unistudentlife

[unistudentlife]

Studio Visit

For the studio visit a few friends and I got in touch with an illustrator and graphics designer named Nicholas Alex Welmaker who we found on Instagram (@whirlwind1080).

Unfortunately we were unable to find a practitioner to meet with in the UK, and due to Nick living in the US we had to video call him. The video of that call can be watched at: https://youtu.be/1If7lKvTnbc

Some of Nicks work

 Nicks profession was self taught but, from it he was able to produce an income by doing projects here and there he did however have some good advice for us as animators. One key thing he mentioned was, when working in the animation industry you have to conform to some kind of pattern; everyone has to work together like a well oiled machine. You have to have the strong ability to be able to copy others art styles, mimic then as it is never just one person that solely work on an animation. In my case however I hope that It’ll be others who have to copy my art style, I don’t expect to get there right off the bat though.

We asked him a couple questions one of them being:

Q: How hard is it to get noticed in this industry?

His answer being...

A: “Art is everywhere” from the T-shirts we wear, to the designs we see on our food packets.

His point being because art is always going to be needed it may be hard to find a job within the industry at first, but you’ll get one eventually because art will never go out of style. He expressed that as long as you’re pleasing to the crowd you’ll get somewhere. At the same time however you should be yourself. He said “art is pain” and there’s a lot of competition, so you need to really  get yourself out there. This can be achieved by doing things such as commissions, something that I’ve began doing.

Q: Is there anyone who inspired you, or any particular piece of work that motivated you to pursue this career?

A: “Walt Disney, Pokémon, and comics inspired me”

He said from the age of 14 he knew what he wanted to be because of these.

Q: What software do you use?

A: “I use adobe Photoshop and Illustrator mainly, using a PC and a Huion graphics tablet.”

These were programmes I also used myself, however I use the One by Wacom, but hope to upgrade in the future. 

The main messages I got from this talk were that yes being an animator in this day and age is hard, you’ll have to kind of  follow the crowd before you can get noticed by producing art that is popular; before showcasing you’re own. At the same time you should be doing commissions, side projects and collaborations to improve your skills and knowledge of the profession. You’ll have to start from the bottom and slowly work you’re way up, and if you’re passionate and put in the time you’ll eventually be successful. 

[unistudentlife]

Cultural Visit: To Liverpool

On Friday the 4th of May we visited Liverpool as a wrap up to the professional practice module, a treat to say well done for completing it in some sense. The journey took about 2 hours and once we arrived, we were met with large bodies of water and a variety of boats on the docks.

These boats looked similar to one I’d seen on a kids show I watched growing up called Rosie and Jim, so the sight brought me a small sense of nostalgia.

After getting off the coach, we began to explore; we visited Tate first, a modern art museum. Here we were met with more boats, bigger this time perhaps intended for sailing.

I'd been to the Tate Modern in London before but this one was moderately different, featuring art not present in London's one. I found the art in this museum to be much more interesting as well. Although I think the facility may have been smaller it felt like there was much more to see, exhibits from artist I knew off sparked my interest.

Some of the most memorable pieces I saw, were pieces by Enrico David, Joseph Mallord William Turner, keith Arnatt and Roy Lichtenstein.

Enrico David, Untitled, 2002

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Snow Storm - Steam Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth exhibited, 1842

Keith Arnett, Self-Burial (Television Interference Project) 1969

Roy Lichtenstein, Reflections on crash, 1990

After Tate, we visited the International Slave museum, where we learned about the history of the slaves and saw many interesting artifacts from slavery ship models and paintings, traditional masks, plantation models and the beautiful traditional patterns and tapestries that adorned the museum's walls.

I enjoyed the trip to Liverpool very much and thought it was a very nice round up to the module. It was a lot more visually beautiful and, the nice weather helped me have a much better time there. It’s definitely somewhere I’d like to visit again in my own time, so I can explore for much more than just a couple hours, and fully see and experience what Liverpool has to offer. 

[unistudentlife]

PGCE Speaker

On the 13th of April, Mike Jackson came in to speak about a Postgraduate Certificate in Education and possible careers in education. For me personally becoming a teacher had never been something that crossed my mind, so I wasn't particularly interested in this lecture. Learning a bit more about teaching, however was somewhat interesting, and it was nice to know I had options if I did ever want to do something like that.

It’s good to know that in the future If I did change my mind and want to teach, the entry requirements aren't too high. A degree of the course you want to teach (in my case animation) and basic GCSEs are required.

If I were to become a teacher I’d want to be a lecturer and teach in a university. This is because, I believe the students here are much more mature and are really interested in their education so I won’t feel like my time is being wasted. The students will be as passionate as me and appreciate my knowledge. 

I’ve never really had to teach anyone anything to this extent before, I’ve maybe helped other students small things but have never had to really teach someone a skill such as this from scratch. 

Although options are available for me I wouldn’t want to do this course or jump on to this career path on a whim. I know teaching is hard and I’d like to do some practicing beforehand, just like I want to do now with my animation. I think it’s now too late to consider this career choice as I haven’t studied it much or do I have any experience, other than what I’d gain from doing the course.

On top of that it’s not where my passion lies, although. yes I’m passionate about animation, and I’m happy to share my knowledge but not at a career level.

[unistudentlife]

MA Speaker

On the 20th of April, we had a talk about the MA in visual communication given by Tracy Tomlinson in our lecture. The Master of Arts the speaker spoke about was a studio practice based programme where you can develop your practice and professional potential to a high level. The MA she spoke about was in the practice areas of Graphics Design, Illustration and Animation a full-time programme which took 12 months to complete. 

This programme would open up a range of opportunities for me as I want to work within the animation industry in the future. If I were to do this programme I’d be able to develop my practice to a higher level as there’d be workshops and facilities for me to use. The existence of this programme also enables I have a backbone whilst in university once. I’ve always wondered what I could do whilst in university to ensure that once I’d left I would have somewhere to go and work, or I’d made some kind of name for myself beforehand. This would be a great opportunity for me to consider for postgraduate study possibilities.

 My plan before knowing about this programme was to create and animated series on Youtube, which I mentioned very briefly in an earlier blog. By doing this I would’ve still been able to improve my skills, but maybe not as quickly as I could’ve with professional help.  

Developing these kind of skills early would also be a good Idea, as I’m coming up to my third year. Doing collaborative projects such as Disruption project, also gives me the know-how needed for working in the field. Creating animations are a huge collaborative effort, I’ll need to work in a huge teams to be successful. Working in big teams can be difficult, and I’ll face many obstacles so I’m trying to gather these requirements sooner than later.

Character sheets for future Youtube animated series

[unistudentlife]

Creative Disruption Project Final Outcome: Team Members Roles

To meet our goal and ultimately pass my team also played a big part. Just like before they each had their own theme; however this time everyone’s designs followed a set of rules.

Visuals of Derby

Hashim Diriye’s just like before were visuals of Derby. He took the research he had done before and produced two variations of his design. Following up on his research he created a kind of silhouette collage implementing Lara Croft into the design. 

He also created pictures of his designs in his chosen location.

Football in Derby

Andrew Price continued to work on his theme of football in Derby, but abandoned the earlier Derby cathedral theme. He created cartoonish ram designs inspired by Derbyshire’s county crest and mascot. He too created two variations. 

Andrew originally created his design using traditional means, he then scanned them in, changed the drawings light levels and added colour digitally. Having these kinds of skills ensures that if you have to do digital work, you don’t have to step too far out of your comfort zone. 

He also showed his two variations in his chosen location.

Arboretum Park

Rosa Merchant’s design was again based on Arboretum Park.

The main staple of Arboretum park is the metal boar, so Rosa tried to create a boar, ram hybrid. 

She didn’t like this idea however because she felt too much of both animals were lost but so instead went for a design of the two animals next to each other.

Her final design was a screen print, displaying areas of orange (the colour scheme).

She also showed her design in her chosen location.

Rosa is solely a traditional artist, so she doesn’t like digitally producing art. She thought because her art was a lot more different she may have ruined the pattern. However, that wasn’t something that came across mine or anyone else in the group's mind.

 Rosa isn’t the only one who chose to draw traditional, however. Much like Andrew (and Harry who I’ll talk about soon) she much more comfortable drawing on paper and mark making and that’s fine even though it may seem like you're being challenged when working in a group. There are ways nonetheless to still work traditionally then move your work to digital means and “clean” them up, whilst not diminishing the quality of your work in any way. 

Derby Velodrome/Arena

Sidney Wilson created an abstract ram design based off of his original theme. Although his final outcome is creative he didn’t show any initial sketches so we don’t know where this idea was derived from. Nor did he display a location where he thought his design could go. So I believe in that sense he could’ve put more effort. 

Derby Cathedral & Peregrine

Finally, Harry Green’s outcome was based on Andrew’s cathedral theme. He focused on the gargoyles that can be seen around the building, and the peregrines that can be spotted nesting there. 

He did some sketches to decide what he wanted his final idea to look like.

 Scanning in his sketch he then made line-art, adding the orange digitally to his design later.

He also displayed where he wanted his design to be.

At first, I was skeptical about the success of our group's outcome as we weren't meeting up regularly and we were still working very individually, but in the end we were able to agree on an idea that ensured we’d pass if everyone put the work in; which I believe they did. 

Although my team and I passed this part of the module I believe we just about scraped by, and more effort could’ve been put into it. At first we were all very motivated, we met up for the first time did research and then produced own individual ideas, which we then later presented to our lecturers. After being told we had to find a way to combine our ideas,not much was done after. We were all too over the place, being stuck in our ways and I feel as though our outcomes were a little rushed and last minute, hence one of the reasons why we didn’t include Blippar. 

From this experience, I now know what it feels like to collaborate and try to create as part of a team. I’ll take what I’ve learnt from this and improve on my skills for the future. 

[unistudentlife]

Creative Disruption Project Final Ideas: My Role

on Friday the 27th, my team and I had to present our Final outcome to the creative disruption brief. We came to a collective agreement decided to create Rams in accordance with the themes we’d decided on previously. We thought this would be the best way to combine all our ideas whilst still complying with the Derbyshire theme. We agreed on a color scheme and decided roughly what each of our rams would look like so there would be evidence of us workig=ng together and not too individually as advised to when we gave our first presentation.

 In accordance with my original idea, I stuck with the overall look of the ram. I did however, add a body as that was something we’d all agreed on, I didn’t have my work cut out for me though, as I didn’t have to change much.

I then went to work on my design digitally as I had before, scanning it and correcting it digitally as I went along. I added a few more things that were from my original sketches, such as the skull and chain. When creating digital designs I use my sketches more as a guide rather than copying them entirely, hence the reason why they never look exactly the same. Whilst creating my design I had to ensure that I implemented the colour scheme, a circle as the background was something a few of us thought was a good idea.  I created two variations. 

Just like before I also photoshopped both variations into my chosen location 

I think I prefer the second variation than the first as I don’t believe the orange is as overwhelming. I’m happy with my outcome however and think I adapted to my groups working style. This was somewhat easier for me than it may have been for other members because being an animator, I’m comfortable working with different mediums be it traditional or digital.

[unistudentlife]

Creative Disruption Project: Team Members Roles

As well as myself, my teammates had other roles which were required to create our wall art. 

Derbyshire Dales

Harry Green focused on Derbyshire Dales, for this he spoke about Derbyshire’s surroundings, nature etc. and how he planned to illustrate this. He took various pictures around Derby, and came up with illustrations portraying ideas for our murals design. 

Visuals of Derby

Hashim Diriye’s chosen aspect was the visuals of Derby. He’d researched Derbyshire as a whole, it’s historical pop culture elements, the council as well as the famous road named after Lara Croft. He also did some sketches as research towards our wall illustration. 

Derby Cathedral and Football in Derby

Derby Cathedral and Football in Derby were left in the hands of Andrew Price. He discovered that the cathedral was built in 1532 as well as being the tallest church in Derby, and the home to falcons. In relation to football, he discovered that Derby’s team nicknamed the Rams were founded in 1884. Based his finding he too did some illustrations.

Derby Velodrome/Arena

Research about the Derby Velodrome/Arena was left to Sidney Wilson. From his recent findings, he discovered the history of the Derby Velodrome. He used the unique medium of screen printing to show his response to his chosen aspect.

