Animex Talk

Animex Talk is more directed at animation than games, having the two sections gives a good mix of both industries and you are also able to see the similarities between the two, along with some differences. Everything that I have taken from Animex Game is still relevant to my animation practice, any advice can be adapted to suit your own area of work.

Day 1:

• Ed Hooks, Acting Instructor and Author
• David Au, Storyboard Artist / Assistant Director
• The Mill - Murray Barber, VFX Supervisor
• Stuart Sumida, Professor of Biology
• Rhythm & Hues Studios - Hans Rijpkema

Ed Hooks was a really inspirational speaker, he teaches acting to many animators and spoke a lot about the industry and where it was going. One thing to bear in mind is that we should all consider ourselves as global, work will take us anywhere and we need to have an understanding of the industry and follow it wherever it goes. Need to be aware and involved. If you want something, you should go out and get it, if you don't try you won't get. A thing that was brought up time and again by each speaker was connections. It was all about the people you knew and most of them had got their jobs through people they knew within the industry. David Au said make a lot of friends and never get too comfortable as there is no stability within the industry. He reminded everyone that they'll be working long hours to reach a deadline and even though this may not bother some people, in the long run you have to set yourself goals, you don't want to be working through the night when you're a lot older. 

The Mill was up next with a talk from Murray Barber. It was interesting to see the differences between working for Tv and for film. The main one being the budget, because of this it can affect what can be achieved in the time scale and you need to be able to solve problems quickly. Stuart Sumida, originally a biologist, told us the importance of knowing how things work, people and animals. In order to create a sense of believability you need to study the skeleton to understand how joints move and work. People can tell when something is not accurate even when they don't know fully. Having seen Life of Pi when it came out in cinemas I was really looking forward to seeing more in depth view of how the film was created. The software and rigging system that was used for Richard Parker was actually adapted and evolved from the one used for Aslan in the Chronicles of Narnia, and Aslan was adapted from their first major film, Cats and Dogs. It's great to see how technology progresses comparing the final outcomes to it's predecessors. It will be interesting to see where this technology could be taken next as when Hans showed us both the real tiger and the CG tiger next to each other, I, along with many others could not tell the difference between the two. 

Day 2:

• Straandlooper - Alastair McIlwain, Managing Director / Animator
• Aardman - Will Becher, Character Lead Animator
• MPC - Ferran Domenech, Animation Supervisor
• Double Negative - Andrew Whitehurst, VFX Supervisor
• Walt Disney Animation Studios - Rob Dressel, Layout Supervisor

Alastair McIlwain of Straandlooper bought up an interesting point, that the technology we use is forever changing and that can affect the way we design, produce, view and distribute the work. It's something to keep an eye on as even with softwares, each year there is a new version with tweaks and actually new areas to increase productivity and the way we work. We have to be able to adapt to these new pieces of software and to make the most of them. Will Becher from Aardman attended Animex and although I had previously seen him at Bradford Animation Festival and it was a very similar talk; it just reminded me how much work actually goes into making a stop motion feature film. It will always amaze me at all the little details they put in and I have nothing but admiration and respect for everyone working within that industry. 

The next two talks were from 2 VFX companies situated down in London, Moving Picture Company and Double Negative. Ferran Domenech from MPC spoke mainly about the animation done within Prometheus which I found really fascinating as I had never properly looked into the way it is done within visual effects before. To make sure everything lines up in the end, they matchmove the footage and then from here they can start to animate. It was great to see the breakdown shots of the animation, from blocking through to the muscle system to the final outcome. One thing that Ferran mentioned was to always test the rigs out beforehand, you need to be sure everything works before you dive into the animation, if something is wrong it needs to be fixed straight away. With Double Negative, Andrew Whitehurst showed us two types of visual effects, a more invisible type used in Skyfall and more stand out obvious effects used for Scott Pilgram. Whether it's seamless or obvious each needs as much attention to detail as each other. The last speaker of the day and of Animex Talk was Rob Dressel, layout supervisor for Disney. Working in layout is very similar as previz, working out each shot of the film, camera and character positions, blocking out some rough timings and screen direction. I spoke to Rob the night before at the networking event and he said it's good to have an understanding of layout and cinematography and it can also help push your animation more. You know why the scene is laid out in that particular way and can use it to influence your performance. Another person I spoke to was comic writer, Jim Zub. He spoke about critiquing and that you always have to put your work out there to get better, it may knock your confidence but it should motivate you to improve and better yourself.

The whole week at Animex has really opened my eyes and given me so much knowledge and motivation to become better. I met and spoke to some great people and will definitely be attending again next year. For anyone who hasn't been, I can assure you it's well worth going. Teesside Uni have so many great connections and it wouldn't have been possible without Gabrielle Kent, festival director. Each year they have great speakers from round the world and unlike some other festivals this gives you a real chance to get to speak to them all and get that all important advice from professionals.  

Animex Game

Animex is held up at Teesside University in Middlesbrough, I wanted to attend last year but missed out on tickets so made sure I could go this year. The line up of speakers did not disappoint and there was a wide range from writers, composers, animators and art directors to name a few. The week was split into two, Animex Game and Animex Talk.

