Position Statement

Over the past four years, my knowledge and love for animation has continuously grown. As somebody who values the importance of drawing, I have a profound enthusiasm for bringing things to life. I have a real drive for Character and Environmental Design, this is an area in which I thrive the most, as I love the creativity in which this process holds. I find myself often being inspired by my surroundings and the people in it. As well as specialising as a pre-production artist, I also have experience as a 2D and 3D Animator. I aspire to become the best Animation Designer I can possibly be. Practice, enjoyment and determination are the three things that I truly value above all else. I believe that there is always room for improvement and that as an artist, continuously growing and developing is important. I am somebody that is friendly and has the ability to work collaboratively in a professional environment.  

I love designing new worlds and characters, this is something that has encouraged me to use not just digital mediums, but to also use more traditional techniques too. I love being experimental and getting inspired by all areas of life. I am somebody who has become experienced in a range of software, such a Photoshop, After Effects, Maya, Premier and Flash. I believe my ability to be multi disciplinary, and the fact that I don't one particular style of working, allows me to be more adaptable and versatile as an animator and as an artist. I have come to realise that I love working in a range of different styles, and I am always able to alter the way in which I go about a project, depending on the circumstance. I have had the experience of working alone, as well as in a team, and both of these experiences have taught me a great deal. 

Workshop: Contacts & how to get paid

Through out this module, I attended multiple workshops all of which offered a lot of insight and advice on how to manage myself as a professional. One of the main pieces of information I received was a bout invoices and how to manage them.

Invoice

Before this work shop I wasn't fully sure what an invoice was, since I had never had to manage one before. After this talk I had a full understanding f what an invoice is, how to go about creating one and when to use it.

Another talk that helped me a great deal, was on how to get ones foot into industry. The general gist of this presentation was very much focused around how to address other professionals when reaching out, and how to get a good connection going with somebody. A although most of the information given in this presentation was common sense, it was still good to hear it all because for me it reinforced some really important aspects. Such as, being positive and not being rude. Even though I already knew this it was good to just have all of these points reinforced.

CV

When it came to the workshop based on cvs, this helped me massively with my own CV. I was at the point where I needed to update mine, so I now knew exactly what to include and what not to include in mine! The appropriate layout for my CV was now much clearer.

Updated Showreel 2017

Below is my latest showreel, demonstrating a range of work I have produced in the last 9 months, including animation, character development and background design. 

ISSUU: Portfolio

Above is my ISSUU version of my digital portfolio. Many of the images which have been incorporated into m portfolio also feature in my showreel itself, so I feel this digital collection of stills shows a good representation of what my animation looks like, as well as my concept work.

ISSUU: Presentation Boards

ISSUU: Final Presentation

Studio Brief 1: Creative Strategy

For studio brief one, I had to produce a 15 minuet presentation talking about my experiences over this past year, and how my experiences have influenced who I am as a learner and practitioner. Luckily, I felt i had a lot to talk about in this presentation, because this year has been by far one of my busiest so far. 

I decided to also use this presentation as an opportunity to discuss my experiences as a practitioner who has been reaching out to other professionals for either jobs or advice. I also planned to discuss the job that I now have lined up for when I leave. This was also a good time to show some of the work I have created in collaboration with others, as well as the work I have produced alone this year, to show how much by drawings and animation has developed. 

Fox and the Whale

Whilst at MAF I got to watch "Fox and the Whale" which was an animation which was directed and produced by Robin Joseph. This short animation centres around a fox who is looking for a whale. The first thing that got my attention on this animation was the environments. I couldn't even tell for sure what was 2D and what was 3D. The colours and everything about it was beautiful. This is the most I have ever wanted to step into an environment and for it to be real. One of the most effective aspects of its design was the lighting, particularly in the forest area. The other thing that made this so memorable to me, was the simplistic design of the fox. It could be argued that this design is quite minimalist, but I believe it works fantastically. The small and simple design f the Fox allows him to be more appealing, and it makes him look minuscule in relation to his surroundings, which I think the Director may have wanted. 

this animation left me feeling quite emotional, and I couldn't even pin point why. The use of sound along with the surroundings resulted in something very moving. This animation has opened up the idea in my mind of possibly sometimes creating more simplistic characters that are focused around shapes. It also left me feeling as though I wanted to paint lots of environments, because the rich use of colour worked so well. I think one of the reasons this animation was so successful was because it consisted of complex backgrounds, but a simple character. I think this in a way, separated the two just enough for them to be appreciated as individual components in the story, but to also be appreciated together. 

