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Reflecting on this Year

 The research and professional practice module is something I’ve been looking forward to ever since the schedule for this semester was announced. It is always interesting to look at the experiences of professionals in an industry through social media or online research but in this module, I believe I managed to get a slightly better grasp of how harsh but also fulfilling the animation industry can be. This module motivated me to have a deeper look into the industry and most importantly into my own thoughts. While there still is plenty of time until the end of my university studies, entering the second year made me realize that I had to take a better look at myself, my abilities and what I could do to get to a point that I can feel more confident about the future.

Just like many others during this time of my life, I am still very unsure as to what my goal is after university. From the first year all the way to today, we have been asked to do many different things through our modules be it storyboarding, animating with traditional or digital mediums, and designing characters and environments. Getting to experience all these different tasks first-hand was definitely an extremely important learning experience. What was hardest for me, was the fact that engaging in all these different tasks did not make it easier in deciding what path I should follow as I found interest in all of them, even if not equally.  

At some point during the start of this year, I felt that being so unsure was not ideal at this point in my studies. I decided to turn to books and help myself get a better look at the artistic process in different animated or live-action films and video games that have been part of my life. While acquiring more books and studying them repeatedly I had finally come to understand that my biggest interest lied in concept art and character design. This semester’s character design and modelling module also played a big role in helping me understand what I would like to focus on. The whole process of designing a character is very fascinating and I learned that a lot more work and thought is required to go into a character design rather than just the creation of a random appearance for a character. Character designers are required to carry out research in anatomy, fashion or different cultures that will eventually help them in the creative process. Sometimes even the smallest, mundane details of a character design can say a lot about the character’s personality, way of life or background. As I mentioned, along with character design I became very interested in concept art. I have always been very imaginative and the idea of having to produce artwork based on a description of a world that is given to the artist is a great chance for experimentation and learning about various things in the process. During this year, I have been working on understanding the fundamentals of character design and concept art more through university assignments as well as personal projects. In my free time, while slowly focusing on building a portfolio that could help me earn a place in the animation industry in the fields I mentioned above, I decided to not neglect other aspects of the creative process of animation. Even though I have found what interests me more, I began to delve more into 2D character animation through the use of online resources while also learning how to use different computer programs like Photoshop which is an industry standard.

A big part of my research on the industry, was looking at different companies or studios that interest me and gathering more information about them through their social media, official websites, articles or blog posts. I looked at many studios in countries closest to me such as the UK, France and Spain but I also was very eager to have a look at studios in countries with different cultural backgrounds, like Japan. I have always had a fascination with Japanese animation since studio Ghibli films were a big part of my childhood. Aside from Disney classics, Ghibli films were one of the main reasons of why I gained interest in art as a child. Regardless of how much I enjoy Japanese animation, I always thought the way people of different ethnicities or sexual orientations are represented, in most animated series or films from japan, is very wrong and sometimes offensive. While searching for studios in Japan, I came across D’ART Shtajio and what immediately caught my interest, was that D’ART Shtajio is the very first African American-owned animation studio in Japan.  As the very first of its kind in a country with a workforce consisting mostly of Japanese people, seeing people of a different ethnicity establishing themselves as part of the industry felt like a breath of fresh air. From further research into the studio, I found that what its founders are trying to do is help revolutionize the industry and pave a way for more people to understand the importance of accurate representation of people of different backgrounds. It is common knowledge that in an era where diversity has become such an important part of our daily lives, representation in media should be treated equally as important. I believe it is mine, and everyone’s responsibility as aspiring creators to educate ourselves in the correct representation of minorities in media and personally, looking at a studio like D’ART Shtajio I can’t help but be excited as to what the future holds in regards to what they are trying to do. Reading about the experiences of the founders of the studio as well as the experiences of animators working there also made me feel more confident about working very far from home and as someone who is eager to experience other cultures and see new things, the possibility of working abroad is something I will keep in mind.

