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.

Contacting Practitioners

Through email and LinkedIn I have made some progress in contacting practitioners who are involved within the animation industry.

First I tried making contact with Powerhouse Animation Studio (based in Austin Texas) and The Line Animation Studio (based in London). The only reply I received was from Sam Taylor at the Line, who can only tell me about their podcasts where some of my questions can be answered. However, he hasn't informed me about possible opportunities within the animation industry.

Despite this I have been able to connect to Sam on LinkedIn plus various other practitioners within animation industries:

- Sam Taylor, Director, Producer, Cofounder, The Line Studio

- Aya Suzuki, Animation Director at Passion Pictures, Walt Disney Animation

- Serah Vieira, Artistic Recruiting Manager at Disney Animation Television

- Thomas Romain, Creator, Designer, Art Director in Japanese Animation and Game Industry, Statelight Inc.

- Eric Calderon, Producer at Warner Bros. Animation

- Koichi Noguchi, Produder at Toei Animation Co.

- Ian Wasseluk, Director at Warner Bros. Entertainment Group of Companies

- Mitsuru Yoshida, Animator at Toei Animation Co.

- Peter Dodd, Animator at The Line Studio
- Clinton J Priest, Story Supervisor at Brown Bag Films
- Nick Clackett, Lead Toon Boom Harmony Animator at Brown Bag Films
- Finbar Coyle, Character Designer at Brown Bag Films
- Adventurous Minds LLC, Animation Studio
- Karl Doran, Founder and Creative Director FLOW Creative
- Yogesh Batra, Senior Animator at Anima Vitae

Hopefully I will be able to make further contact with these practitioners and/or look for more connections other than The Line Studio.
However, communication has proved to be difficult since, despite having messaged all of these practitioners on LinkedIn, I haven't received much feedback.

I also made contact with the Studio Adventurous Minds, a studio who like Powerhouse Animation Studio are also located in America (Arizona).
The following email I received from them:

These contacts makes me more conscious of how my style of work relates to the studio.
Even when my style has a variety and I use a combination of many styles I need to express that a lot more within the work I show case to these studios.
I also need to be more persistent and regularly message people within the animation industry.
The same goes for looking at available jobs shown on LinkedIn and try to apply for as many as I can which involve an animation role (if not story telling and character design).

This is what I plan to do once graduated to hopefully move forward in the animation industry.
As well as building upon my animation skills I will try to communicate more with the connections I have made, if not make more connections.
Building upon my animation skills and creating new and more improved animations and illustrations (e.g. character designs/poses) will help me to present myself as a creative individual.
I can then show work similar to the style of a studio I wish to communicate with, not just show my best animation which might not blend with their style. However, I wish to show that I am capable of using multiple or a combination of styles, especially the use of combining western and eastern styles. I regularly watch Japanese animation as my inspiration for stunning animation and meaningful storytelling.
This is why I am hopeful a Japanese studio like the one I mentioned in my list of practitioners, Toei Animation Co., would be great for me.

Summer Stuff 3 (2017) - Drawings

Angry Eating Kik

Angry Eating Keiko

Hunter the Slothman

Kai the Slugman

Space Neon

Summer Stuff 2 (2017) - Flashy Effects

Seeing various effects within animation I decided to create my own versions taking inspiration from these animation.

The first animation I wanted to try out after seeing each individual frame was in Hero Academia Season 2, Midoriya vs Todoroki.

Midoriya Izuku (aka Deku)

Todoroki Shouto

As shown below, through analysing the frames the above scenes, how they create these flashy effects, I created my own using them as inspiration.

Summer Stuff 1 (2017) - Enenra

Enenra is a Japanese monster that is typically made of smoke and darkness. I initially wanted to look into a less well known creatures besides the typical Dragon. This led to me creating this Enenra creature morphing from one form to another.

I first created the design to look Dragon like before it pulsates a turns into a more monstrous form as it can literally take any shape it so pleases.

Here are some drafts of how each part of it transforming:

 Here shows some of those drafts one after the other from first to second form:

Here is the final fully outlined animation showing how the matter it's made from gathers together before pushing forward creating the giant head full of large teeth:

Finally, over the summer I able to complete the colours and shading to create the final outcome:

Studio Brief 2 - Creative Presence

Studio Bones                                            Studio Madhouse                                          Studio Laika

For this studio brief we were required to seek out an industry practitioner or practice to base a report on. This will hopefully give us insight into the industry or tips on how to approach industries for when we graduate.

Studios I tried contacting with emails:

- Studio Bones
- Studio Madhouse
-Studio Laika
-Disney Studio

Animations I have seen and enjoyed from these studios:

Failed responses from Madhouse:

 Successful responses from Jon Turner, Director from Kilogramme:

Examples of animations from Kilogramme:

Report:

As shown by the only responses I got contacting studios will be difficult since I resorted to contacting studios I don’t know much about. The only response from a studio that I have seen various animations from (Studio Madhouse) couldn’t take a moment to answer a few questions in the first email I sent them. The second email I sent didn’t provide any help or relevance to my questions, besides directing me to their site for “updated recruitment” which I might try to explore. I might need to consider, join and use other forms of media in order to contact studios and practitioners which might have been my down fall as I only used emails and twitter and had to make do with responses from a studio I don’t follow. I might work on this over the holiday to see if I can get any responses, especially from the studios I am more interested in. However, studios like Bones will be difficult being a studio from another country as there was probably some language barrier if my emails didn’t reach them. Either I have to explore other more international studios or find a way to communicate with studios like Bones more effectively.