Boulder Media

During the past year, Boulder Media has come up many times during my research, or just in conversation. Since I was planning on applying to couple of the positions that had opened up there, I decided it was necessary to do some key research on the company. After already being familiar with quite a lot of the content they produce, such as Danger Mouse & The Amazing World of Gumball, i already knew this was a studio that produced 2D content.

However after visiting their site and seeing their showreel, I was pleasantly surprised to see that there was also 3D content in there too. The fact that this is a studio that is not dedicated to using just one form of animation, means that they are potentially more adaptable, which could lead to bigger clients. They have produced a huge range of content for different clients internationally, including BBC and Disney US.  In my opinion, this studio is so successful de to it's ability to provide clients with animation that is not just in on particular style or medium. As well as this, there are characters scattered through th website that all look completely different to one another, therefore they are clearly able to create characters and worlds that are completely unique to one another. 

This has encouraged me to keep experimenting in my won practice, and to keep creating content that is different to something I have created before hand. The diversity in their showreel has made me eager to make sure mine demonstrates all of my capabilities and the fact that I do not have one style of working. Hopefully, if I keep applying this mindset to my practice, I will be seen by potential employers as somebody who is able to alter my style of design and animation, to fit with what they need. 

Claire Hummel

Claire Hummel is a concept artist that I have recently come across. One of the first things that grabbed by attention when looking through her work was the amount of detail in her designs, as well as the huge range of style. A lot of the work she posts online is fan art as well as her own professional concept design work. However I still find all of her work intriguing to look at because it is clear that she is has a very strong drawing ability!

After scrolling though many examples of her work, I could see that she is somebody who does not follow one singular style, or at least that is how it looks. I could see instantly that she is a talented character designer & background designer. This immediately struck me because I am somebody who wants to excel in both of these areas. Her attention to detail is something that I found mesmerizing to look at, because there was just so much to see. This made me feel excited to draw more backgrounds and environments, and to get better at it. In my opinion, I think one of the reasons she is so good at producing detailed concept work to a high standard is because she not only has a strong drawing ability, but she also has a brilliant understanding of anatomy, which I think is a vital quality to have when creating work like this. 

After researching through her work, it made me realise again the importance of life drawing and understanding the human form ,therefore I decided to make sure I keep life drawing on a regular basis because I think this has a huge influence on how somebody represents a character. 

The Amazing World of Gumball

The Amazing World of Gumball is an animated TV Show that has come to my attention a lot this year. After seeing a lot of job openings to work on this show, I decided to delve into some research, because I had never watched this show before. There are two main things I really like about this show, and these are aspects that I am currently trying, am going to try and incorporate into my own practice.

The first thing, is that the characters in this show are very simply designed, but they are rich in colour, personality & expression. I think this also works so well because of the target audience of the show.

I would argue that there characters are incredibly 2 dimensional, however this appears to be a style choice and I think it works really well! 

The second thing that I really like about this show, is the fact that the backgrounds contain elements of live action. I think this is a really effective way to separate the characters from their environments, but not to the extent where it looks strange. One of the main aspects that I have taken away from the design work behind this show, is the fact that even though the characters are designed simply, they have a huge range of facial expressions. This is something I need to incorporate more of in my design work because I think it opens up more personality in a character.

I believe this show has been such a big success, because it isn't over the top. I think this is another example of how sometimes simplicity can work better then something that is over complicated. This has also encouraged met to think more about designing characters that are animals based, and slightly more on the silly side. I think this has the potential to grab peoples attention more than a human character, particularly a younger audience. 

Large Evil Corporation

Whilst I was researching potential studios that I could apply to, iI came across the Large Evil Corporation which is situated in Bath. I decided to look further into the studio and to get a better ides of the kind of content that they produce.

To begin with, I wasn't sure weather this was the place for me, however I soon realised that this s a studio that produces shorts as well as commercial content. This is something that I think is a really good quality for studio or practitioner to have because this opens up more doors for opportunities. 

Despite a lot of their work being primarily 3D baed, this didn't put me off, because I noticed there was a large variation of styles and design. This is something that not only encouraged me to keep researching but to also apply for a runner position that had recently opened up there. 

I think this studios high level of success is down to it's ability to meet the needs of a huge range of clients. In my opinion I think if a practitioner of studio is able to produce commercial content for a client, this is potentially a very effective way of building further connections and gaining more recognition. I think from the perspective of a potential client, this studio has the potential to produce high quality animation. This shows through in not only the work that is up on the sight, but also in the way it is presented. 

