Animation Showreel

Today I finished creating the first copy of my stop motion showreel on DVD! In order to hopefully impress the companies that I send it to I have created and printed off a custom DVD label and case sleeve as well as customising the DVD menu with a program called 'Roxio easy DVD copy 4' which I purchased online for £19.99.
I plan on taking this first copy with me to Mackinnon and Saunders to leave with them when I visit on Tuesday.

Animation Developments

Yesterday I got back from a week long visit to Wrexham where I made use of the animation equipment to create some test pieces for my showreel. These included things such as run and walk cycles as well as some squash and stretch. I found the week very beneficial as it gave me a chance to experiment which I didn't have the time to do on the course and haven't had the equipment to do since being home.

A week previous to this I managed to organise a day down to Mackinnon and Saunders on the 2nd of September where I will be able to show off my animations and models. It has been arranged for me to be seen at 2:30pm. I am now in the preocess of finding whether it would be better to travel by bus or by train.

Music

On Monday 16th I e-mailed RoyaltyFreeMusic.com to check that it was ok with them to upload my animation to YouTube as it used music of theirs that I never paid for. I recieved a reply on the 17th (yesterday) simply stating "You are clear to do so."

Becky's Reply

"Hi Alistair,

Please accept my apologies for not replying sooner to your email. It has been frantic here with all the various projects and deadlines.

Thanks for letting me know the dates when you would have been able to see us. Unfortunately we are going to be too busy now for the rest of June/possibly July also, to devote the proper amount of time to your visit.

In an ideal world it would have been lovely to be bringing new talent into the building to start training up as the puppet makers of the future, but I don’t think its going to work like that just at the moment!

Sorry to have to disappoint you as it was me who approached you. At least we have made contact and Nick highly recommends you.

Please contact us again later in the summer, if you would like to, the situation may be calmer.

I wish you well with the external examiner, and hopefully we may see you later in the year.

All best wishes,

Becky"

So it seems that I wont be able to visit after all and any hopes of a job are off. For now at least. I'll have to make contact again later in the year.

M&S day visit dates

I've just finished sending an e-mail to Becky Hunt at Mackinnon and Saunders to arrange a day for me to visit. Here's what I sent:

"Hello Becky,

This is Alistair. Now that things are more or less over with at my end I have had a chance to look at which days I would be able to make it down to visit you at M&S.

If its not too soon then I would be able to visit on either Tuesday 3rd, Wednesday 4th or Friday 6th of this week.

Each day I would be able to catch a train to Altrincham station and arrive there at roughly 11 o'clock. I then plan on catching a taxi to get to you.

To make sure I've got the correct address the one I have is;
148 Seamons Rd,
Altrincham,
Cheshire
WA14 4LJ

If its not right then please let me know.

To get back I would need to catch a train from Altrincham station at either 15:51 or 16:51. I have chosen these times based on how long I spent during my visit to Cosgrove Hall last year. There are earlier or later trains if needed.

If these dates are too soon for you then please let me know and I'll see about sorting something a little later on in the month. I need to be in Wrexham on the 10th and 11th because the external examiner will be coming in and we've been told he will want to see us all.

I hope to hear from you soon,

Alistair Stuart"

Hopefully one of these days will be suitable and I will be able to show them my work.

Animation Workshops

Today I recieved a phone call from my mum who had been in contact with my A-level art teacher, Mr John Connolly. Apparently my old secondary school has taken on an animator and Mr Connolly wanted to know, if once I had gained my animation qualification, whether I would be interested in giving a series of animation workshops to the students. Apparenlty I would earn roughly £100 each day that a workshop was run.
I have yet to get back to him as I have no contact number for him at the moment.

Mackinnon and Saunders Work

On Friday 9th May I recieved a phone call from David Jones, the workshop technician at NWSAD. He phoned to let me know that Nick Roberson wanted me to give him a call to talk about the rumoured work experience at Mackinnon and Saunders.
Apparently it is not work experience but actual job openings and Nick had put my name forward along with 3 students from De Montfort University.
I was given the e-mail and telephone contacts for Becky Hunt at Mackinnon and Saunders and told to e-mail her with some examples of my work. If she didn't reply then I should phone her. I never did here back as it turns out that Nick had given me an incorrect e-mail address so on the 14th I phoned her, had a chat and then re-e-mailed her with the correct address.
This is what I sent:

