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Industry Events/Interaction
Cinesite - Samir Continued Contact
13/07/22
I met Samir in April of 2022, and ever since he has been an incredible factor on my progression as an animator. In July of this year I asked him what would be interesting for him to see in a graduate reel as he is a VFX supervisor at CineSite (a long term goal of mine). After which he gave me suggestions and gave me that push to improve my work which he already thought was at a decent level but was definitely missing something. After this I began to develop ideas for the tasks he had set me and produce competent animations which I would show him in the latter part of the year. Please look at my development work for final results. Samir was also kind enough to give up a whole hour's lunch break to talk to me one to one in a call of what he expects me to do, general tips for animation, and even interviews. Please find my notes from the meeting below.
CineSite Logo
Reel Tips
Interview Tips
Weta - Dave Clayton Online Talk
30/09/22
The first event which I attended was actually an online event held by Weta on the 29th of September. It was hosted by Animation Supervisor Dave Clayton who detailed his experiences from the beginning of his career as a Junior Animator on The Lord of the Rings, to his current position as Animation Supervisor for Better Man. This I found to be genuinely inspirational as it shows how far I could go if I really put myself into my work and trust the process. Not only that but as Weta is my ideal company to work for long term, it gives me that extra little bit of hope that I will be able to achieve my dream of working there.
Weta Logo
Notes on Dave Clayton Talk
Blue Zoo Trip
11/10/22
The next thing we actually did as a whole class, and this was going to Blue Zoo on the 11th of October. We were spoken to and shown round by one of the founders Tom Box and an ex Ravensbourne student Daniel Cripps . Going to Blue Zoo, an animation studio which seems to primarily produce children's 3D animation such as Paddington Bear among many others, was actually a very interesting and enlightening experience. However not in the way I imagine it was for my peers. For me it was a definitive nail in the coffin if you will of me branching out into children’s animation as a career as for me some of it seemed very basic and almost too simple as well as generally un inspiring, at least for myself. That being said however I am incredibly grateful for the experience and that I was able to go and experience what their company has to offer. I have the utmost respect and admiration for what they do there but it is sadly simply just not for me. Please find my notes from the trip below.
Blue Zoo Logo
Blue Zoo Notes Page 1
Blue Zoo Notes Page 2
Milk VFX Re-Connection / Dneg Connection
12/10/22
Reconnecting with my friend Natalie Reid who is now Exec Producer at Dneg (was Head of Production at Milk VFX) ended up being an integral part of my year. Even to the point I’d be willing to say the most important conversation I have had for my career thus far. We went to a pub just around the corner from Dneg and spent roughly 2 hours there, during which Natalie very generously offered to get my name into the head of animations mind when I apply, to be essentially a fast track into working for Dneg as a junior animator. A true dream starting position at an amazing company. We talked about suggestions for my showreel and was told to make sure it's interesting and original which led me to begin developing some projects I am currently working on and have completed. Please look at my development work page for a more in depth look at some of said projects.
Shortly after our meeting, Natalie said that she was meeting another friend of mine Sara Bennet (VFX Supervisor at Milk VFX) for dinner and if I would like to come and say hi on my way home, naturally I said yes. Although seeing Sara ended up being more of a general chat and catch up rather than a career productive talk like it was with Natalie, she nonetheless said she was glad to see that I am still fighting to break into the industry, wished me well and said she looked forward to working with me in future post graduation. Which, although may have been a simple passing kindness, gave me the motivation I needed at the time to really put my head down and improve my reel.
Dneg Logo
Milk VFX Logo
BYOA October 2022
26/10/22
This event was actually really fun and engaging for me. I got my work reviewed by an animator called Chester Sampson (please find feedback he gave me on my industry feedback page) which on its own is amazing in of itself. He gave great constructive feedback despite working in a different discipline of animation to what I aim to be doing. But despite this already amazing and valuable experience, this for me at least, was the very tip of the iceberg of what this event had to offer. As the night went on and more beer was drunk I began to feel more sociable and get out of my shell a bit which is when I sat down and got talking to a man named David Pumpa. As we got talking I found out that he is a Lead Cinematics Animator at Playground Games, and also in the past has animated in some of my favorite games. Despite always knowing that games were an option for me, I completely neglected the thought of cinematics which ultimately led to another career path option for me. Making this whole night as a whole very not only incredibly fun and enjoyable, but also great for career and self development too. I will definitely be attending more in future.