This studio also produces motion graphics which I think could be quite a popular choice for a lot of clients today, because motion graphics has quite a modern aesthetic to it. Therefore in order to be successful I think it is important to think about using a variation of animation techniques. This is why I have tried to keep using Maya during my final year, so that I am able to show people that I can do more than 2D if necessary. 

The Triplets of Belleville

Very early on in the year, I was sent Belleville Rendez-vous on DVD as a gift from a family member. This is a film by Sylvain Choment and having never seen it before I was intrigued just by the front cover. I could already see the range of diverse character designs that would have a part with in this story.

Before even watching the film, I was already in love with the extreme and exaggerated features given to these characters. From this one image, I could see that each character took on a different shape an size, a different colour scheme, but they still all worked really well together. One of my favourite things about these designs, just from looking at the image above, was the exaggerated facial features. Weather a character had an abnormally large nose, long face, or rounded face, I believe all of these factors poured so much personality into each character, even though I had not yet seen them move. 

Another thing I loved about these characters on the front cover, was that it was not completely clear which characters were "good" and which were "bad" and I found this to be very interesting. I liked the fact that even the main characters that were not supposed to be threatening at all, still had a very uneasy style about them.

One of my favourite characters was the man above, who is a cyclist in the Tour de France. His physical build was so exaggerated and hunched, it allowed him to look almost malnourished and broken, which I think is what the designers were aiming for. I felt physically uncomfortable and exhausted myself during the scenes which consisted of this character slowly but surely peddling his bike up a steep hill.  I also found the shape and build of the French Mafia characters to be incredibly effective. The fact that they were not only taller, but their shoulders protruded above their heads, along with their abnormally long faces immediately indicated that they had authority. 

This animation consisted of some very detailed and well thought out environment design. My favourite of these is the Grandmothers house. It is a small cluttered home, filled with everything and anything. One of the main aspects that in my opinion made this animation so successful, was the slightly dreary colour schemes, which appeared to do a good job of separating the outdoors to the indoors. 

There is very little dialogue in this animation, and I think the visual side alone does an excellent job of telling the story, as well as portraying the relationship between the characters. Even though we rarely see much communication between the grandmother and her grandson, it is still clear that she cares for him very much. This animation encouraged me to want to experiment more with colour schemes, and to not always settle for the first colour scheme that I feel is appropriate. It has also made me want to create more exaggerated characters, and to not be afraid to try and push the design boundaries. In my opinion, that it why this animation has turned out so well, because it looks completely unique and I haven't seen anything like it before. 

Cory Loftis

Around the time I had come across the work of Borja Montoro, I also came across the work of Cory Loftis. He worked on a lot of the same features as Montoro. Similarly, he is also somebody that appears to be very multi disciplinary, having had experience as a concept artist, character designer and animator.  

One of the thins I instantly noticed about a lot of his designs was the fact that he is able to give so much emotion and human expression to characters that aren't even human. I think this is a really important skill to have as a character designer and this made me very eager to design more not human characters in order to improve my ability to do this. I also found that some of his drawings appeared to be quite loose and experimental, which is something I sometimes struggle to do. Looking through examples of work made me want to try and get back to doing this. As I was researching his work, one of the key things I noticed was that many of the different characters that came up varied massively in shape and size. This gave so much personality to a character and made them all completely different. 

Quite often when I design my own characters I sometimes try too hard to keep everything in proportion, which I now think can potentially prevent that character from having more personality and from being more memorable. Therefore one of the main things I have taken away from the work of Cory Loftis, is that it is important to give a character a strong silhouette. In the future, when designing a character will try and factor in the aspect of silhouette every time. 

Borja Montoro

Whilst i was carrying out research for character design inspiration I came across the work of Borja Montoro. Montorohas worked on numerous animated films over the years, including Tarzan, Zootopia and The Emperor's New Groove. As well as being an animator, he has done a lot of design work and visual development, and is therefore very skilled when it comes to producing dynamic character poses.

I came across countless examples of work that I found so interesting, and I found myself studying them and how they are drawn.

I even found myself wanting to trace some of the character poses, just so I could understand how they piece together and how they are drawn. In my opinion that is one of the best ways to figure out how a character is constructed, because I don't think looking at it is enough. Very similarly to some of the character designers I had come across previously, Montoro has the ability to create and work with characters that vary in almost every way. Weather it is an animal character, a child, an elderly person or a villain, all of the designs I have come across are all so different to one another.

This reinforced to me the importance of being adaptable as a designer. Also, whilst looking through the internet I also noticed that the designs had really good colour palettes that worked fantastically with the characters. This is something that stuck with me, because I think it is very easily to potentially spoil a design by using colours that do not do it justice. 

