After my master’s I’m hoping to make connections in London to continue living here.
I’m interested in the animation studios here such as The Line, Blue Zoo, Nexus, Blinkink..
Like a lot of animators, I want to partake in the creation and development of story-telling. Ideally I would like to become an animation director or storyboard artist.
An animation director oversees all aspects of the animation progress. The director works closely with the animators to achieve the current look and feel of the project.
However, seeing how much even renowned animators are struggling looking for work, my hopes are not very high. Luckily I also just enjoy drawing and making movements work and I also enjoy the comforting and repetitive task of clean-up or colouring. While I would like to aspire to find a job where I can do all of the above, and I want to be ambitious, I also think that these days getting into the animation industry is very hard.
I sometimes write fiction in my spare time but really I’m a day-dreamer. I love to read and write words on a screen. It is wonderful but when I read them back, I’m seeing visuals, colours, character designs and shots in my head, I simply love to day-dream. The same goes for when I listen to music, making music videos in my head is such a fantastic way to spend a train journey while looking out the window.
A story-teller is a bit like a day-dreamer I think. A director for animation however, is different. Directors hold a lot of responsibility for every aspect of the animation process and outcome to go right. Again, luckily for me, I love to plan, I’m not afraid to impose myself but I also love working with people and listening to different ideas. So I do have this feeling that I could do it.
This is also why I would not like to be a freelancer, I, as an individual, am mostly aware of my potential and limitations. Working with other people always challenges my abilities and I can challenge the abilities of those around me, creating art and animation as a collective is a truly lovely and fulfilling experience, being in a studio filled with like minded or different people makes life richer and more interesting. Being a freelancer doesn’t appeal to me as I don’t see myself getting much out of creating alone.
The LIAF project from last year however did not help to raise my ambitions. When I did not get picked as one of the directors I was very frustrated, although all the picked directors did a fantastic job, I felt as though I could’ve as well. It’s after that experience that I started thinking that maybe being an animation director is a role too difficult for me to do and I started looking at the positives of going down other roots related to animation.
Leave a Reply