Author: Felix Cheng

Before joining the course, I had only some knowledge in animating, with the only time that I animated being on Photoshop, Autodesk Maya, and puppet stopmotion animating with Lego. Thinking even back during my BA, I have grown so much not only creatively but also as a person.

During my time learning about the various mediums of animation, and made sure that I built a strong foundation of the basics of animation, such as the principles of animation. With these stronger built skills, I was able to become more confident in executing the animation exercises that were given to us in Unit 1. Going into the next two units made me realise how much I enjoyed coming up with my own ideas and the storytelling aspect for the upcoming projects such as LIAF and the 1-minute film, collaborating with the writers. This makes me think about the future and the kind of role I want in the animation industry, that being a director is something that I might want to become. This was also the first time that I collaborated with other animators as well which really helped push me to think in different perspectives as well as bounce off my teammates, showing how important collaboration is in this industry. With also being the assistant director of the film helped me organise and plan correctly to ensure that we are efficient with our time.

Hearing about many alumni talking about their experience, such as Yukai Du and how she started freelancing as well as worked in the animation industry,y made me realise how much work I need to put in to find my uniqueness as well as the skills that I have that can help me stand out.

Also, hearing other industry professionals such as Travis Knight, the director, president, and CEO of LAIKA, as well as the studio visit to BlinkInk, and Ben Cole giving us advice on what recruiters look for when they look at our work. Hearing both of them saying that people look for animators who have good storytelling skills has got me to think about compelling script-writing and to continue doing research about what makes a good story.

Looking at where I am now compared to when I first joined, I have become a much more confident person. I have been able to push myself as an animator and create three films, with two of them that I made entirely by myself. Where I thought from the first year I found it daunting that I would have to create a film by myself, to now wanting to create more films, whether that be as personal projects or as a director in the future.

For my future directions there is a few roles that I want to pursue, but my main focus as of right now is to get my foot in the door and start with any animation job role that can allow me to understand the industry a lot better. One of the first ways to start is by applying through internships as they are a great way to get insight with the production pipeline of the animation industry but also talk to industry professionals as they can help give you advice on the next stages of your career as well make networking connections for the future.

I have had the chance to get potential opportunities through the UAL announcements and careers, and apply for these roles. These being:

The Art and Graft Studio, who specialise in design and motion, works with the commercial sector, collaborating with brands such as Amazon, Apple, and Google.

NFTS stop motion volunteer assistant on a stopmotion project.

A collaboration project with Issy Brightmore and Campbell Addy.

With the addition of these applications, I have also started to research the various festivals that I will want to apply to for my graduation film. The first being Brighton Film Festival, run by Kate Jessop, the Anima Festival in Brussels, and the British Animation Festival, to name a few. Applying to these festivals also allows me to connect and network with like-minded people.

As I prepare for my future steps into the industry, I need to create and update my portfolio and my showreel. To make sure that my work is of the highest quality, we had a talk with Margaux Tsakiri-Scanatovits, the director at Moth Studios, who went into detail about what to include in your showreel as well as examples of what a successful showreel looks like.

During her talk, she first mentioned having multiple reels when it came to applying for roles. When first starting out as a recent graduate, you can have a general reel where it shows your skills as an animator, but also having a job-specific showreel is just as important as it shows to the company that you have an understanding of the role that you are applying to.

Each scenario of the job application is different, so it’s important to do your research and tailor your showreel to each role. This means to look into each company and to identify your audience. What is the house style of the company like? Meaning, what does their animation style normally cater towards? What kind of work/ clients have they previously done and collaborated with? If there is a specific company that you are drawn to, then try and emulate their styles of animation to show the skills necessary to show that you could be part of their team.

Margaux then went into detail about what content you should put into your showreel. She explained your showreel is an representation of you as an artist and your capabilities as an animator. Throughout your showreel you should always be putting your best work in, with Margaux explicitly saying that most of the time that your showreel with be judged based of your weakest shot, so ensure that you be very critical of your work and choose shots of animation that are memorable and leave the employer wanting more.

When you look at your showreel, you want to make sure that you have a variety of shots that represent different skills, whether that be timings, perspective, the different principles of animation, etc. Within these shots, you should put your best shot first and at the end of your showreel, a strong, memorable piece of work.

When editing your shot,s it is also important that you are keeping it short, between the 30 – 1 minute mark. The shorter the better. This will also allow you to be very critical of your work as you are not the only showreel that recruiters are going through, so it is better to keep your showreel short and snappy than longer and have the recruiter not go to the end of your showreel.

With contact information, make sure that it is very clear, putting all your contact details like your email address and portfolio link at the start and at the end of the showreel. When people go to your portfolio link, make sure that your email address is visible at all times.