In the process of trying to become better at something, I have come to understand that there are many things I could have also done better and many things I can work harder on. Due to personal reasons, I have not been able to attend many of the visiting speaker talks that we had the chance to attend as part of this module. One of the main things I will work on is my time management as it is something extremely important in the workplace as well and I will have to become better at that to prepare myself for the future. Boosting my online presence and building connections is something I should have also done a lot more. While focusing on building my portfolio is something I’m very proud of, I should learn not to neglect the importance of building a better, and more professional online presence. Social media has become an extremely important space for artists in an era where technology is such a big part of our lives. From now on I will begin focusing a lot more on places like LinkedIn and Vimeo as well as well as other social media like Instagram and even Twitter after having seen many animators and artists hired or scouted as freelancers or as permanent employees in studios all around the world through the works that they publish on those websites.

Having a lot of time to sit at home due to this year’s circumstances was a great chance to think about my future. I feel that during this year, with the help of this module, I have taken a step towards preparing myself for working in the animation industry and towards the fulfillment of my goal. I will do my best and work hard on everything I mentioned throughout this reflective text so I can hopefully bring myself a step closer to becoming a part of the industry.

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The idea of Freelancing

Freelancing is something that I have been thinking for a long time. While being self employed means that you have many more responsibilities in contrast to being affiliated with a company, it is also a very fascinating concept.

Being able to work in a place that feels more comfortable for you seems like a really good thing as well as the fact that you have a more flexible timetable. The fact that you can also choose the projects that you can accept can make the experience more fulfilling as you can sure that you will be working on something that you will enjoy through the whole experience

With the advancement of technology the importance of social media in employment has become apparent in this day an age. With LinkedIn, Vimeo and now even Instagram and Twitter I see freelance animators being scouted by companies all around the world for permanent or freelance work on many different projects. Freelancing also opens up a new path for making long-time connections with people or companies that could prove to be very useful in an artist’s future.

Of course, for all that to happen an exceptional portfolio and very good online presence is required. While I am still not too sure of what the future holds, the idea of freelancing seems to be where my mind is at the moment as I have already tried my hand at some small paid projects through social media. As I am nowhere near the level i need to be, I need to focus on creating a bigger and professional online presence as well as work on my own skills.

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“Using the traditional anime art style, D’ART Shtajio bridges the gap between Eastern and Western ideologies to create a truly unique and vibrant animation.”

Since I was young I’ve had a deep love for anime. Ghibli films were a big part of my childhood, and I still remember being blown away by Akira (1988) the first time I watched it. While aiming to learn more about animation and the industry through my university studies, I’ve begun looking out into the industry and studios that could potentially be part of my future.

While I did mention that I am a big fan of Japanese animation since childhood, I understand that it suffers from a big problem. That is, the problem of how characters of different ethnic background and different sexuality are many times represented in inappropriate and offensive ways. Many will argue that instilling western “ideals” into a completely different culture is wrong, and even though I agree with that, the ideal of correct representation is not a matter of western ideals, but human ideals. Every culture around the world would like to be represented correctly in media and it is everyone’s responsibility to educate themselves in that matter.

D’ART Shtajio, is the very first African American-owned anime studio in Japan with a mission to pave the way for correct representation in the industry and to bridge ideologies from the West and the East in a respectful way to create even more unique animation that can cater to people of any background. I think that’s a great goal and after finding out about this studio I am extremely excited to see what the future holds for them.

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Taking a look into the Japanese animation industry, an industry completely different from the U.S. industry which still prefers hand-drawn animation over 3D CGI. 

Remembering what I read before in how the switch to 3D made the animation process much less labour-intensive for animators and then looking at the anime industry of Japan, the reason why companies in the U.S. prefer the digital medium starts to become more clear.

With an extremely high demand for animated shows and films in Japan, all the while being drawn by hand, animators end up working in terrible and many times inhumane conditions while not getting paid nearly enough for what the work. Traditional animation requires many people to be working at the same time and for companies to be able to make profit, the animators end up being paid even lower than minimum wage, in other words they are being taken advantage of.