 Aboretum Park

Finally the last aspect of historical research was done by Rosa Merchant. She looked up the history Derby’s Aboretum park and photographed a few areas of the park. She illustrated the park’s boar statue as her response.

It was mentioned as part of our brief that it’d be best if we integrated Blippar into our project. As Hashim and I both study animation we thought it’d be best if we did a short looped animation when a section of our art was scanned, we have yet to conclude what that’ll be however.  

We were given feedback after presenting our ideas. One key thing we were told to work on (which we were aware of ourselves) was trying to find a middle ground from all the research each team member had done. We all had good individual ideas and illustrations but we have yet to come to an agreement about what we want to do with them. The next step we have to take is combining all our ideas together and finally making one image. We can achieve this by meeting up regularly and drafting some examples together. We can decide what medium we want to use and what’ll be the best colour scheme to follow, this’ll really show that we’re working as a team.

[unistudentlife]

Creative Disruption Project: My Role

In response to the brief given a couple of weeks ago, in which we had to produce an engaging and creative environment at Markeaton street through the use of exciting and thought-provoking wall art. 

We then had to locate suitable places around campus in which our art could be placed. My team and I gave a presentation which voiced the ideas we had and what roles would be distributed. My team consisted of myself Rosa Merchant, Hashim Diriye, Andrew Price, Harry Green and Sidney Wilson. The theme we chose to base our wall art on was Derbyshire history. We thought it would’ve been a good idea to integrate Derbyshire culture into our idea as we don’t see a lot of art culture derived from Derby history, and the history of Derby is the foundation of our university. The role I had consisted of research on the tales of Derbyshire and producing image making from them.

 I chose to focus on the Derby Ram as this is one of Derby’s most iconic staples. The Ram’s origin comes from the traditional tail and English folk song “As I was Going to Derby”.  This tale tells the story of a giant ram and the difficulties involved in harvesting its carcass. As well as this Derby is also known as one of the most haunted cities in the UK, with over 300 ghost sightings. The song/story of the ram itself is also quite spooky including lines such as “The butcher that killed this Ram, Sir, Was drowned in the blood, And the boy that held the pail, Sir, Was carried away in the flood.”

I based my sketches off of this as wells as some of the supposed ghost sightings around Derby and Derby’s coat of arms. 

For instance, the moss on the ram's horns represents Joseph Moss, the first police officer shot dead in Derby. It is said Moss still remains in the Lock-Up-Yard where he was murdered and the lavender represents the scent accompanied by the presence of an elderly woman. Finally, the chains are present to represent the Derby crest, as well as the chained man (Richard Thortley) supposedly sighted on Agard street. Whilst the skull link to the carcass in the story as well as the thousand year-old skull discovered in the basement of Jerrocks.

I then further developed my idea and created a few digital renditions. Using photoshop I digitally edited one of our chosen locations and combined it with my digital rendition.

[unistudentlife]

Mini brief Approach

On Friday the 23rd of February a live speaker came in and gave a seminar. Ness wood a designer, lecturer and design historian gave a very inspirational talk on what she does. In that particular lecture, she spoke about her role in the publication of children's books. Wood’s role included making sure these books were visuality pleasing with the use of trial and error of photoshop. She mostly did this with book covers assuring that they were suitable for the target audience, however she also took the illustrators rough sketches for the inside of the book and arranged these; adding colour and text.  

Wood expressed in order to come up with ideas for the visual aspects of these books she was influenced by things around her. This included vases, plates, magazines etc. taking inspiration from your surrounding is a very good skill for artists/creators to have.

We were given a mini brief in this lecture which was to create 11 sequential images, that portrayed a rough series of events that all link together. I chose to respond to this brief rather than the others as I believe it's a good idea to broaden my horizon. Illustration however is just one step back from animation and I enjoy creating still images with a lot of detail which can be looked at and appreciated for longer than just a second. 

I used an illustration by Jon Mcnaught that had been provided for us in the lecture as a template for my response.

I chose to illustrate my experience when I went to the cat café. I used a soft watercolour effect to duplicate the examples I’d seen in the lecture. Overall I’m happy with the outcome but I feel as though I lost some illustration quality on the smaller images, this is something I’m going to try and improve on in the future, by fiddling with brush sizes and pixels as I’d produced this digitally.