After this presentation, I went and applied the advice that Margaux gave us and tried making a new showreel.

I have also created a new portfolio on Adobe Portfolio, where I have been able to easily upload all my new animation work, as well as some character concept illustrations that I made in my personal time as I still have interest in character concept design.

https://felixchenganimation.myportfolio.com/animation-portfolio

Recently I have had a rise in interest in stop-motion animation, whether that be due to the fact that I had always had a great fondness from an early age for doing Lego stop-motion or even in school when I experimented with clay. The passion for stop-motion never really went away, and the visit to the studio Blinkink as well as the viewing of Kubo and the Two Strings with the CEO and director Travis Knight confirmed that feeling.

Back in October, I visited Blinkink in Camden as a studio visit with the university. Blinkink is an animation production studio known primarily for its stop-motion short-form video content but has also worked commercially in 2D, 3D, CGI, and puppet work. They are known for their works of the music video of Elton John and Dua Lipa’s Cold Heart and the original series “Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared”.

Producer and head of animation Ben Cole gave us a presentation on the ins and outs of working at Blinkink, stating that they mainly work on a freelance basis with their connections to many directors that have known and have worked with Blinkink for a long time. With those freelance work, they have a small in-house development team (with a total of 80 employees) that is very hands down and ready to complete the project.

When asked about how they could get hired here they mentioned that even though they are a very small company, they never say no to people who want to work here. He mentioned that he prioritises quality and storytelling and makes things that people want to watch and be curious about.

Due to the size of the company, one of the main things that they are always aware of is the time limitations and financial stability, understanding that they need to have an extremely high work ethic and making sure that they are planning meticulously which is something they need to have as a freelancing company.

The idea of being freelance is interesting to me after hearing from multiple companies and people in the industry. The positives lie in being able to jump from project to project with no limitation of working at a studio, the amount of work you need to promote yourself as an artist/ animator on social media and being on the lookout for those new projects.

However, looking at Blinkink makes me realise I want to work at a studio. Whether that be a director or an assistant animator, being in an environment of same-minded people with the passion to create and animate sounds like a place to help build me and push myself as an artist.

The role of a game artist is to take the 2D or 3D assets and bring them to life by making them move. They are within the pipeline within the gaming production after the concept art and art design stage.  

Many game artists will specialise in one or more of these areas as game development becomes increasingly sophisticated. The extent of the role also depends on the size of the studio and project.

During their career, you might take on different positions within an animation, modeling or assets team, leading to an ever-increasing deeper understanding of the process.

During my time in my Bachelor, I specialised in Game Arts on my animation course, as I didn’t feel confident in my skills as an animator and also always had an attraction to understand the gaming industry. Upon learning that within the gaming industry, there were a plethora of sub-roles that you could do I was in awe.

However during the games art pathway I found out that the roles that I was interested in (concept art and character design) were one of the most competitive roles in the industry, which caused me to struggle to land a job after I graduated.

Currently, in this time, the majority of game artists specialise in 3D animation/modelling as well as it is extremely competitive. Not only that but seeing the high news of layoffs in both the animation and gaming industry the search for an entry-level job has gotten even harder.

However, there are still pathways within the gaming industry even if you specialise in 2D animation or in a similar role such as an illustrator, texturing artist for 2D and 3D assets and a visual effects artist ( this can also then lead to not just the gaming industry but also the TV and film industry.

A runner (also known as a production runner) is the general assistant to the production team, they are normally helping out with basic tasks that are needed to ensure a smooth running of the production process. They will take on a lot of administrative jobs, including answering the phone, preparing sets with the production team, organising and recording orders, taking notes in meetings, and sending reports to the appropriate people.

This role is a very good entry-level job to help put your foot in the door when stepping into the animation/ TV and film industry. While in most cases you may not be able to help in any of the animation processes, it will still allow you to have insight and an understanding of the animation production process.

This role was recommended when I visited the studio BlinkInk where they discussed the industry practice and the ins and outs of their company which I will discuss in another post.

The role of a runner is very hands-on and it requires you to be very fast-paced and make sure that you are working efficiently. It requires you to be very organised in multitasking when situations occur. Being able to listen and take instructions so that production runs smoothly.

Although it may not be the ideal job, especially if you want to be animating immediately. But it will allow you to gain the experience from watching others and gaining a network of people that if the opportunity does arise, you would be one of the first on their minds.

Moving on to our next project, we were paired with a Year 2 Character Animation student to assist them with their final year project, which aimed to simulate a professional work environment. Our collaboration involved regular meetings to discuss the project and outline the tasks we would undertake to support them.

My assigned student was Amal Ghamlooch, who had chosen to create a stop-motion project with 2D animation elements for their final assignment. I initiated contact with Amal via email to arrange a meeting and exchanged phone numbers to facilitate communication. Our first meeting took place at the university, where Amal shared their vision for the project.

Amal explained that after working on a 2D animation project previously, they wanted to explore stop-motion animation due to their passion for hands-on, practical animation techniques. Their project concept revolved around an elderly frog aspiring to become a renowned artist, performing at a bar filled with younger frogs in a pond setting.

The inspiration for this story stemmed from a real-life musician in Beirut, Lebanon, who Amal had encountered during their travels. This musician, who was once quite popular when he was younger, served as the inspiration for the frog character in Amal’s project, playing the oud (a pear-shaped string instrument) with accompanying music.

During the pre-production phase, Amal detailed their plan to create nature-themed props using paper and design elements such as hanging flowers for lighting and lilypad stools for chairs. For the character animation, they intended to hand-animate the 2D characters before printing each frame on paper for stop-motion filming.

They then proceeded to show me their animatic and the scenes that I would help in animating. They mentioned that I could adjust the angles of the shots and make simple animations, as long as they were moving. They wanted the characters to have idle animations that weren’t too over the top so it doesn’t draw away attention from the main character.

They also showed me some reference photos of the style they wanted for the frogs. Since these were younger frogs, they wanted them to look cute and smooth. I took it upon myself as well as them suggesting to find some more references on Pinterest to really capture the youthful vibe they were going for.

Once I got the green light from Amal these, I started animating the shot of the two frogs sitting across from each other. I envisioned them as a couple, with one frog looking adoringly at the other. I wanted to show some chemistry between them in a short amount of time.

With a lot of creative freedom, I sketched out rough drafts of each frog, starting with the one on the right.

My main goal here was to show that one frog was in love with the other frog and completely focused on them, making sure that I got the movement down first and then allowed Amal to change the angle of the shot afterward since this was going to be printed out. To make sure I captured the simple movements Amal wanted, I made the frog’s leg move in a cute, animated way to convey feelings of love. I paid close attention to using arcs and ease in/ease out to make the movement look more realistic.

For the other frog, I noticed in the reference shot that he was holding a cigarette in his mouth, so I used that as inspiration for the keyframes. I wanted to show the frogs in a casual and romantic setting, so I had the male frog lean in to show interest and affection. After roughing out the animation for both characters, I combined them into the same scene and synced their actions before cleaning up the animation.

I kept in mind the animation principles and feedback from my tutors on previous projects, adding anticipation and spacing for the male frog’s breath and creating an arc when he leaned toward the female frog. I also drew on my experience with body acting and facial expressions from Silent Film animation to capture the subtle look of admiration on the male frog’s face. I shared the scene with Amal, who reacted positively to the animation when I finished it.

Overall, this experience was incredibly enjoyable. It was my first time assisting with animation for someone else’s project, and it was a rewarding challenge to step outside my comfort zone of animating humanoid characters. Through this collaboration, I believe I have successfully applied animation principles and techniques learned from Unit One practices.

Amal was super passionate and easy to communicate with. They were quick to schedule a meeting to discuss their ideas and send work on the scenes I would be working on. They were very open to giving me some artistic freedom in changing the composition of the scene and coming up with what the action would be for the different frogs. Even though I only worked on one scene, I’ve agreed to work on more scenes after the assessment and shadow them (or even potentially help them with the stop-motion when the time comes).

Reflecting on this experience, Amal taught me to draw inspiration from my travels, culture, hobbies, and interests when brainstorming ideas for animation. Their love for frogs, for example, showed me how personal interests can shape unique characters and worlds. Working with other animators and hearing their ideas pushed me to think outside the box and embrace the creative process, even if it meant exploring unconventional ideas. In conclusion, this collaboration has been a valuable learning experience that has broadened my perspective on animation and creativity. I look forward to applying these lessons to future projects and continuing to grow as an animator.

After I put together the puppet on my own, the next step in the stop-motion process was to bring it to life through slapstick comedy. I teamed up with another animator to make our puppets interact with each other funnily and exaggeratedly. To make sure our comedy was on point, I did some research on actors like Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd who are masters of slapstick.

I studied these actors closely to figure out what makes slapstick comedy work. Some key elements I found were:

• Physical exaggeration like performing over-the-top movements
• Funny chaos, such as making quick and silly chases
• Crazy situations to heighten the action like ending up in strange and funny problems
• Playful trouble, meaning the character gets into funny accidents but always ends up okay.
• Jokes that grow, also known as having a funny idea that gets repeated like getting your head banging against the same thing multiple times.
• The focus on timing, slapstick is always relying on timing, so planning out your idea will allow the maximum comedic effect.

