Plans for my Animation Skills

One of the things I will be working on after graduation, while looking for places to work, will be working on my animations skills (practicing and improving).

I will take it as a chance to animate movements I wanted to try out and finish off existing animations I never finished or continue them as a character/story concept. Possibly develop my own series that I could build upon until I can sell it as my own animated series (or graphic novel to begin with).

One program in particular I will try to make use if is TVPaint as I only used it for at least two animations I have made in collaborations this year.

Lifting Tower Project, shown in Studio Practice

D&AD Brief, Ivy The Terrible, shown in Studio Practice

I just have to get used to TVPaint and learn how to animate the way I would usually do in Photoshop but hopefully even better. The only problem I have is with the line work, the only tool I find which can give me the solid lines I like to work with on Photoshop isn't as efficient.
Through using the programme more I hope to find a solution to this so that I can use TVPaint more efficiently, therefore hopefully progress in my quality of my animations.
For now I do very well limited by the use of Photoshop for animating purposes. However, right of now both programmes are just as easy for me to use. This might change if I start using TVPaint more since I am still used to using Photoshop more often.
Regardless, this will help widen my use of animation software.

Besides animating I also hope to create more creative character designs for people and my own purposes. This includes creating characters for a collaborative story telling I have developed with a fellow friend as we both believe in it's uniqueness and comedic value that could draw in an audience.

My Business Card Designs

Using my art and logo I created the designs shown on my business cards along with details for contact and showcasing of work:

Showreel and Logo

Here is my showreel showcasing my best pieces of work for 2017-2018.

My showreel shows various animations and illustrations I consider to be my pieces of work that I made over the summer in 2017. Also including animations I made during my third year for briefs and competitions. They are also pieces of work I enjoy and showcase a bit of what I like to draw and animate.

I also created a logo for my identity with a name inspired as a type of nickname I was once given which I think is short and simple (as shown below).

I also decided to make a quick animation of my logo which I will work on making it better in the future as I am not satisfied with the movements.

CV

When making my CV I received help from careers advice and my Tutor on the information to provide and the layout/ordering of such information

Final CV as shown:

67 Matlock Close

Great Sankey

Warrington

WA5 3PZ

07954334597

rey.curley@googlemail.com

Personal Profile:

I do a lot of drawing and animating characters of my own design which I am good at creating alongside storytelling. This is due to my imaginative skills and inspiration through various existing stories.

I wish to get into an animation-based career if not storytelling which I primarily enjoy most of all.

Skills and Experience:

Animation – I have explored traditional 2D, 3D and digital animation processes.  My preferred media is digital 2D animation using a graphics tablet because I can leverage my drawing talent.

Verbal Communication and Teamwork – I have worked alongside and in collaboration with other students on many briefs, where we have allocated tasks according to one another's artistic skills.  One collaboration with students from the BA (Hons) Illustration course received a commendation at the YCN Student Awards 2017, Barbican Centre, London.
I was also Vice President of Leeds Arts University Anime Society.

Flexibility – during collaborations with animation and illustration departments I managed to adapt to different ways of working and work around other team members’ availably for meetings.

Negotiating and Persuading – During collaborations we discuss various ideas before settling on one theme. For example, I proposed and produced a drawing for a fisheye concept for 'James and the Giant Peach', which was accepted as part of the team's winning submission for the YCN Student Awards 2017.

Software Skills – Adobe Photoshop, Adobe After Effects, Microsoft Office and TVPaint Animation for illustrative and animating purposes. Experienced graphics tablet user.

Achievements:

YCN Student Awards 2017 – Commended for Roald Dahl Literary Estate

Education and Qualifications:

Leeds Arts University (2015-2018) – BA (Hons) Animation Undergraduate

Carmel College (2014-2015) – UAL Level 4 Foundation Diploma in Art & Design Pass

Carmel College GCE A Levels (2011-2014) – Art and Design (Graphic Communication) Grade B, Mathematics Grade D

St Gregory’s Catholic High School GCSE (2005-2011) – D&T: Resistant Materials Technology Grade B

Interests:

-          Drawing and Animating from life and my imagination for pleasure and self-promotion (e.g. via Youtuber)

-          Watching Anime

-          Watching Animation Online

-          Play Tennis for leisure

-          UK and Foreign Travel – Japan, Philippines, USA, Canada, Sweden, Iceland, Farne Islands, Shetland Islands, Germany, Spain etc.

Why Me:

With all this in mind I believe I have enough knowledge and creative skills for a career in character designing, animation and storytelling. These are areas which interest me most as they have been my focus for most of my artistic education. Coming up with a meaningful story followed up by unique characters, various artistic inspiration with a possible animated adaptation.

Referee:

Mike Smith, BA (Hons) Animation Course Leader, Leeds Arts University
mike.smith@leeds-art.ac.uk

Online Presence

I have made some presence online in order to show off my work and make connections within the animation industry.

One of the first online presence I established is making a LinkedIn account allowing me to look at possible jobs and search for individuals within the animation industry.

LinkIn Page:

 Examples of individuals in the animation industry I have connected with:

This was suggested by my tutor from whom I was able to gain some insight into how I should go about contacting practitioners and applying for jobs. Specifically when providing a CV for said jobs, that it holds relevant information that the studio or company are looking for. It helped that my tutor and careers adviser helped guide me with putting my CV together, i.e. appropriate information such as my achievements and the layout of this information from my tutor's opinion.

I also used Twitter to post some of my work and gain some followers.

Some work I made especially for a YouTuber's Dungeon and Dragon series got recognition and shown in his videos.

YouTuber who is very well known:

Following are two examples of some character design work I have made for the series:

Numaru, Red Eyed Elf Lady:

As shown my work in the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3CaWO8Uf10&t=502s At 7:48

Asuran and Skryn, Dwarven Brothers:

As shown it even got used in the thumbnail of the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EcxY1YeUmA&t=574s at 7:50

I also do work for various popular people I follow on Twitter, making art that they retweet and help me get recognition and followers.

The following example is one I did for a popular cosplayer called Vivid Vision (@VivisVision22):

I hope to continue making some art for her or other more popular cosplayers/people on twitter as it's the most recognition I get from an online audience. This gives me more followers and hopefully become more well known online as well as making art for the popular Youtuber I mentioned previously.