Author: Eva Salina

The Possibility of Teaching Animation at UAL

I sometimes consider of an opportunity to teach at my current university, as it represents a chance to inspire future animators while contributing to an institution that has already played a pivotal role in my own growth. My experience at UAL has been enriching. The education system here goes beyond technical skills, fostering a deeper understanding of movement, storytelling, and artistry.

One standout aspect of my time at UAL was the access to valuable reference resources. The inclusion of actors teaching body language nuances provided insights that textbooks simply can’t capture. Life drawing classes developed my observational skills, helping me translate real-world movement into believable animated performances. Collaboration with like-minded classmates further fueled creativity, offering opportunities to exchange ideas and learn from each other’s strengths. Throughout, the support from tutors was steady, providing personalised guidance and encouragement that made all the difference.

Another strength of UAL is its commitment to supporting alumni. Unlike my previous university, UAL offers pathways to both temporary and permanent jobs for graduates, a resource I’ve already benefited from as a current student. These opportunities are not only practical stepping stones into the industry but also an affirmation of the university’s dedication to enhancing its community long after graduation.

Teaching animation at UAL would allow me to give back to a system that has shaped me as an animator and artist. I could share the same reference-based approaches, practical insights, and creative freedom I experienced, empowering students to find their own voice as animators. Equally important, I’d relish the opportunity to help students navigate the professional world, leveraging my experience and UAL’s extensive alumni support network to guide them toward their goals. UAL’s environment fosters creativity and connection, qualities I deeply value and hope to contribute to as a teacher.

The Importance of Networking in the Animation Industry

Getting into the animation industry is as much about who you know as what you know. Networking is the bridge that connects talent and skills to opportunities. By establishing contacts with industry professionals, you can hear about unadvertised roles, receive mentorship and make your mark in a competitive field.

One of the best ways to network is by travelling to festivals and events with an industry slant. The Annecy International Animation Festival in France is one such prominent event for professionals from all over the world. Often dubbed “The Cannes of Animation,” Annecy attracts animators, directors and producers, as well as studios. The festival provides a comprehensive look at the latest films, pilot pitches, and exciting new trends in animation. It’s not just an opportunity for creativity to triumph but also an especially good time for making meaningful contacts.

I have not been fortunate enough to attend Annecy in person, but I was lucky enough to hear about it from some senior students. However, the experience of my classmates underscores the potential for networking at Annecy. At the event, there were famous figures from the industry walking around as though they were part of the crowd. They were going to see shows and participating in question-and-answer sessions. The vibrant atmosphere of animation enthusiasts made it an ideal place for networking.

Now, how should you approach these iconic figures at a festival like Annecy? It’s actually easier than one might think. After an event or a talk show, people usually continue to gather at the local bars. This means a casual setting where all the attendees, from aspiring animators to studio bosses, are giving you the chance to make contacts. Mingling over drinks, talking about your ideas, or even chatting casually about movies that interested both parties will help break the ice and create genuine relationships.

Before you go, look up the attendees and festival schedule. Research the professionals or companies you want to meet, and consider some thoughtful questions or comments about their work. Have a digital portfolio ready to display on your phone or tablet. Having a professional, compact and above all easily portable card with all your contact details on it will also help people remember you. Networking is not about pushing for a job; it’s about making friends. Start conversations with curiosity and a sincere wish to learn. People are more likely to remember you if you have an authentic exchange.

Follow up after the festival with the people whom you have met. A friendly email or LinkedIn connection request can help solidify your relationship and keep you in the other person’s thoughts.Even reaching out to someone you want to follow up with when there is some action happening around their activity can really go a long way in making sure that they remember who you are.

In the end, networking is not just about getting a job; it’s about integrating yourself into the animation community. Annecy and similar events are rare chances to meet the people pulling the strings behind these productions, exchange views and become part of a creative network. And it also doesn’t hurt to socialize over drinks with fellow enthusiasts. Sometimes you never know where you might find your best contacts.

Career research – Animator

The path to enter animation industry may be difficult, but more often than not, it begins with taking that first step which demonstrates ones own initiative. Connectivity and hands-on experience can be just as pivotal as talent or expertise. It may sometimes feel that the path is rough, but persistence, the ability to learn and passion will open doors for you.

For instance, my partner’s introduction to the world of animation came from an email. A studio that they contacted seeking freelance opportunities was Blink Ink. Regardless of the fact that they would want payment, they told themselves it’s the spirit to learn and contribute that counts. Their work also fell into the hands of one of Blink Ink’s employers, who happened to like it so much he invited them to be his production assistant at the end of a project just finishing up. Not yet an animator but with one foot in the door of industry.

This readiness to learn no matter what, has been very beneficial. After that Blink Ink looked upon them favorably for such freelance projects as came along, allowing my partner to build up a portfolio and, more importantly contacts in industry. This kept them steadily employed and formed the backbone of their career.