After studying various videos, I wanted to apply those aspects of physical comedy to my own animation project. I collaborated with my partner to brainstorm ideas and create storyboards.

We decided on a scene where one character pushes another, as we believed it aligned well with the key elements of successful slapstick comedy.

Overall I think this stopmotion experiment had good elements, such as playing with timing and adding that playful trouble with the sudden push of the puppet. Also what I think that I did successfully was adding life to the puppet even when it was standing in place by moving the clothes and hair around. However, I identified areas for improvement, particularly in terms of physical exaggeration and timing.  When also thinking about the principles of animation the timing of the anticipation could have time a lot better when the puppet looks towards the audience and winds up to push the other puppet, this would have improved the slapstick comedy a lot more.

After completing that stop-motion I wanted to have another go at some form of slapstick comedy again, but this time I decided to focus on animating just one puppet to really nail the physical comedy and action.

I started sketching out different ideas for storyboards, looking for ones that really stood out to me.  I again came up with multiple ideas as I wanted to push the boundaries of my creativity and make the ideas as ridiculous as possible.

Next, I sat down with my tutor to go over the storyboards to get some feedback. We decided to go with the idea of a ball hitting the character, as the other ideas seemed a bit too complicated and didn’t have that quick, to-the-point physical comedy. My tutor also suggested I shorten my idea to make sure I didn’t drag out the stop-motion process. After making a few cuts, I began working on the animation.

With the finished product, I can say that I am a lot more satisfied with this second experiment given the time I had. I was able to add more physical exaggeration to the performance as well as play with the timing of the ball and the anticipation of the character getting hit and reacting to seeing the ball. If I were able to do another experiment with the puppet again, I would try and have the character move around the stage more and allow the character to have more body acting. In retrospect the animation that I did it felt that I wasn’t able to move the character around more and there was more focus on the ball, which I did want, so the next time I will need to plan even more carefully to see if there are things that I can change to make the slapstick comedy more interesting.

Mental health can be a difficult thing to show due to the nature of most mental illnesses being internal. This creates a challenge for TV, movies, and animation to accurately depict these kinds of things without being stereotypical. In this research blog, I am going to find out how using film analysis can help depict mental health with the movie “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” as a reference point.

Puss in Boots got a lot of attention after its release for not only the stunning visuals of its hybrid animation but in the moment of how Puss in Boots deals with anxiety and panic attacks. While you can see Puss in Boots get visually more panicked with an elevated heart rate and the loss of his motor controls as we see him stumbling and running sporadically.

But by using camera work we can create a heightened mood for the story.

When Puss begins to have his panic attack there is a dolly zoom edit that is used, this effect in live action is done by moving away or towards the subject (also known as dolly in/out) while zooming in the opposite direction. This camera effect usually helps in indicating an emotional or tonal shift in the story, in this sense for Puss in Boots it alters the space around him as his mood changes.

Another camera work that helps visually depict his panic attack is the use of close-up shots as he is running in the forest. Using this type of shot can help for a more dramatic effect and elevate the specific mood, which in that scene does intensify the feeling of panic as the extreme close-up distorts Puss’s face and body. These shots too it also blur the surroundings around Puss which emphasises the panic state he is in the contrast to cleaner shots of Perrito the dog searching for Puss really helps externalise Puss’s internal emotions.  

By also following the principles of animation we see everything exaggerated, most noticeably in the forest scene, where combined with the blurred focus and the close-up shots combined with his exaggerated movements help push the idea that he is not in the right mindset.

But when going back to the visual side of the scenes the colours that are used in the scenes help the change in mood, where before the colours consisted of warmer colours such as orange to evoke this feeling of warmth and humour, but as one the antagonist of the movies enter the scene, the colour change to a much colder colour palette of green, visualising a sense of fear and coldness.

When combining all these techniques together, what makes it more realistic is the moment after Puss’s shots of his panic attack where everything had been exaggerated. We go back as an outside viewer where the shot is much clearer and only see the physical reaction of Puss having a panic attack, and experiencing the aftermath of the panic attack. However, as the viewer we are satisfied with what has happened as we already know what is happening in Puss’s head, earning this kind of depiction of anxiety and of a panic attack.

From only a scene that shows Puss in Boots experiencing a panic attack a minute long, there were a lot of techniques that were used that helped us as the audience understand the feeling of what Puss is going through. Through the exaggerated movements, the camera shots, and to the colour scheme, I learned about how these things can further push the emotion of a scene/ story. This can be used in my own projects or in future university projects like the LIAF project and help push me as an animator to think about other ways that we can convey these types of emotions.

The start of the MA Character Animation course blog