Backgrounds + Inspirations

Back to uni! During the first week we had to prepare and present a short talk to the rest of the class as a way to introduce ourselves, explain our backgrounds and why we chose to do this Masters course. Here are the main points I covered during my presentation:

I explained that I have come straight from the Undergraduate Animation course at DJCAD with an initial background in 2D animation and principles:

I directed a 3rd Year group project during the production of my film 'Jurassic Jess'. Other roles on this film included - character blendshapes and animation, prop designs, modelling and texturing, and compositing:

I have some experience with VFX from a 3rd Year project which involved integrating a 3D object into live-action footage. The end results are not great as it was done in only a couple of days, but I learnt a lot about shooting live-action footage, image-based lighting, matchmover, rendering and compositing:

'Krokodi' was the 4th Year Degree Show Project I Co-Directed and Project Managed. My roles for this film included environment modelling, uv-mapping, texturing, lighting, character rigging, render coordinating and compositing:

Both the 3rd and 4th Year films also gave me experience of pre-production and development of an animated film, from writing scripts to creating animatics.

I feel that I have left the Undergraduate Animation course as a 3D Generalist which is one of the main reasons why I wanted to do the Masters course, to specialize and refine my skills in character animation which is my main interest and passion.

Life Drawing is something I wish to continue this year as I feel it is an important skill to have as an animator:

During this Summer I also helped out on one of the films from last years Masters course. I did the character animation for 'Roses & Dust' and it was a good insight into the course and a great opportunity to start getting back into character animation after not having a chance to do any for 'Krokodi':
Watch 'Roses & Dust' on Vimeo