During the Second Term of this academic year, I attended a Theatre Workshop, a 2D Clean Up Animation Workshop, a Layout and Background Workshop, a Character and Story Seminar, a Storyboarding Workshop, a Filmmaking Lecture, a Story Telling Workshop, and a Drawing Workshop on Perspective.
Every one of those classes provided an essential piece of knowledge to then form my understanding of how to construct/create an animation/story. I feel like those were the building blocks to form and support my animation skills. It is not just animating the animation, you need to first think about everything from the story, through the way it holds its structure, to the visuals and then the design.
Notes from the Workshops during Term 2 / Year 1
In addition to the workshops, I attended an industry event. It was with alumni from the MA Character Animation Course.
The first question that I asked was for them to share their experience working for a company or freelance. Their summarised response was that both are good depending on your situation, freelance is good as you are free to make your own “rules” when it came to managing work; working for a company is good because you do not need to worry about being left without work and there is always someone you can ask for help, advice or feedback.
The second question I asked was about the 3D-Gaming industry and how it differs from the 3D/Film industry. What I learned was that the process of creating characters is someone similar but the difference comes from the animation; in games, it often requires various short animations of each character, whereas in films is a linear animation.
The next question was about internships; how to get them and any additional advice. The Alumni shared that it is always about luck when it comes to internships/jobs, it’s not just about your work or skills, although they are of great importance. They also said that you should apply first for the roles that you want the most and you should always strive for the highest and best positions; then you can work your way down and apply for any lower positions. That is because you can most probably get the lowest position but if you apply for the highest you never know what chance you can be given and maybe if one company rejects your application, they might have other positions available for you. Also, you should never stop applying even if you already got a job.