Creative Research - Making Connections

After becoming familiar with Kilogramme Animation Studio I really wanted to get into contact with them to inquire about a possible placement of even just for a studio visit. I became familiar with a girl that works there through twitter, called Emma Reynolds, or EmmaIllustrate. She is an illustrator and an animation art worker. After visiting her site, I realised the area of work she focuses on is very much like the area I want to end up in. I decided to get into contact with her, to ask about what people look for in a showreel, and to see if she could give me any pointers.

I found her design work very inspirational because she clearly knows how to design characters with a great amount of appeal, as well as environments that work well with the characters and voce versa. I also liked the fact that her work is quite light hearted, and pleasing to look at, so instead of feeling panicky or overwhelmed, I felt simply inspired and wanted to spend the time looking through her work. She produces design work for different clients, because she is also free-lance. This was another reason I wanted to get into contact with her.

The reply she sent me was extremely helpful, and made me feel much better about the whole idea of leaving uni and going out into the world. She gave me several pointers to think about:

• Walk Cycles 
• Turn Arounds
• Life Drawing
• Networking 
• Enjoyment

She stressed to me the importance of life drawing, in order to keep my skills sharp. She also mentioned that employers (including Jon) look for good walk cycles. This encouraged me to work o this for my COP Module, because I wanted to have work in my showreel that would be relevant. 

Also, she simply refereed to networking as "just talking to people" which made me feel slightly more at ease, because I had been quite stressed out at the concept of networking. She also provided me with a number of books that would be useful, as well as mentioning that at the end of the the day it comes down to being good, and enjoying what you do. She told me that if I need anything else, to just let her know, which I was massively grateful for! She advised that I email Jon and then if he didn't reply in a month, to just send another polite one. 

Safe to say, this lady has been a saviour!