[unistudentlife]

Organisations and Awards

There are many different studios within the animation industry, and some studios are much more successful and well known than others. The top 5 studios in this industry are Pixar, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Dreamworks Animation, Industrial Light & Magic and Studio Ghibli. All of these studios have won numerous awards such as golden globes won by Pixar, Academy awards won by Dreamworks and Studio Ghibli has won multiple Japan Academy Prizes for animation.

The majority of these studios specialise in 3D animation however (Studio Ghibli not included), whereas the path I want to take leads more towards 2D animation. Although these studios are popular and I’ve learnt a lot about animation from them, I’d rather take much more inspiration from 2D animation studios whos practices are the creation of cartoon series. Studios that come to mind when I think about this are Nicktoons or Cartoon Network. 

Both of these networks create quality animation 2 of my favourites are Fairly Odd Parents by Butch Hartman and Steven Universe created by Rebecca Sugar (The first female to have her own Cartoon Network series). Both these creators are big inspirations for me; they both started off from humble beginnings Sugar working as a storyboard artist for adventure time, and Hartman an artist for various cartoon network shows, such as Dexter’s Laboratory, Johnny Bravo and Cow and Chicken.

 Seeing how these creators started from small gives me hope, In order to succeed i too am going to have to start small and do something like an internship from there I’m going to try and work my way to the top.

My first plan of action is to start a Youtube channel where I’ll post my animations, as well as posting them here on Tumblr. After completing university I’ll most likely do an internship back in London, because there are a lot of opportunities out in the city. 

[unistudentlife]

Networking experience

In the past to further extend my horizon and promote myself I had a short Job designing children's watches. I was given a watch template, and then from their had to design watches whilst following a theme. The theme in which I had to follow and from this I designed several.

These collection of snap wrist watches can now be purchased on sites such as Amazon and Ebay. I chose to do this small (small at the time) project not only to earn a little bit of money over the summer, but to also get my name out there. I knew after a while the watches popularity would increase and therefore I took the oppurtunity. I partook in this project in late 2013 an aswell as trying to get myself known I was also able to improve my digital art skills. Now 5 years later I have a new drawing tablet and a lot more experience under my belt, I’m now able to use different software at an intermediate level. 

Characters for an animation in the future

Seeing that I’ve moved more towards digital arts I also decided to try my luck at different styles of drawing. I’d always been inspired by cartoons but thought it’d be nice to try semi-realistic drawing. From there I began doing commissions as I have a real passion now for this kind of drawing, this however doesn’t mean I’ve strayed away from my roots.

Second realism attempt

Commision WIP

I’m now hoping to improve my realism skills as well as my other art styles. I hope from doing these commissions my customers will recommend me to others and I’ll slowly earn recognition. 

[unistudentlife]

About me

I’ve been very passionate about drawing an animation and drawing from a very young age. I grew up watching 90s animation such as Pinky and the Brain, Angry Beavers, Ahh real monsters etc. It had always fascinated me how animators were able to create the illusion of movement through a series of still images. It amazed me how through these images animators could portray personality, character and feeling of course with the help of character voice. 

When I became aware of my passion I started actively watching cartoon series. From these I was inspired and began drawing and painting from a young age. Growing up I read a lot of Roald Dahl books, as many children my age did; Quinten Blakes simple illustration style was something I admired, his style was also very distinguishable a trait I wish for my own work to have.

 Nowadays I draw digitally more than I do with traditional art mediums, after getting the hang of using digital art tablets I had much more of an interest in creating characters this way, hence the reason I decided to do an animation course at the University of Derby. Since then I’ve found myself keenly watching anime both enjoying the art style, characters and story. One of my favourite animators is Hayao Miyazaki, director of the much Studio Ghibli.

Since taking animation I now find it very hard to sit and watch anime or cartoons, without analysing them. Taking in how they transition from scene to scene, how the draw each frame or trying to figure out what kind of techniques they use to keep the audience hooked. I think this is because I really want to perfect my work so I always find myself subconsciously looking for ways to improve.

When i graduate from university my dream is to become a cartoonist, and have my own cartoon series. To reach my goal however, I’m going to have to work hard and stay motivated whilst I complete my course.