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