Company head Blink Ink mentioned that I went there once and found others asking how to get started in animation. His practical advice is well in the hearts of all budding animators: Sometimes you will do no more than send an email. Maybe it only takes one introduction tailored specifically for studios, some enthusiasm in the right measure and your work will find endless doors open before themselves.

Here are a few tips from me that you will eventually be usefu to enter the industry:

  1. Learn and practice: No one becomes an animator without learning the basics of the craft and then developing an original gift for it through years of practice. Start with self-study or go for a degree in animation, design or related issues; software tools like Adobe After Effects, Blender or Toon Boom are still the industry standards.
  2. Create a portfolio: With a strong showing of your best stuff, you can enter the market. You might include in it personal projects, school assignments or short animations; a variety of styles not only shows breadth but innovation too.
  3. Networking and building connections: If you want to succeed in the creative business industry today, then networking is key. Take part in events, join online forums or LinkedIn discussions for animators so as to keep abreast of the latest news. A chance introduction on this distant network can easily lead to meeting people who will share their expertise with you or collaborate on increasingly ambitious projects. Even deposited talent which again finds its place to become refined through loyalty to these types
  4. Initiation: Go direct to those studios themselves. As my partners did, that’s no longer a clever pipe dream; it must be reality. Your passions spoken aloud and what you can contribute made plain, are the kind of introductory language that leads companies to think hard about offering a writer’s role or artist in residence programs. Perhaps seizure of internships providing experience for newcomers and getting one’s start within an environment where one does not need an entry fee gives way to future opportunities.
  5. Persistence and patience: Although it is inevitable that there will be some rejections, and each failure will help to guide the way in future approaches come steadily closer to the goal.

In the end, it begins with one brave step. A mix of talent, effort and boldness are the prerequisites to become an animator.

Practice based research

Bouncing ball exercise we needed to do at the start of our course when learning about basic animation principles – learning about squash and stretch and anticipation of the ball drop. I have done this exercise in ToonBoom Harmony.
Heavy ball drop exercise for anticipation build up and showing the weight of the falling object, made in ToonBoom Harmony.
Ball with tail exercise, I have done this in order to learn secondary action which is the tail movement. I labeled the tail separately to learn the physics of the tail lifting up and down. At the end of the drop I was given feedback to make the end of the tail when the object drops down to add more of a whip motion to make the movement more fluid bouncing up and down. This was done in ToonBoom Harmony.
Character bounce exercise – I applied the principles I have learned and made a cat character with a tail bouncing.
After developing the animation, I have received feedback on it during my formative assessment in December. It was generally good, only I was recommended to flatten the cat character when it is on the floor and remove the shadow since the movement along with the still shadow does not make sense. You can see the finished version on OneDrive. Done in ToonBoom Harmony.
First attempt of keyframes with the push/lift or pull exercise. The movements were approved and I was recommended to extend the timing for a few fames and start adding in-betweens for the next version. Me and a few other course mates filmed references for these exercises. This was made in TVPaint.
I was suggested to add boiling lines so the animation does not seem so stiff, it seems a bit extreme in this example, however that was fixed in the next clip. Showing this for feedback, I was suggested to lengthen out the timing more in order to show the character struggling more when pushing the big block.
More cleaned up version, I still needed to extend the timing of the whole animation.
Feedback from the formative assessment. I was recommended to add the character observing the large object before attempting to push it, extend length of them thinking and pushing, extending the arms in the last push and re-did the scale of the character. The final result can be seen on OneDrive.
Photoshop animated test, generally experimenting with different tools it had and getting familiar with the program. it was interesting to try out considering I have not animated on photoshop before.
Photoshop animated test experimenting with added texture in the background. I have learned how to edit the actual texture how I wanted it to be. The theme was anything related to human head, generally having fun with the program and an opportunity to animate something for myself.
First time learning to animate with vectors on Animate CC, the theme was “fly”. I tried to familiarise myself with the program, the layout seemed similar to Premier with animation elements such as either ToonBoom or TVPaint. I tried figuring out the onion skin feature the program had and learned it had an automatic frame feature, which kept the new frame same as the one before. I quickly learned the blank frame feature where you can draw a clean one and that made my progress much quicker.
After Effects animation exercise exploring more of graphic animation. I really enjoyed learning this. I believe it is a useful skill to know if I ever wanted to make presentations or advertisements that requires graphic animation more dynamic. This technique can be made quicker as it involves vector and key framing feature like Premier and AfterEffects.
Mood change walk idea, reference and feedback. Finished version can be seen on OneDrive.
Body acting references and feedback. I have used my course mate, Conner’s, character design for the anatomy. Showing this large, muscular character battling a small printer in comparison. Final version on OneDrive.
Attempt on the mood walk exercise, I was given feedback from the formative assessment to add more enthusiasm in the first half of the walk, slow down the timing in the middle, show the character’s frustration when trying to pick the gum off their foot. The end part of the animation was the best developed.
Animal walk exercise, I was suggested to stretch out the back paws and bend them more realistically, the tutors were happy with the body movement overall.

