animator will work accordingly. Everyday every person working on the same part of the game has a meeting to update each other and make sure everyone’s on the same track. 

The skills needed   

Some of the skills that are crucial to game animation are having knowledge of videos games and how they work, knowing how the game will be played, and the insight into the users experience can aid in creating immersive animations. Knowledge of how games are built and game engines, using how they will process your frames will prevent any errors and keep the process running smoothly.  

In every kind of animation communication is key, but in this instance you are working with programmers, who have no knowledge of animation as much as most animator have no knowledge of coding, so communication and understanding exactly what needs doing in crucial. 

Why I feel this role would suit me 

I feel I would fit into the role of an animator in this field because I have an attention to detail, and when making sprite animations for example, the tiniest of movement must be smooth to keep the immersion, and every one of the actions must fit together seamlessly, which means perfecting the animations you are tasked with doing. I also think my communication skills are good enough that I would be able to handle a project that must be seemless across animators, coders and several other teams. 

References 

https://www.screenskills.com/job-profiles/browse/games/animation/animator-games

Industries?  

When considering industries I could bring my skills to, the games industry is my first pick, having used animation to create an interactive piece and my personal interest in gaming, I really enjoy that extra level of problem solving and feedback for people who get to experience what I make. 

Within the purely animation industries I’m more drawn towards series animations, often western kids shows with fun colourful characters and simple storylines or more adult animations which have more complex stories while keeping the visuals cartoonish. 

Rumpus Studio  

Rumpus is an animation studio based in Bristol, producing adverts, TV shows and games, they’ve worked on projects  for companies such as CBeebies, Disney and cartoon network. I feel that me and my style would fit in at Rumpus as many or the style lean more toward cartoonish with exaggerated expressions and dynamic actions within their range of styles. They also produce animations for games such as Battle toads which is the industry I would like to be a part of. 

Sun and Moon studios 

Sun and Moon are a company in Bristol who produce for animated series such as Maddie and Trix and games like Petal Pinchers, I have followed them through social media and as a company they seem to interact with younger aspiring animators through educational courses and generally being open about the industry.   

Their work is a broad range of styles for different audiences, as well as a mix of short form, long form and commercial work to show, which I would find exciting to work on, as I would not be bored. The topics they cover are often children- level stories or educational animations, which would fit really well with my style and interests.  

How move forward with these in mind  

Being able to enjoy the work I do is important to me, and that means finding work or a workplace that produce work I feel passionate about, many of these companies are looking for people with experience in the animation pipeline as well as the software they work with, so my next step would be to take some courses on different animation software and start to network. 

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