Once again after researching this work all I wanted to do was draw, because there was just so much inspirational content in front of me. It also made me embrace the fact that i don't have a singular set style of work.

Animade

During my time of sending out job applications, I found myself avoiding the London area. This was because I wasn't sure if I wanted to move there, due to it being so expensive. However despite this, I still came across a lot of studios in this area, many of which looked really intriguing. 

Animade is definitely one of my favourite studios I had come across. This studio focuses on producing work that is very much character based. 

Very quickly after looking through their website, it became clear that this was a studio capable of producing a huge array of work, for many different purposes. I also noticed that a lot of the content they had produced was quite simple in design. 

One of my favourite examples of this, was their animated advertisements for Airbnb. The character design for this was extremely simple, however it was animated really well, and this actually resulted in the finished content being really funny. The backgrounds were mostly just line work with no colour, which worked really well with this character it was centred around. 

Another thing I noticed about the way this studio presented itself, was the simplicity of it's web design. As I was beginning to put my own site together, I found that taking note from some of the different examples I had come across was very helpful.  This website was not over powering and arguably quite plain, but I think this worked really well. It kept the attention and focus on the content they had created, which I think is better than creating a website that is too intense for a viewer to process. 

As well as it's fantastic design work & animation, I believe this studio's success also comes down to the fact that they are capable of producing content for a range of purposes. As well as animation for advertisement they also have a section on their site for Interactive work & Illustrations. Therefore I think it is important as a practitioner to be open to different genres and styles of animation. I think this is what has enabled them to do so well, and this is certainly something I have kept in mind since coming across this studio. 

Aesthetica SFF

I attended ASFF in York, because I wanted to see the Brothers McLeod seminar on Aesthetics of Animation & storytelling. This was because it was a great opportunity to speak to them to gain some feedback for my COP, but also because I just really wanted to go and meet them and get inspired.

During this seminar, it became apparent to me that Greg and Miles were very but about creating content that they enjoy, and being experimental. Greg, who is the animator has a love for 2D animation and deliberately gives some of this work quite a messy aesthetic. He talked about how sometimes his frame paper scrunches and creases, and he likes this messy look and it adds to the animation. This was really refreshing to hear, because up before this point, I was found myself becoming worried about making all of my work look perfect. Greg's perspective really encouraged me to relax a little, and just focus on enjoying what I work on. 

Paying The Bills

Although they enjoy using their time to produce the work that they want, Greg and Miles talked about this importance of being able to pay their bills. They have worked on numerous projects for different clients, including Disney and Dreamworks. Not all of these projects they have worked on have had the same style as their more personal work. They talked about the importance of being able to produce what the client needs. 

In my opinion, the Brothers McLeod are so successful because they are able to organise themselves in such a way that allows them to take on the work needed to support themselves financially, which then allows them to have the time to create their own work too. They also reinforced the importance of keeping up communication with a client, and not going quiet. As well as this, they stressed how much easier it is to pick up the phone and speak to somebody directly, even though using the phone isn't everybody's preferred choice. 

I came away from this seminar feeling in some ways, much calmer and more confident about my work and my abilities as an animator. I felt much more hopeful about the possibility of one day working as a freelancer, which isn't something I had given much thought to before now. I also felt much happier about having a preference between 2D & 3D, because before this point I had been trying to convince myself that 3D was for me, which I don't believe it is, at least not to the same extent as 2D. 

This seminar and meeting with the Brothers McLeod also encouraged me to keep being organised with my time, and to carry on being a good communicator. I believe this is one of the main reasons why they have been so successful. This also made me eager to get on with building my own website!

Studio Brief 2 - Creative Presence: Business Cardss

After producing some business cards last year, I decided to alter the design of them, because I wanted to make them more memorable. I decided to use my cover background on the back of the cards instead of my logo, because I think the trees are show an example of the kind of work I enjoy doing.

In some ways i wanted to simplify my cards, for when I start my new job and for the end of year show. Hopefully seeing the design on the back will make people want to pick them up! However I kept the similar colour scheme.

Profile Logo

 At this stage my logo remains unchanged. This is because I have received feedback from numerous people that it is very memorable as a logo, and that ut represents me well. Therefore I decided to leave it as is fr now, and will probably alter it shortly after finishing the course, because I want to see how my creative journey after graduating influences my choice of logo. 

Studio Brief 2 - Creative Presence: Online Presence

As part of making myself known as a practitioner and also so I had a platform with everything of mine on, I made sure to keep my online platforms to date, as well as creating my own individual website.

YouTube

Vimeo

Twitter

Instagram

This year I did my best to keep all of my sites up to date. As well as this I used WIX to create my website.