“Shingo Adachi, an animator and character designer for Sword Art Online, a popular anime TV series, said the talent shortage is a serious ongoing problem — with nearly 200 animated TV series alone made in Japan each year, there aren’t enough skilled animators to go around. Instead, studios rely on a large pool of essentially unpaid freelancers who are passionate about anime. “

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During my research of the process of both CGI and traditional animation I managed to find some videos of the animators of the first “Toy Story” from 1995. Getting their insight on how the new, during that time, digital software works and how it helped them in the production process of the film was very interesting. I will be sharing some more videos I had a look at above this post.

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The Importance of “Toy Story” 

In addition to looking entirely different from its animated predecessors, Forbes reported in 1995 that "Toy Story" was the first movie in which it was possible to store digital characters, sets and scenes in computers so that animators wouldn't have to re-draw each cell.

A very interesting article I found by abc news about “Toy Story”. It is undeniable that the film was a huge part of why many companies decided to give up on hand-drawn animation. After grossing $365,270,951 while being the very first fully CGI animated film, it was a clear sign to people around the world that technology was not only taking over our daily lives, but also in the media that we enjoy so much.

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Data Gathering

“The Number”s is a website with data from the film industry that tracks box office revenue based on an algorithm. It is being updated regularly, so I felt that it was safe for me to have a look through the list of box office revenue grossed by animated films throughout the years.

With just the first look at the list, it becomes clear that 3D animated films have been grossing many times more than hand-drawn films ever since they first appeared in cinemas. This list will be extremely useful in gathering data to compare the popularity of the two mediums for my essay.

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Preparation for Research Presentation

From Disney to Ghibli, as someone who has been a big fan of traditional animation from a young age, when we were asked to make a presentation on a part of the industry that interests us I decided that I wanted to write about the advent of computer technology in the animation industry and the reasons that led to traditional animation losing its popularity. I thought I’d have a look into two of the biggest animation industries right now, the U.S. and Japanese industry mainly due to the fact that they are both very different.

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Concept Art and Character Design

These are some pictures I took from the Breath of Fire: Official Complete Works (2014) artbook. The very first book I bought that shows the pre-production process of the Breath of Fire video game series throughout the years. While this is a video game, these character designs and concept art were used for promotional animation shorts and animation that was used in the video game. 

Reading through the book for the first time some years ago made me understand how much work goes into character designing and concept art and the beauty of creating these parts of a project from scratch. 

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Work Profiles in Animation

Taking a look at the different job profiles and roles in the production process of animation on skreenskills.com, I picked out the roles that I believe I am more fit for based on my current skills and room for growth.

Character Designer: Character designers are required to be highly skilled artists, able to communicate different aspects of a character’s personality through their art and work with briefs given to them for the creation of said characters.

Concept Artist: They create the first look of how a project will look. They experiment with different styles until they find a visual style that works with what the final product will look like. 

Storyboard Artist: They produce a series of different panels to capture the movement of the characters based on a script. With good understanding of cinematography and sequential art they also need to be able to work with a variety of different styles.

Animator: Responsible for moving the characters through a series of drawings. Need to have a good understanding of how characters move and show emotions through facial features or body language and be able to animate based on the visual style that the project has taken on.

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After today’s class where we talked in our groups about the things that interest us in the animation industry and that we’d like to talk about in our presentation in January, I remembered this video of the japanese animation studio Studio Trigger from the time they branched off and became independent to work on their own films. Trigger was founded by people who left one of the biggest studios around that time in Japan, Gainax, and this documentary shows the work that went into the studio’s very first short film “Little Witch Academia” and how all different aspects of the industry from Direction, Art Direction, Character Designers, Animators and more come together to create something.

To me what was extremely interesting about this documentary is how all the different components of the industry work in their own ways, but for a common cause to finish the film within the time-frame they have. Seeing the difficulties that a newly founded studio goes through and how they can overcome those difficulties was a great way to learn more about the behind-the-scenes of the industry as a whole, and what goes into an animated film aside from the artistic aspect of it.

Seeing the way studios abroad work is very interesting as well since a lot of opportunities for working in the animation industry can be found in countries other than our own.