With the only response I got from Jon Turner, director at Kilogramme (a Manchester animation studio), I managed to get some insightful feedback. Similar to what I remember from Fraser Maclean’s experience of getting employed during his talk at LCA Jon said he looks “for a good showreel or portfolio”. This informs me as long as I present work an industry finds interesting I will find a place with no problem. However, I didn’t receive as much interesting and useful information. Either I have to specify my questions more effectively or come up with other questions of what I want to know and should know. This can be something I can work on over the holiday.

Jon also started informing me about the important stages “to be a character animator”. This tells me Kilogramme focuses on creating engaging characters, taking inspiration from the “Disney book ‘The Illusion of Life’”. Otherwise this is already information I am learning on the course since the start of my year and overall isn’t exactly useful for my learning process.

I need to find and contact other practitioners to see what they can tell me that I already don’t know, in order to explore my options when it comes to finding a career in the creative industries. What information and work I haven’t found out now and haven’t fully completed I will try to work on over this holiday.

Link for ISSUU: https://issuu.com/reyrei/docs/rc259573__studio_brief_2__creative_

Horror in Elfen Lied

Elfen Lied is one of the most goriest old anime series there is. In particular it shows a very intense introduction to the gore of Elfen Lied in the first few minutes of the first episode.

In the first second after the intro you see this severed arm of a security officer

In the first few minutes Lucy, the mutant humanoid, is already on a killing spree after freeing herself from her bonds.

The art style isn't so good as some of the characters posses that typical over sized eyes some anime show. However, I see it as quite artistic for the main female character Lucy as she gains a split personality. She switches to and from her serious murderous personality to her more innocent personality and it represents this through her eyes.

Lucy's innocent side

Lucy's murderous side

As shown large eyes emphasise her innocent side by making her look cuter while smaller more narrowed eyes emphasise her murderous side by making her look more serious and mature.

The opening intro of the series also uses an art style resembling that of Gustav Klimt, as if to make a tribute to his art work. The opening also uses music sung in Latin called Lilium.

Elfen Lied Opening:

Comparison between Gustav Klimt's art and the art shown in the Elfen Lied opening

Horror in Corpse Party: Tortured Souls

One of my favourite and not well known horror adaptations of a Japanese rpg horror game is Corpse Party: Tortured Souls. When I first watched it the second and third episodes did well to shock me making me cringe in horror. Doing various horrific things to people you can't possibly comprehend how they would feel is the worst a horror can do. It also surprised me when there are characters I expected not to die (e.g. the innocent little sister).
The series could do better by having no sexualised imagery as it doesn't suit the mood of the series.

Ritual used to transport the high school students in the story to their impending doom

The art style isn't all that good but ends in a very interesting way (besides the plot behind the murderous ghost of the story) and the animation is alright, especially good at the detail in the gore. However, the art style does ok to make it look abnormal and disconcerting as you are presented with very cute and colourful characters who are placed in a dark, horrific and gory world. This shows best in the opening intro which starts off with an eerie setting of said characters wondering around lost in the horrific, deadly and decrepit world. It then switches to showing the characters going about their daily happy lives before going back to the horror subjecting them to life threatening situations and for some their impending deaths. With the music it perfectly sets the mood throughout the changes from different setting in the opening. Besides how it ends it's a good intro, sounds too happy towards the end.

Corpse Party: Tortured Souls, Opening:

Int his scene one of the characters, Shinozaki, looks through the eyes of one of the children killed by Sachiko. Warning, this shows gorey violence (18+):

Studio Breif 3 - Life's A Pitch

Dagger Collective logo:

As part of our study task 3 we are required to develop an ability to work collaboratively and productively with others.

For this we all got together with fellow members of our course to showcase and promote a professional proposal in the form of an exhibition, publication or online presence. Through research and planning we are to explore the basics of how to identify an appropriate venue, audience and market.

For my collaborative we want to present an interactive story which incorporates all of our own character designs. "We want to produce work we want to watch".

The following are my own character designs using a previous character I used for an animation for 'Character & Narrative', G Mouse:

G Mouse Bio: G is the name G Mouse goes by which seems to have no real meaning to it. He is a mercenary for hire doing anything for money. His knowledge in hand to hand combat, impressive physical capabilities and specialty in a variety of weapons makes him a deadly ally. While he holds no morals in killing and torturing his enemies he has a soft spot for doing the right thing which can end up getting himself involved in life threatening situations. But just as much as he has little morals for the lives of his enemies he has little care for his own wellbeing. He is a very serious mean spirited man with a crude and offensive sense of humour.

Facebook Page for Dagger Collective: