Industry Awareness Presentation

As part of the Computer Arts Practice module we were asked to give a short, informal presentation on research we have done on a company in the industry we want to work for.

I have previously looked at animation companies before for a similar task but I had only considered the larger studios such as Disney Animation Studios, Disney Pixar, Dreamworks and Blue Sky. Although its great to have ambition I thought I would look at smaller companies as they'd be my likely choice following on from university.

I looked at companies such as Blue Zoo, Axis Animation, and others but decided to look further into Studio Distract, a 3D animation studio based in Manchester. They have worked on a lot of producing their own content as well as working with clients such as Disney, Hasbro, BBC and Mattel.

A project they are currently working on is Rollie & Friends. An animated series targeted towards children and located in a theme park. The company have designed everything themselves from the characters and environments to the character rigs and story.

You can take a look at their showreel for more information or see my presentation attached at the bottom of this post.


Studio Distract 2014 Animation Showreel from Studio Distract on Vimeo.

While this studio didn't have any animation jobs currently available, I used the other companies I looked at to gather a basic understanding of what's required from a 3D animator. Some companies hired freelances while others had some permanent jobs. A showreel is always required and having experience in the industry always helps.

The skills required are the same as most jobs in the creative industry such as good communication and teamwork skills and the ability to work within a deadline. Skills more specific to animation include an understanding of the principles of animation, knowledge of anatomy and cinematography.

View my presentation on Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/s/skqok726frfyfto/CAP%20Presentation.pptx?dl=0

Concepting Story Ideas - Crossing Stream

I was less sure of where to go with the idea for the crossing the stream animation. I originally had the idea of having a character going for a jog while talking to a friend behind him, he'd then turn around just before the stream and attempt to make a safe crossing but would still be carried forward by his momentum and then face plant the other side of the riverbank.

It was a little too similar to the pole walking animation and decided to go for a more cautious approach the stream as an obstacle to be crossed. I've not fully explored this idea, I'll come back to this later.

Sword Swing Animatic

I've finished my first animatic for the sword swinging animation. I'm pretty happy with it as it effectively conveys what I want the animation to look like.

I was told there were perhaps too many frames in it for an animatic and that I was spending maybe too much time on it. I will try and cut down on frames where possible so that I can get to animating sooner.

Concepting Story Ideas - Walking into Pole

Originally I had the character being unaware of their surroundings and simply running into the pole. After some research and thought I wanted to animate a drunk person and so they would not be walking or running, more like stumbling around.

After knocking into the pole they would be dizzy and think of the pole as a person wanting to fight. I also wanted to have the character fall in the end from drunkenness and injury.

Concepting Story Ideas - Casting Spell

For the spell casting animating I'd like to have the character forge this ball of energy using their hands which they then use and cast outwards as an attack.

The character knows the spell so should move with a sense of confidence and not hesitate to perform the attack.

I will probably use the Mery rig for this animation because of the good setup in the hands.

Concepting Story Ideas - Sword Swing

I want to get my storyboards done quickly in order to move into animating as soon as I can. For structured feedback week my aim is to get most of the animatics completed.

These are some initial sketches on what I plan to animate for the sword swinging animation.

Animation Research - Running into Stationary Object

For my "running into a stationary object" animation I have decided to animate a drunk person walking into a pole. So the things I will want to consider while animating this is:

• How the character's intoxicating affects how they walk.
• Their reaction to walking into the object.
• How they are knocked back by the impact.

Luckily there's no shortage of drunk people on the internet, and there's even a decent number of videos containing drunk people walking into poles in the street.

Animation Research - Sword Swing

As part of my research into my brief I have been looking at similar animations to the actions I will be animating myself as part of the coursework.

For the sword swinging animation I'd like to include the character picking up the sword, finding it to be heavier than expected so he puts more effort into picking it up but gets carried away by the swords own momentum once in the air.

So there will be a moment of him bending down and putting effort to lift something heavy. The second part of the animation will be the character trying to hold his balance as he swings the sword 360 degrees.

Here are a few clips I gathered that have helped me with coming up with how to plan the animation (footwork, balance, posing, etc.)






As the character swings the sword 360 degrees I wanted the sword to be be in control of him, to show how he is not very skilled in using a sword. I looked at Weight Throws from the Highland Games to get an idea of how people balance themselves while swinging something around them. I want to do something similar in my animation.

Animation Style

As part of this brief I want to consider the animation style that I am wanting to use. By animation style I mean what principles of animation are being used, how much they are being used and to what effect.

The brief emphasises the use of exaggeration. John Lasseter describes exaggeration in animation as "If a character is sad, make him sadder; if he is bright, make him shine; worried, make him fret" in order to make sure the audience understands the action or emotion better.

But exaggeration is not just limited to character actions. Physical features of a character or environment, or elements in the story can balance exaggerated elements with each other.

Exaggerated expressions are often expressed using other principles of animation, such as squash and stretch, and anticipation. In this clip of Genndy Tartakovsky's Popeye animation test, there is a huge emphasis on the squash and stretch of characters to make them navigate their environment with ease and to exaggerate the actions in the fight scene (see 1:57).



The 12 principles describe exaggeration is as "not extreme distortion of a drawing or extremely broad, violent action all the time. It's like a caricature of facial features, expressions, poses, attitudes and actions. Action traced from live action film can be accurate, but stiff and mechanical. In feature animation, a character must move more broadly to look natural. The same is true of facial expressions, but the action should not be as broad as in a short cartoon style. Exaggeration in a walk or an eye movement or even a head turn will give your film more appeal. Use good taste and common sense to keep from becoming too theatrical and excessively animated." (paraphrased by David Atkinson of The Centre for Animation & Interactive Media, from the "Illusion Of Life" by Frank Thomas & Ollie Johnston.)

So although exaggeration can be linked to a more cartoon style, it doesn't have to. As noted in the Illusion of Life, it can be simply used to more effectively communicate the action or story to the audience.

In this clip of Wall-E, he accidentally runs over a paper cup, his reaction is exaggerated both to emphasise his character as well as convey to the audience his feelings of what he has done. Any person in real life that felt the same may have a similar reaction but may not raise their arms in such a manner (see 3:00).


Using exaggeration in my animations will vary depending on the action. For example in the sword swinging animation I may choose to exaggerate how much the sword is pulling on the character to establish how the character is unable to control it. Or in the "running into an object" animation I may decide to have more recoil in his impact than would be expected.

Self Evaluation Strategy

From my understanding the Self Evaulation Strategy is the way I will reflect upon any research or development tasks I do. It will accompany work as a way of evaluating what I have done, how well it was done and how it can be done better next time.

So this blog post can be more summed up as a self evaluation strategy - strategy. I have already conducted three in-class self evaluation studies and hope to tackle a few of my own in time. However, I will also apply my self evaluation to all work I post, either through progress reports reflecting on my work or through development of ideas that I can reflect upon.

I will ensure that any self evaluations I do reflect my own field of work, such as how applying techniques field can benefit my animation skills.

Hopefully I can get a hang of this self evaluation strategy and tackle it in a way that benefits me to help improve.