My website

www.katymulvey.co.uk 

I split my page into different sections which were, the homepage, About me, character design, environmental design, showreel, animation, and contact information. I did this because I wanted to make it clear that I am able to focus on pe-production as well as animating. 

Branding

My logo is the same as last year so I decided to keep the colour scheme that suits it. After experimenting with a cream background I decided I preferred the blue because I think that works along side my work better.

With my branding, I have changed the "Animator & Concept Artist" to "Concept Designer and Animator" because I now feel this is a better description of me and what I do. 

Studio Brief 2 - Creative Presence: CV

When it came to updating my showreel, I was luckily already in a position where I had my current CV that I could develop further. The contents in my old CV was not relevant to animation, however I used a similar layout. I also got feedback from my tutors and peers, to make sure that all of information I was putting down was relevant and that there were no spelling mistakes.

For my cover letter, I personalised each one for the specific jobs I was applying for. So I did not have one specific  letter, I had many versions for different job roles!

Studio Brief 2 - Creative Presence: Showreel

When it came to updating my showreel, I had been lucky enough to get feedback from Tracy Liddell, as well as some studios when I was applying for jobs. Below is my updated showreel for 2017, which can also be found on my Vimeo, Youtube, and website.

After working with Will Addy from Leeds College of Music, he also allowed me to use one of the tracks from him and his brother, for my reel.

Education City - Getting The Job

After a few more weeks, I received a phone call from the Creative Director, offering me the position of Jr Artist. I was very shocked but also ecstatic at the same time. I immediately said yes, which he was pleased about, however he also suggested that I sleep on it and then give him a definite answer with in a couple of days.

My Role

During my interview, it was made clear to me that I would have the opportunity during this job to carry out more than one role. Each section of interactive animation is very much adopted by one individual, so there is a good chance I will be able to work on backgrounds, layout and design work as well as animating. I was also quite settled to hear that there had been a few more new comers to the studio in recent months, and there will most likely be another alongside me, which made me feel slightly worried.

Since this job is based in Oakham, I was looking for flats with in that same week, to ensure that I would be able to start the job when they wanted me to. We agreed that it would be best for me to begin on 3rd July, therefore giving me time to relocate and Finnish up my degree.


My Experience

I found the experience of job hunting to be a very valuable one. It made me learn quickly that studios can be very different to one another, and it very much depends on the size of the studio.  After the feedback I have received from different studios I felt confident in myself as a practitioner but also eager to keep improving. I will continue to use the same job websites and techniques in the future, if I am looking for new work, however I am very glad that I managed to get a job lined up for myself so early on in the year. In a way, this made it easier for me to enjoy working on my final film, because as somebody who likes to have things organised in advance, I don't think this could have gone any better.

Education City - Interview

A few weeks after submitting the brief I was given, I was pleasantly surprised to receive an email from the studio, asking if I would be up for going for an interview. I didn't expect that my application would get this far, however I jumped at the offer!

When I attended the interview, I was there for just over 2 hours to my surprise. This is because they took the time to show me around the studio and introduce me to each team. Although this was a lot to take on on a first visit, it was really informative, and I left knowing I definitely wanted to work there. The interview itself was quite laid back, however I was still nervous. After a while I became more comfortable and felt quite happy in the environment of the studio.

Education City - Brief

About a week after i had sent off my application to Education City, I received an email from the creative director, explaining that they were very happy with the work they had seen and that they would like to send me a brief to have a go at.

I was provided with a password which would allow me to have a trial period using their product, in order to familiarise myself with their layout and style. 

My task was to design an app which would teach children how to cook a simple recipe. This was something that I knew wouls be a challenge because they style of Education City is very different to anything I have created in the past, and I have never designed an app before, however I gave it the best go I could. 

I haven't posted everything that I did for this brief, on this blog. This is because I didn't want to risk posting anything that the studio would prefer to be kept off my blog. As well as the design work above, I also produced an animation test with the assets they sent me, as well as more initial designs for the layout of the app, including the characters that were to be included. 

How did I find this?

Since I only had 10 days to complete this and send it back of, I decided to get started straight away. I found it to be a challenging yet enjoyable brief, and I loved the designing that I got to do. I decided just to do my best and then go from there, because I was still feeling slightly doubtful at this point, because the Creative Director had brought it to my attention that would have ideally likes somebody to start sooner then my first date of availability. 

This was also a challenge because it required me to animate using the symbols and assets they had provided fr me. Having been so used to animating hand-drawn frame by frame animation, it took be a little while to get into the swing o fit.