Siggraph Logo
BYOA October 2022 Ticket
Playground Games -
David Pumpa - Reaching out and Making Connection
01/11/22
Shortly after meeting Dave at the Bring Your Own Animation event I decided to reach out to him on LinkedIn as he had genuinely captured my interest, to the point I was curious about what kind of things he would expect to see from a graduate showreel for game cinematics. He was more than happy to give me plenty of advice and recommendations for what to include in my reel. Not only that but he took the time to go through his own graduate showreel with me and discussed how I should take what he did and make my own ideas from it. Unfortunately at this time I haven't had time to animate them just yet, however with the remainder of 2022 I would like to get 2 or 3 finished and polished for him to see, thus opening another door for myself once I finish uni, if I have done them successfully of course. Please find a list of animations which he would like to see below.
Playground Games Logo
Dave Animation Suggestions
Framestore Visit
15/11/22
This for me was an amazing experience. It was without a doubt the biggest VFX house I have ever been to. I was enthralled by all of the levels of the floors and how they were laid out into specific artist sections divided by production as well as the work they were producing as we were walking around. However this was just the start. After the initial tour of the building we were given a presentation by Ian Landman the Head of Recruitment. This presentation was not only informative but interesting and engaging too as it showed us in depth breakdowns of some of the company's more prolific and known works, as well as a brief history and outlook of the company as a whole. In all honesty for me this has further solidified my aspirations of working in VFX and I will be applying for their Launchpad Internship Scheme in January. Fingers crossed I get it this time! Please find my notes from the talk below.
Framestore Logo
Framestore Notes
Laura N-Tamara Talk
16/11/22
Laura N-Tamara, a freelance 2D animator and director came to class to give us a talk about being a freelancer and her own personal experiences with it as well as talk through some of her personal works. Not only this but she also gave us an idea of what to do for a professional pitch, perfectly setting us up for our own pitches in the coming weeks. As a whole I would say the talk itself was genuinely interesting and gave me an in depth look into freelancing and some experiences I may have as one. However for me at least I have no intentions of becoming a freelancer for the foreseeable future as I would rather dedicate myself to a company and work my way up to my ideal position if possible. Nonetheless the talk was incredibly informative, giving me an insight into a sector I admittedly have never looked into, as well as a general idea of what to expect if I ever decide to freelance.
Laura N-Tamara Logo
Laura Notes Page 1
Laura Notes Page 2
Vytautas Talk
16/11/22
Vytautas, a Ravensbourne Alumni and personal friend of mine, came back to give us an impromptu talk just after Laura. He told us about his personal experiences at his workplace (Ritzy Animation) as well as how it differs from the uni work style. Not only this, he also gave us personal advice on how to prepare ourselves for industry by changing simple work ethics to get ourselves into the habit of working everyday. It was a fun and engaging talk, which I have since put into practice trying to work everyday for a minimum of 1 hour, may that be on Maya or on my blog, even if I have work at my part time job. Please find my notes on the talk below.
Ritzy Animation Logo
Vytautas Notes
Asa Movshovitz
07/02/23
Asa's talk was ultimately very interesting, talking about how a smaller company like Keyframe studios is able to integrate more up and coming software such as Blender and less used software's like Unreal and 3DS Max into their pipelines with relative ease. He also talked about some of his favourite projects which ranged from wild shows for Channel 4 to a children's animation series which he created himself on YouTube. The talk overall was very interesting and engaging, really giving me ideas of different opportunities which I could have as I begin my career. I sadly lost my notebook with the notes on this talk so I wont be able to post them below.
Keyframe Studios Logo
Samir Ansari
17/02/23
Samir came into uni to give the second years a talk so I saw this as a perfect opportunity to engage with him again. He gave a much more in depth version of the talk he gave me last year, even talking about salaries you can expect as you enter the industry as well as his own journey from student to CG Supervisor at Cinesite. And what a globe trotting journey that was. I spoke to him about a prior conversation we had regarding job availability at Cinesite for myself, much to my surprise he reassured me that there are 4 people leaving soon, and that multiple departments in Cinesite know my name. Which honestly made me feel the most recognized I have felt in my career thus far. Sadly again the notes for this talk were in the notebook that I lost.
CineSite Logo
Alvaro Garcia
17/02/23
Alavro's talk was very interesting. He was showcasing his stunning real time film called The Seed of Juna. A stunning photo real animated film created using Unreal and Motion Builder. He explained the power behind Unreal as not only a game engine but also film production software too. Not only this but he was also showcasing his new game which he is currently developing called Crete. The game itself had fluid animation which he showed us how he developed using Motion Builder. The pipeline which seemed actually really interesting, however I had no prior knowledge on how the software worked so it was admittedly slightly overwhelming. Sadly again the notes which I made were in the notebook I lost.