Day 1:

• Lionhead Studios - Jennifer Clixby, Producer and Mike West, Lead Designer
• Ubisoft Reflections - Matthew Oakley and Andrew Willans 
• Rhianna Pratchett, Writer
• Naughty Dog - Eric Baldwin, Lead Animator
• Austin Wintory, Composer / Musician

The first day gave me a great insight into the game industry and how Lionhead Studios in particular, worked on each of their Fable games and the challenges they faced with each. Planning is key in order to ship the game out of time. Another thing they mentioned was that it was good to have just one person who had a clear vision for the game, as with their previous games they had a few directors wanting different things and in the end there was confusion between people. Communication is key, you have to be able to pass your ideas down through the departments and also back up to the director. Regular meetings between departments can overcome this but communication at all times plays a big part in any production. Ubisoft Reflections spoke about taking advantage of things that come your way, their studio is well known for the Just Dance games, it may not be your thing but it is one of the best selling games - don't pass up that chance if you get an opportunity like that. 

Rhianna Pratchett opened my eyes to how much more there was to writing , I always knew story was a huge part but didn't realise that hiring professional writers was only a recent thing. Before this studios would just get anyone in their team to write, it sounds quite absurd that this has been the case for a long time, you wouldn't get just anyone to code the game, so why should the writers be any different? Eric Baldwin from Naughty Dog showed the process of making their teaser trailer, to make it as realistic as possible they used a lot of reference. They spent a lot of time working on the fine details just to make it that bit more believable and creating new ways/processes of doing things such as footprints on the sand.  

The last speaker from the first day was composer, Austin Wintory. It was just so inspiring and moving, to hear how he spoke about music and how music affects so much. It can change the meaning of a game or film drastically, and is also something the viewer can connect with. The work he did on Journey was beautiful and he more than deserved the Grammy he got for it. It shows how recognised games are becoming within the entertainment industry.

Day 2:

• Richard Frankie, Creative Director / Open World Designer
• Indie Development Panel
• IO Interactive - Janus Kirkegaard, Senior Environment Artist
• Epic - Wyeth Johnson, Art Director
• Bay Raitt, Artist and Designer, formerly of Valve

Richard Frankie from the Burnout series talked about the process he went through as an open world designer. A major point he brought up was about iteration, iteration is key. Develop your work and keep changing it. The Indie Development Panel was next, it was interesting to see that a fair few speakers came from AAA games before hand. They mentioned that they found at big studios there is a restriction on creativity there, you got more freedom being indie instead. The downside to becoming an indie developer first, is that there is always the issue of not having more experienced people to guide you, as you would have in the industry. You could miss out on learning certain things. When you do make your first indie game, it's best to create something to test your skills on and so you can work out how to improve from then on. It's easy to set up a company, it's harder to maintain and keep it going. IO Interactive, well known for the Hitman series also attended Animex. It's good to always think about the other disciplines/departments as well as your own when working with others. Whatever you create needs to work for the next person along in the production line. 

The most useful and motivational talk for me was from Wyeth Johnson of Epic. It was a really great talk - very eye opening and useful. It really got me thinking about my work in a different way and how I could push it further. What was really helpful is that Wyeth spoke about the do's and don'ts of what to include in your portfolio. I will definitely be reviewing all the notes I took and editing my work / showreel to this advice. The other things he spoke about would seem like common knowledge but didn't actually click until he pointed it out. Bay Raitt spoke last, such an inspirational person, very talented and amazing to see what he has achieved in his career so far. We should never pass up the chance for the work we love, even if it means living off hardly any more - which Bay did for awhile. If it means getting to do what you're passionate about, just do it. It was amazing to see how much he had taught himself and how many different areas he could adapt to. I need to take note of this and learn as much as I can and different pieces of software!

I can safely say that even though at the moment, I'm looking more into animation within films, all of these talks and speakers have been so inspirational and motivating. I have taken so much knowledge from each of them and can easily transfer this advice into my own area of specialism.

Animation Festivals

Over this year I am planning to try and get to more animation festivals to network and get a better understanding of the industry. There were a few I came across last year that I found interesting however I wasn't able to make it due to deadlines from my course and not finding out about them soon enough. The one I was really excited about was FMX - Stuggart, Germany. This festival covered not only animation but VFX, games and films and had some big studio names giving talks last year - Pixar, DNeg, Dreamworks, LAIKA, Axis Animation and Aardman to name a few. What's really good about this festival is that is covers a wide range of topics within the industry, movie screenings, gives masterclasses, portfolio reviews and so much more. I had previously looked into going to Fantoche as this was meant to be the best animation festival out there, however after seeing the line-up for FMX last year I think that I will definitely be trying to get to this one.

One that is closer to Leeds is Animex held at Teeside University, again I had seen this last year but never really got round to getting tickets for the event. Animex is the international festival for animation and games and previous guest talks have been given by Eric Goldberg, animator and director from Disney, Production Designer, Karen deJong, Epic Games, Naughty Dog, animators from Valve. Along with these talks, there are masterclasses and workshops to attend as well. I need to start looking more into these masterclasses and workshops that are available at these festivals as they can be of great use to myself as I would be learning from an industry working person.

Animated Exeter is one that could be nice to go to however it all depends on whether I could get there or not as it would cost a fair amount of money to travel all the way down there and to also pay for accommodation; I think I will wait until November (when the programme is announced) before I make my decision on this one. Animated Encounters in Bristol is close to my actual home and would have loved to have gone, however the dates for this year had changed and I was already moved back up to Leeds when it had started. The problem with some of the animation festivals is that they tend to not be anywhere close to where I am and involves paying out quite a bit to attend them. Because of this I think I will only try to make it to a couple but the one at the top of my list will be FMX. It definitely seems worth the money going by the programme last year and so I'm going to try and see if other people in my year will be interested in attending this in April.