Hi Becky, I think I can see why my original e-mail never got through. The address I was given started with "b.hunt".
So, what shall I tell you? Nick said that I should give you a brief introduction of myself and attach pictures of some of my models. That sound ok?
During my time at university I have focussed on stop-motion animation from designing and building the puppets and sets to the actual filming and editing. I'm just coming to the end of filming my final project. Stop-motion is an area that I have always been very interested in and knew that I wanted to focus on before arriving at university. I have always been a very creative and curious person since I was very young when I would spend hours building plasticine models, drawing comics and constructing Kinder Egg toys. To this day I still collect the Beano comic. I think its great.
The photos I've attached show Artemis the mime, Lula the dog and AJ the boy from my last year's animation 'Mime Time', Jack and Jill from my current animation and some miscellaneous models I have made either for fun or for gifts. Tamika was made as a commission for a friend. If you want to have a look at my last years project, which was my first 'proper' attempt at stop-motion, you can have a look at it (and other animations) on my YouTube account: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=l6Tp_mqld0w
I look forward to hearing from you again,
Alistair Stuart

I phoned her again today because I didn't hear back. Thankfully she had recieved the e-mail and apparently liked what she saw. She told me that getting the job opening was no sure thing and with what she was saying it seemed that I was at a disadvantage with living in Derbyshire when I finish the course, although she never actually said that.
By the end of the call we had agreed that I have to contact her again by e-mail to arrange a day in June when I can travel down to visit them and show off my models.

Work Experience?

I've been hearing talk of work experience at Mackinnon and Saunders for a few days now. I couldn't find any information on their website though so I e-mailed Nick Roberson instead. I just asked him if what I had been hearing was true and if it was, what my chances of nabbing a spot were.

Use of Music

I got a reply from Kris Wilson today with regards to using his music and getting some custom made:

"As long as you give credit I have no problem. Show me if you can.
Depending on the type of music/quality we'd work something out. I keep it pretty cheap."

I sent this back:

"Cheers very much. The music I would be after would be on the classical side of things and my animation is basically a retelling of the Jack and Jill nursery rhyme. I'll send you the animation when its done to see if you fancy doing anything for it and to see how much it would cost."

Animation Music

I have just finished contacting Kris Wilson on deviantART to ask if it would be ok to use some of his music on my showreel when I get one together and how much he would charge to create a piece of music for my current project. He mentioned some time ago that he would be willing to create music for people so I thought I should give it a go.

"Hello there Kris,
I'll get straight to the point.I was wondering if I could get your permission to use Colico on my animation showreel? If you agree I'd ensure you got credit on the end.
While I'm on the topic of music and animation I would also like to ask about your services as a musician. How much would you charge to create a piece of music for an animation lasting roughly 1 minute 30 seconds long?
Thanks and regards,
Alistair"

More contact with Nick Roberson

Yesterday I sent and email to Nick with some photos of my Jack and Jill puppets:

"Hi Nick,
Here are some pictures of my animation puppets now that they are 98% finished. Sorry the quality isn't that great. I'll try and get some better pics sent to you eventually, probably after I have created their mouths and eyelids. (Hence only being 98% done.)

I hand stitched all of their clothing and they are stuffed with wadding. The skin on their hands and arms is made from 'Tesco stretch fabric strapping'. It worked suprisingly well.

Alistair"

Pictures:

Today I got a reply:

"Hi Alistair,
They look great, it certainly is worth all that effort with the costumes. That is an area that lets a lot of people down. I wish you all the best with the animation, Have fun. I can't wait to see more which is the sign of good work. Keep in touch,
Nick."

I certainly will be keeping in touch!

Nick's reply on my third year puppet heads

I got a reply to the email I sent to Nick Roberson today:

Hi Alistair,
What a great start!!! I love the sculpts. I would say thet the male has eyes that are set more into the head slightly by the look of it and this works well. The girls are rather 'stuck on' ( possibly something to do with the cheeks) but with all the other stuff to do this is very minor.
The hair for me is fab, its flat style is great and you could certainly push this further next time into more of a defining style.
Looking at these images, I am very keen to see the bodies and the animation of course!!
As for painting, you may want to shade the heads, (that is what I would do) but again its time that is the biggest enemy as you know.
Keep me posted.
As for me i am due to visit NEWI soon for a 2 day sculpting course which i am now doing at 11 unis around the country. Staffs have a very good stopmotion only course ( the only in the country) and may have an an M.A. if you are thinking about studying further.
Anyway, hope to catch up soon.
Regards Nick.

Some encouraging words.

Email To Nick Roberson

I emailed Nick Roberson again today to show him what I'm doing in my current project.
Here's what I sent:

Hello there Nick.

