I found it representative and beneficial to learn about two industry professionals’ talks this semester: animators Sacha Beeley and Abigal Addison, both of whom are very good animators, who shared their experiences in the industry and their own experiences with us!
About Sacha Beeley, she is an animator and filmmaker as well as a csm animation alumni, I really enjoyed her animation and she showed us her creative experience and work. She told us how she explored her own unique creative style and she told us to think about the characters in our project. How do you want them to move what happens in the film before you start designing? What is your personal animation style? Is it kind of melting, stretching, dancing or more realistic? So design-wise, think about what’s happening in the action and how the character looks rather than just the character design sheet. Just like what happens in a film where someone can pose really nicely in every shot. And of course, consider how much detail you want to add. So obviously very detailed characters will look beautiful, but animation takes a lot longer.Sacha Beeley says that drawing humans is not her strong point. But if there’s a commercial product coming up, there’s often a need to draw a human character. There’s no avoiding that. So she tries to add her own style of animation, which is very wavy limbs, like curved limbs, no joints in a style that’s more orientated towards big limbs, characters that usually have four fingers rather than five. So it’s not the perfect more anthropomorphic characters that are popular, you don’t need to be able to challenge yourself in areas you’re not good at, if you don’t have a good perspective then draw something flat, focus on expanding your strengths, combine your strengths with your style of drawing and then form your own unique style.
Regarding her work experience, she shared with us that she signed up as a freelancer with an agency, which provided her with projects, which had both pros and cons, the pros being that she didn’t have to worry about any communication with her clients. She can focus entirely on the creative side of things and is able to organise her working hours more freely, with the option of accepting or rejecting projects, resulting in a better work-life balance. But the worrying thing is that she never knows when another business project will come along. So the next project could be months away. This uncertainty can be financially stressful for the worker, so in the meantime, she needs to find freelance animator work, such as some clean-up work. In between commercial projects, as a freelancer she is able to work on different types of projects, thus broadening her skills and experience. She will be involved in a variety of areas such as advertising, film and television. By taking on multiple projects there is an opportunity to increase your income, especially on some of the higher-end projects where you may be paid more. But freelance income is usually more unstable and lacks the benefits offered by traditional companies, such as health insurance and pensions.
So the pros and cons of this type of work situation need to be considered in the context of our own career goals, lifestyle, personality traits and status.
Another animator, Abigal Addison, who I think is more of a hirer than an employee, gave us some information about the animators and work she tends to choose from the perspective of a studio manager. She co-founded a studio called animate projects with a colleague. They have been working together and doing internships since 2007, and in 2012 they started working remotely and taking on interns. The project she is in charge of has received funding from the Council and the BFI, and she suggested that we could apply for funding from these organisations if we were starting a business. She then talked about who they would like to work with, the style of the films, and also felt re-assured that the films were mainly 2D, and that she, like Sacha, had chosen 2D animation, which made me feel that the audience for 2D animation hadn’t been completely knocked out of the game by the development of 3D. Since I’m leaning towards choosing to pursue a career model in 2D animation or stop-motion animation, this totally restores my confidence.
She gave honest and effective responses to some of the questions we asked, she is totally open and tolerant of any creative types, but at the same time she has her own strict requirements, as it is not an easy task to lead an entire studio. Building it, developing it and enhancing it all require decision makers to make the right and effective choices.
According to the introduction of the two animators’ lectures, I gradually changed from the students’ point of view to the job seekers’ point of view, and they provided me with a lot of space for in-depth thinking, letting me know more clearly what abilities I need, what kind of work I am more suitable for, how to give full play to my own strengths to form my own style and so on, and in the next step, I collected more information on the requirements of the industry and what kind of talents they tend to choose. In the next step, I collected more information about the requirements of the industry and what kind of talents they tend to choose, and what kind of work my ability is more suitable for, and I will make further elaboration.