Simulated work experience

For my simulated work experience, I worked with people from the graduate film “Cookie” with Junyi Xie, Duo (Teddy) Xu, Kaori Watanabe with my course mate Peisen Dong. 

The team wanted to shoot live action references for the film’s development to capture the movements and expressions of how they envisioned it. We used WhatsApp as a form of communication to start off and established to shoot references on a workday. We booked a studio space to film in for two hours, which was enough to capture scenes needed. The film is about an owner and their dog named Cookie running off from the tube station to a museum, the owner asking for help from the other background characters and museum statues to find their dog and them eventually finding Cookie.  

The second-year students needed scenes with the tube, museum environments with the main character interacting with their dog and other characters mostly. When we met up, we established how we were going to film the references. When the camera was set up for filming, we took multiple shots to have different versions to work with later. I have made suggestions in-between shootings on how to make the angles and character interactions more interesting while considering if it makes sense and correlate with scenes next to it. 

Helping with the shooting I practised my acting abilities, felt more confident working with people I have not interacted with before. It made me think about how to act in a more amusing way. We all switched roles in between characters so we had more variation of the same scene and analyse which version works best. 

The interaction between all of us came easy and generally enjoyable, I was happy to help with them shooting references, giving suggestions and opportunity to act. We were able to finish filming what they needed. The Cookie team shared with us the content we developed, made sure the before and after process was clear and leaving positive feedback.  

Animation Theory

Storytelling

Storytelling in film and animation is used as a form of communication with the audience, whether that being recreating an existing story or sharing personal experiences to evoke emotions. These shared experiences are an element the viewer is put in to evaluate the conflicts individual people or groups experience within society – the experiences bond them together. 

For a story to work, it must have structure, the key element to that structure is “motivation”, how conflict depicts an outcome, a conclusion of the story. Taking a look at “The Hero’s Journey” plot structure, it is about a character facing a difficulty and them going on a quest to solve it and learn something along the way. Using this as a base for storytelling, it is possible to change up the characters, their goals, the events they are experiencing, the outcomes represent how the story will end, there are endless possibilities. 

Without conflict, a change, a story would be just a series of events. Looking at a short stop motion animated film called “Enough” by Anna Mantzaris as an example, it is about experiencing intrusive thoughts and them actually coming to life: pushing somebody off the stairs, throwing a faulty computer out the window, interrupting a meeting. This story shows multiple short events seemingly without a change in the narrative up until the last scene. The end shot shows a woman missing a bus she was rushing to. Few other people standing at the bus stop witnessing her giving up, the woman lays down on the pavement, a few seconds later one other person from the bus stop joins her. This is a small change within the story that shows meaning in the narrative – that you are not alone in this, making majority of people relating to this aspect without the necessity of a major change point. 

One level of storytelling is defined by how it is written, other level is from a visual representation. Setting up a composition for a shot, colouring and lighting it a certain way are used as an “effective emotional tool” (Wellins, 2006, p. 24). The audience follows along how the characters interact by how the plot is structured, it is a separate thing when the artist shows lighting or colouring a specific way in order to pinpoint how the character is feeling or setting the tone for a scene. As Mike Wellins observes: “color schemes and look for a color combination that visually works well but also says something about the character, story or scene.” (Wellins, 2006, p.128) For example, making the scene in the colour blue can show grief, vulnerability, fear. Close-up shots depict intensity, confided feeling in spaces, further shots portray isolation, scale comparison to the rest of the environment the character is in, making them feel small.  

In conclusion, what makes a good story is usage of relatability of character to audiences, stable plot structure with motivation and visual tools. 

Bibliography 

  • Wellins, M. (2005) Storytelling Through Animation. United States: Charles River Media 

Bouncing ball + string – Week 3

Second attempt at the bouncing ball with string exercise for the Follow through and Overlapping Action unit. I followed the advice from previous feedback and put the tail in a profile view. You can see how the ball functions alongside the string. Before I’ve done the string whip on the opposite direction from the previous attempt, so it was just a gliding movement. Then drew the whip opposite and it looked more believable how a string follows through. Used ToonBoom for this one.

Notes and feedback – Week 3

Some notes for our new lecture about follow through and overlapping action. I also wrote down the feedback from my tutors and peers on my bouncing ball from week 1 & 2 and ball with string for week 3

Ball with string first attempt:

The action of the string is headed in the right direction, however I was told to draw the string in a profile shot, so the movement is more visible in front. Perhaps try a longer string and look at the reference provided in the lecture’s presentation. Used TV Paint for this test shot.