Its Alistair who you met at NEWI and then again when I visited Cosgrove Hall in July last year.
I just thought I should probably get in touch again and show you what I have been up to on my current project. I've attached some pictures of models that I'm working on at the moment. I only have their heads done so far. They are Jack and Jill from the nursery rhyme of the same name. The heads are made out of Fimo and the eyebrows and pupils are removable so that I can move them about. They're held on with double sided tape. I'm cutting their mouths out of card. They actually look really good. I can also move Jill's hair about which is held on with a piece of wire. I plan on giving the skin and eyes a coat of paint before I animate with them since they are sort of blotchy and dirty but thats just down to the Fimo.
So, what do you think of them? I would have liked to have had more done to show you but ran into a lot of problems at the start.
How are things going for you with your work? I hope everything is going well.
Regards,
Alistair Stuart

"Mime Time" Music

Today I received the music that Kev Ryder had been working on for my "Mime Time" animation. Although I do very much like the music, I wont be using it on my animation because I feel that it doesn't fit. The music that Kev provided was very techno-ish whereas I wanted something with a classical sound; something to fit the traditional feel.
I think that I will have to leave the music as it is for now so that I can focus on my current project. I may go back to it sometime in the future though.

ASHman

Earlier today I recieved an email from Desique explaining the situation with the ASHman designing.
The work that I submitted so far will NOT be used as apparently it didn't meet the deadline although I was never informed of one. I shan't be recieving any payment for the work but will recieve £50 from Desique as a goodwill gesture because of all the confusion I suffered.
Apparently there will be more work available to me in the new year which may involve more character work or just simple little logo pieces. I'll have to wait to find out the details if and when it happens.

Storyboards With Jean Flynn

Today Jean Flynn from Cosgrove Hall paid us another visit to NEWI to give us a talk this morning in the Nick Whitehead theatre and totake a look at the second year storyboards. As I am also using her brief as a base for my current project I showed her my storyboard as well.
I got some useful feedback from her with respect to reframing some of my shots and alerting me to extra shots that I need to add in.
It was interesting listening to the feedback for the other students and actually getting to see what they are working on at the same time.
After I make the alterations to my storyboard I will then have to make a new animatic. I've already got one made from my current storyboard but its a bit too static because of the lack of shots.

From the morning talk I picked out three important things:
-Understand basic animation.
-Take any job available to get into the industry.
-Don't rule out work on computer games or web design.

Commission Work Update

Things are going really slowly.
I've not heard back from desique or ASH for almost a week now. I rang them the other day to ask what was going on and apparently Rich from desique had been off ill for a few days so couldn't contact me. Now that he is back at work it would seem that Zoe from ASH is currently on holiday and they are having to wait for her feedback before they can tell me if my designs have been accepted or not.
I thought they needed these designs quickly but apparently not if they are taking this long about things.

Commission Work

Today I was informed that I have been chosen to complete some work set forth by Desique. They are a company that specialise in producing creative media solutions for other companies.
The brief was dropped off in the studio on Wednesday last week and we were simply told to redesign a superhero character that we had been given, sticking to the same style, and we could get £200 for doing so. I emailed a submission to desique on Thursday and wasn't expecting to hear anything from them.
This morning when I entered the studio I was greeted by Jim, Marisse and Yvonne who congratulated me on being chosen. Apparently I was the only applicant who had stayed to the brief. I shall try and gain a copy of said brief for my records tomorrow.
The next step now is to modify my design slightly, which I have done, and then send off coloured versions back to Desique to see if their client approves.
Fingers crossed all goes well.

First Thursday

Yesterday I went to the First Thursday event at Regent Street as there had been an informal meeting between animation and sound students organised. This was in hopes of helping us to create collaborative connections.
At the end I came away with a card from a guy called Kev Ryder who said that he can help with sound effects and music as well as a contact for Hannah Raistnick who was willing to do voice acting or to be filmed. (I believe Raistnick is her name as her writing is hard to read)
I'm going to visit Kev Ryder's website, Snorksounds.com, at a later date to see what he has to offer.

Chris Bowden's Reply! (At Last)

Finally today I recieved a reply from Chris Bowden (after further contact) answering the questions I emailed him just over a month ago. Here is what it said:

Dear Alastair,

Sorry your note has been neglected but things here have been rather busy with evening and weekends both taken up with our shows. I’ve answered as best I can below.

Chris


1. Have you got any advice for any future work I do?

Focus on what you want a piece of work to do for you. if you want to show that you’re an animator, make sure the character animation is great. If you want to be a director, show that the pace style, composition and ideas are solid. Usually simple well told stories are best.

2. What do you look for in showreels?

In animation reels we look for thought. Thought about the character and the what’s going on its head. Often we don’t look for smooth slick animation (though that’s bonus) because in most cases that comes with day in day out practice.

3.What job opertunities are there at Cosgrove Hall?

It depends how busy the studios are. We have periodically run training courses to get animators new to a standard where they can begin work in the studio but at present there are quite a few animators around and we have no need to train new ones at present. Of course that could all change very quickly if a new project comes in.

4. Do you have any briefs/mock briefs that I could work on as part of my final year?

Not really. I have been asked this before and we don’t really have anything that could constitute a meaningful brief for a project.

I feel the answers to questions 1 and 2 will be quite useful to know.