Industry Week is a yearly creative conference that happens at Confetti featuring talks, workshops, masterclasses and live performances by big names in the industry. It’s incredibly exciting but this year makes it far more special for our group since we didn’t have the real experience last year due to the pandemic. All of the talks were online and although it was still educational and enjoyable, the prospect of being able to see and chat with the creators is much more inspiring. To prepare and make the most out of the opportunity, I will be doing some research on each of the compulsory guests.
Laura Rankin
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Motion Designer and video editor Laura Rankin is one of our Tuesday guests and in just under 10 years of her career, has already worked with Channel 4, Beano, Warner Bros, The Pokémon Company, Bandai Namco, and Bumble Inc. She specialises in pop-culture video and animation production for social media and the web and although her motion graphic work alone is impressive, I find greater strength in her animation, which I absolutely love. Her style is fresh, dynamic and gives a youthful, fantastical impression, which is no surprise since she has been honing her skills in post-production, motion graphics and concept development over 8 years of working with international media and entertainment brands. Gaining recognition has led Laura to some amazing rewards and achievements such as:
After doing some more research on her work, I’ve found that I’m very drawn to her cool, short animations. Crash Bandicoot Falls, in particular, was so fun to watch and I love seeing how Laura combined the title sequences for Gravity Falls (Disney) and Crash Bandicoot (Sony/Naughty Dog). The animation intro was a mashup idea commissioned by channel 4, on which Laura worked by storyboarding and using her own knowledge of the games and TV show.
Questions:
I am thinking of asking Lauren how integrated an animation director is with the practical aspects of the work. I am interested in this role and understand the director holds the creative vision of the film – how it will look and feel, what the mood is. However, wherewith film & tv production, there are a lot of physical, tangible tasks and commitments in the role, I still have yet to understand how this translates into animation, which is mainly done on computers. I would love to have a conversation with her about how much animating she does as a director if any, and how exactly she implements her opinions with her team. I also want to ask how she got to that role if the answers I hear are something I could consider for my own future.
Evgenia Golubeva
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Evgenia is another one of our Tuesday guests and one that I’m really looking forward to seeing again! I got the chance to listen to the award-winning director, character designer and screenwriter’s talk last Industry Week and also saw her at the Aesthetica Short Film festival in York. She is based in Stratford-upon-Avon, UK but has worked with clients all over the world, having written for Disney, Sky Kids, Nick Jr and the BBC and designed characters and illustrated books for Belgium, USA, Ireland and Denmark. “I’m NOT a Mouse” was published in 2020 and was nominated for the prestigious Laugh Out Loud Awards for the funniest book in 2022. As well as written and artistic work, Evgenia also develops her own concepts for TV shows, directing a number of them in Russia, Portugal and the UK.
Just from her website, you can see the incredible amount of work that Evgenia has participated in or created herself. She has written and directed a number of award-winning short films which have been screened internationally at film festivals and is also currently directing a new kids TV show for YouTube Originals called “Millie and Lou” which will air this spring. Talk about multi-talented! I love her style; it’s so cute, colourful and positive and her short film The Witch and the Baby, which has won over 20 awards also showcases how she incorporates some more serious themes into light-hearted work.
Questions
Looking at all of Evgenia’s brilliant art, I am curious to know what kind of journey she had developing her style and improving as an illustrator. I know that she studied at the Film and TV University in St. Petersburg and the French animation school La Poudrière but how in particular did she work on her skills? What kinds of things did she do to reach the stage she has for creative character design? Last time, I remember Evgenia mentioning that keeping a sketch-book on you at all times and always sketching ideas, taking in your surroundings and drawing people and objects from life is an important method to improve but I would also like to hear about her process in learning digital art, composition and stylistic inspirations (such as cartoons she watched at a younger age and media she likes now).
Michael Wilde
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Our final industry guest speaker on Tuesday is Michael Wilde, who has a mind-blowing rota of work. He is a modelling and texturing artist who has been working in the VFX industry for almost nine years, in both London and Vancouver. His studio experience includes modelling, texturing, lighting and rendering at DNeg, Bluezoo Productions, Framestore and more, and his informative website also shows that he has a background in freelance and teaching. I really love how open he is about his skill set and personal interests, and through his ‘about me’ section, I got a real feel of what kind of person he is. Mixed in with the professionalism is some fun!
Michael puts forward a lot of his skills and knowledge to tutor anyone interested in the craft. I found various VFX tutorials and offers for students, which is really cool! If I was interested in going into 3D, I would certainly be taking advantage of the resources he presents. What was most amazing, however, was the number of megahit films he has worked on. I was blown away by the selection and I am excited to meet someone who has had the experience of playing a part in their creation!
Questions
Seeing all of the massive projects he has partaken in immediately put a question in my mind that I would certainly face. Do you feel pressure to achieve a certain standard with films of that calibre? How do you deal with the feeling of doubt that creeps in, that the work isn’t good enough if you ever feel that way at all? I am also curious to find out if 3D was always his passion, or if he realised he was more drawn to it later on in his life.
Joseph Hobbs
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Joseph Hobbs is our first online guest and he is a video game developer who specializes in 3D art, specifically props and is an avid gamer in his spare time. His career began with Ubisoft, on Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 and lead him to work on other titles such as Tom Clancy’s XDefiant and Jurassic World Evolution 2. He is a motivated artist who works best under pressure and spends a lot of time giving advice to game developer hopefuls, helping and encouraging people along his journey. He has recently returned to Ubisoft in the Lead Prop Artist role for a new project and I even saw that he is regarded as a senior 3D artist in one of his current titles, which is really cool because it shows how much experience and skills he has amassed. Although, you could see this simply by looking at some of his work (please click on the images to see them in more detail and fully appreciate Josephs’s amazing modelling!)