Mayhem Mirror Studios Logo
Paul Arion
17/02/23
Paul's talk was one of the most engaging talks which I had had to date. Why? Purely because of Paul's loud and enthusiastic personality, and his raw passion for filmmaking. Admittedly he didn't actually have much to give in regards to animation however as I said he was incredibly engaging throughout, and later gave me very useful feedback on how I could construct my future showreels to get a job. Sadly again the notes which I made were in the notebook I lost.
Dneg Logo
Bridget Dash & Dara Mcgarry
17/03/23
The visit which we had to Dneg for me was ultimately sadly slightly disappointing. Not because of the content for the talk, but because of the area of Dneg we actually went to visit. Dneg to me is a VFX company, completely forgetting that they have a 3D feature department. So I was gearing myself up to talk to some VFX artists etc. leaving me disappointed when we were actually going to the 3D feature department. The talk itself however was interesting where they talked about some upcoming projects they are working on as well as showing us around the office. Overall the visit was interesting and gave me yet another path I could find myself down after I graduate. Please find notes on the talk below.
Dneg Logo
Dneg Visit Notes
David Pumpa
24/03/23
The second time I met David was honestly astounding. This was without a doubt the most interesting and engaging talk I had had to date. He gave us so much information and insight into the games cinematics industry from generalising the whole pipeline, to what an average day for a cinematics animator would be. He had me constantly engaged throughout the talk leading me to pursue a conversation with him after the talk had finished. After chatting for a while I had to leave to give a first year student a tutorial, at which point he said he would see me the following week at the Bring Your Own Animation Event to which I said I will see you there. Please find my notes from the talk below.
Playground Games Logo
David Pumpa Notes Page 1
David Pumpa Notes Page 2
Michael Dudok
29/03/23
Michael Dudok gave an amazing inspirational talk about his past experiences working on his own short films to work for the world renowned Studio Ghibli. He talked us through three of his own short films, the processes he went through to create them and his inspirations from the start to the end of each project. After that he began telling us about the vigorous process which he went through creating The Red Turtle for Studio Ghibli. It took a whopping 9 years to make, and after watching it I can confirm it is a true artistic masterpiece. Although Michael was prominently talking about 2D work I still took plenty from this talk, especially in regards to documenting all of your inspiration and research. As well as talking about what to do when lacking in creative vision. Overall the talk was amazing, a true inspiration that I was privileged to attend. Please find my notes on the talk below.
Studio Ghibli Logo
Michael Dudok Notes Page 1
Michael Dudok Notes Page 2
BYOA March 2023
29/03/23
I attended the March BYOA to receive some feedback on my FMP project. When I was there I met a multitude of interesting and inspirational people ranging from people from Blue Zoo to Escape studios. I was originally going to the event to meet with David Pumpa however due to work requirements he sadly wasn't able to make it. I was admittedly a bit disappointed about this however I decided I should still make the most of the event while I was there, still seeking feedback from an industry professional. The person who gave me feedback was Vanessa Alessi. An animator from Dneg Animation where I had visited a few weeks prior. The feedback I received was very useful overall, giving me a few things to work on before I pass it on to my mentor. Overall I would say the event was a success however it would have been better if David could have made it.
Siggraph Logo
Dneg Logo
BYOA March 2023 Ticket
Ahmed Gharraph
31/03/23
The final talk I had was from Ahmed Gharraph, VFX Supervisor at ILP. ILP has been on my radar for a while so when I got the chance to meet someone from there I made the decision to attend without question. The talk itself was amazing, covering all of the different stages in his career, from when he left uni to where he is now. He talked about some less talked about things such as companies becoming more corporate and less appealing, to what it can be really like in the bigger VFX houses. It wasn't enough to put me off however it is something which I will now be mindful of when applying. Although he hadn't done animation as a career path, the talk itself kept me engaged the whole time and gave me some genuinely useful information which I will carry with me as I start my career hopefully in VFX. Please find my notes on the talk below.
ILP Logo
Ahmed Gharraph Notes Page 1
Ahmed Gharraph Notes Page 2
Industry Events Sum Up
Overall I would say I have been extremely privileged in my final year of university getting to meet many industry professionals from a wide range of backgrounds. The things I have learned and taken with me I am so grateful for and I feel wouldn't have been able to experience without attending. I sadly missed a couple of talks which were available due to circumstances at home, however the 19 I attended were all informative and engaging in their own ways, whether they were directly about animation, or the speakers' respective industries. I will take all of the information I learned over these talks with me as I start my own career, and who knows I could be giving my own talks one day in the future!
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