Questions
Personally, I am not super interested in games at the moment. I know about the many cool ones out there and have even selected a few that I would love to try in the future but for now, I don’t have enough knowledge in that subject area. After seeing his presentation, I hope to have a more specific topic to target and ask a question about anything I may be curious about.
Tim Allen
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Our second guest on Wednesday is Tim Allen who has been working as a professional animator for some of the biggest stop motion productions in the world for over 20 years. He was most recently a key part of Wes Anderson’s film Isle of the Dogs and has also worked on other feature films such as Fantastic Mr Fox, Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride & Frankenweenie & many more. It’s truly inspiring! He is versatile in not only character animation but also Animation Supervisor & Lead Animator roles. For example, he was a Senior Animator on Oscar-winning Peter & the Wolf (Best Short Animation 2008) & animated for the Oscar-nominated My Life as a Courgette (Best Animation Feature Film 2017). He also does commercial work, short films and series, having served many years of TV series work including Fireman Sam, Postman Pat plus Shaun the Sheep & Creature Comforts USA for Aardman Animations.
If that wasn’t enough, he was also Animation Supervisor on The Magic Piano for Breakthru Films & the recent Club Penguin network specials for Disney! His website holds all of this information and is truly amazing to see. He has really made his mark on the industry and paved a path for himself as a well-known name in stop motion. It is also wonderful to see how open he is with sharing his knowledge and helping those interested in stop motion; he travels across the globe giving Masterclasses & Animation Workshops for those looking to develop their skills or just for fun and runs mentoring programs and more playful children’s sessions.
I’ve been utterly privileged to help support their careers & see new stop motion animators grow & flourish as they shape the future of our art form.
Questions
I really enjoyed reading about and seeing pictures of Tim’s work. I am quite interested in stop motion and am a huge fan of those types of films so I would love to know more about the process and how exactly you work in this manner. Moving puppets in small increments are much harder than it looks and I still don’t know how exactly they follow the structure of a scene. How do you know how much to move a limb? How do you transition from one facial expression to another? How can you seamlessly jump from one pace to the next? I am quite curious about these details of the craft, which surely come with experience but seem so difficult to grasp.
Jack Staples
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Our Thursday guest is one of my most anticipated ones – freelance visual development artist and background painter, Jack Staples. He is currently based in Nottingham which opens up the opportunity for possible employability or collaborative projects in the future and makes me very excited to meet him and potentially leave my contact details. After graduating in 2020 from his course in Illustration, Jack marketed himself as a freelance artist and improved his skills by enrolling in online courses specialising in vis. dev and background painting. This has led him to various creative projects within the publishing, theatrical and animation realms including Strange Acre Studio’s debut film Woodland (they have some beautiful artwork on their website!) Jack likes animals and walking through woodlands, which is clearly his inspiration for the gorgeous backgrounds he creates.
His greatest passion is creating a sense of awe and intrigue in worlds that feel innovative, yet have a sense of familiarity, and in my opinion, he has succeeded in doing this so far and has turned it into his career, which I greatly respect. The landscapes are immersive and beautiful and I love his inclusion of fantastical elements here and there, such as dragons or mysterious adventurers in the midst of a journey.
Questions
Since Jack is kindly doing a workshop for us, I have a feeling that the Q&A might work a little differently. Throughout the lesson, if I get the chance, I would like to ask him how he found time to improve his skills to this level. I understand that he took many online classes and therefore must have had a different job at the time and I am curious about how he managed to find a balance and really dedicate himself to the craft. I also want to know more about his experience with Strange Acre and illustrating a book – which one of the two he preferred and why, how the experiences have benefitted him and how it was like working with a small studio, recently launched it seems as well. Finally, does he have plans to expand his portfolio in the future and do different kinds of illustrations, and if so, which ones?
Victor Perez
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Victor Perez is a Spanish film director, producer, screenwriter and visual effects artist with more than 20 years of combined experience. He is considered a visual effects compositing master and NUKE™ guru, which is no surprise when you take a look at the impressive number of Hollywood films that he has credits for, including Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, plus many more. I’m amazed that we have someone coming in to talk to us, who has been a part of such massive films! He began his career in the film industry as a photographer and digital compositing artist after being inspired by Star Wars as a child and becoming a graphic designer before his dream job. He moved on to collaborations as a 2D technical director and consultant, where he gained his artistic and technical understanding of film postproduction and visual effects from a photorealistic point of view.
Due to his passion for storytelling, Victor delved into the world of film directing in 2015, having since written and directed two short films, receiving more than 27 awards and nominations for his debut Another Love. His latest short film, Echo, uses pioneering and never-seen-before motion control technology – and was shot in just five long takes, showcasing his award-winning directing and visual effects artistry. Today, Victor continues to design and oversee the process of creation of feature film visual effects as VFX Supervisor.
Questions
I watched both of his short films, Another Love and Echo and I have to say, I was blown away. Generally, I gravitate more towards the genres of fantasy, adventure and romance and not so often drama but these films hooked me and kept me like that until the end. My questions for Victor would be why did he start his career in directing with that particular type of story (Another Love)? What is his inspiration behind Echo? Are there any directors in particular that he took inspiration from? And finally, how would he feel about progressing onto a full-length feature?
Final Guests
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I didn’t have time to finish this research post before the last two talks of Industry Week. I am going to put their websites here as references since they are what I have been using and would have used for their descriptions and work showcase.