Author: Neale Upton

Looking to the future briefly, I just wanted to talk about the direction I’m heading now. I’m going to be applying for junior and entry-level roles as soon I can (within the next week) in London, and hopefully I’ll be successful. I’ve already identified some that I intend to apply to (below – images instead of links because those will expire), though I’m not necessarily expectant to hear anything.

Studio Meala, one of the studios I was planning on applying for in the near future put out listings for a storyboard artist very recently. I’m planning on applying despite the 3+ years experience listed, just to put out the feelers and see what happens, but I’m remaining hopeful that something will come out of this! Especially since the animation test looks like something I’d draw anyway – I feel like the style should be fairly easy for me to imitate.

I’m also planning on looking at speculative applications, with the intent on getting my foot in the door around London. With any luck at some point a company will see my showreel and offer me something, and I’m not planning on being fussy in the first year providing the job pays.

Storyboarding is definitely something I’m going to look into in the near future – I do really enjoy that element of pre-production, playing with ideas and trying to draft up fun looking shots. I wasn’t aware of many studios in the UK that make series, but I’m trying to look into where is producing cartoon series.

I’m planning on being a lot more vigilant looking for work over the coming months, but I’m expecting to have to wait a while before anything really picks up. I’ll try to be optimistic in the mean time!

I’ve updated my showreel with a lot more of the content I’ve made on the course – there’s quite a lot to pick from and I think I’m planning on going back in a while to get feedback from others on what my strongest work is but what I have now showcases a range of my work in different softwares.

Hopefully this showreel demonstrates some kind of versatility and ability to animate in a variety of styles. I’ve been trying to get outside of my comfort zone in that respect, and I’m definitely a lot more comfortable now working in someone elses style than I was this time a year and a half ago.

Right now my plan is to stay in London (until my lease is up sometime next year), and work whatever jobs I can, establish myself in animation and begin my career.

I’ve been looking at some studios in Ireland that I really admire, Studio Meala, Cartoon Saloon, and Boulder Media, in particular, and trying to work out what exactly I need to do to be able to work there legally. Anecdotally speaking, a lot of Irish (ROI) animation jobs advertise they’re only available to those based in Ireland, even for remote work.

I’m not entirely sure why this is – if I had to guess it would be to do with some kind of funding they receive from the Irish government, that work must be completed within Ireland and only Ireland. But I’m not certain and all that matters is that I can’t change that (unfortunately).

I can however relocate to Ireland, which I’m definitely curious about. My main concerns were working Visas and living in Ireland now that the UK is outside the EU as a result of Brexit.

Fortunately, it looks as though Ireland has been generous to us and not a lot has changed for residents of the UK. I’d still be allowed to work without an employment permit which is a great relief because that removes one of the bigger obstacles of employment in a EU country. Presumably this also extends to living in Ireland, which would be the other big issue!

There’s not much else to say here as initially I was concerned it would be a lot harder since Brexit but thankfully it seems relatively straightforward! It’s definitely given me reason to consider looking at more jobs in Irish animation studios.

Directing and Working as a Team Member

Before starting MACA I hadn’t considered being a director at all outside of producing my own work. When you’re making stuff on your own you’re ultimately responsible for everything; animating, colouring, sound and music, editing – you’re essentially signing off all of your work and acting as your own director, and I had done this for a couple of very small projects that I produced a handful years prior to joining the course. I was really excited when I was selected to direct on our Unit 2 LIAF project but it was a bit of a double-edged sword. I really enjoyed the creative control I had on the project, and I found working as part of a group really helped me because I pushed myself as I knew it wasn’t just my individual work on the line. On the other hand it was hard for me to not be a complete control freak about certain aspects of the film while trying to keep everyone on task and reorganising when things didn’t quite go to plan and I was responsible for it.

All things considered I really enjoyed the experience of working with others and eventually ended up doing it again for a 24 hour animation challenge in November ’22. I had a really great time knuckling down for the duration of the challenge while the burden of taking charge was kind of spread across everyone. It really helped me understand that I really do enjoy working as a team, even if I don’t get to have complete control over every little detail.

I’d definitely consider directing again, but I think my priorities would have to relinquishing control a little, trying to be a bit more communicative in general, and making sure that schedules are realistic and stuck to where possible. I’ve had a really great time working with people, and although so far I’ve had the great fortune of working people I like, I can still imagine it being a good experience when I’m not.

I’ve looked for short courses and supplementary lessons on directing for animation because I’d like to be able to improve on that front in case I do want to jump into directing again at some point. Skillshare has a page with redirecting links to useful information that I’ve had a quick browse through, although the actual content of the page is a little lacking as it seems quite unspecific!

Collectives

I had a brief chat with Laura-Beth a few weeks ago about collectives, knowing that she’s involved in her own (Weird Eye), and I was curious about what that entails and how it came about. I was never under the impression that a collective necessarily meant a big company but there was something pleasantly inspiring hearing that it was her and a few friends that just banded together to work on projects after her course was over.

It’s also great to see just how impactful collectives are at giving marginalised people a voice. Free The Work has a great online database of a number of queer and POC collectives that helps to showcase their work and bring them to the forefront. Collectives like this seem like a great way to network outside of traditional avenues, and build relationships with people that you might not meet as easily in person (I think this is just a great thing about the internet in general).

Working in a collective is definitely something I’m interested in pursuing, and already a few of us on the course have spoken about working on some group projects together after graduation, purely because we like working together and have similar tastes and interests. Although we’ve not strictly spoken about establishing ourselves as a collective I feel that fundamentally we’d be working within the confines as one on paper – people working together on projects without working under the strict parameters of a studio or company (we’d essentially all be freelance). My only concern is it’s likely going to be a side-project while we do other things to make money – collectives I’ve read about tend to be a second job undertaken in your own time regardless of what media you’re pursuing (Bomb! The Music Industry was one of my favourite acts, a musical collective of musicians from New York that disbanded in 2014, the lead singer Jeff Rosenstock has written about working day jobs while producing their albums and establishing a record label that offered their music for free).

Despite the fact that this might not be a financially stable long-term solution I still think it sounds like a great idea and something I’ll be talking about with some close MACA friends. It’ll be great to be working on some fun stuff regardless of whether it’s going to pay the bills or not.

My time on MACA has flown by and it’s almost time for me to move on and try my best to make a career from the skills I’ve learnt in the last two years – it’s gone so quick, particularly the last year! Just to quickly reflect on the course, I’ve had a great time and despite some of the lows and personal challenges I’ve faced I am so grateful that I had this opportunity at all, all the work I’ve been able to produce, friends I’ve made, and all the fun and highs along the way. I’ve had the chance to work with some really talented people and I hope I get to work with them again at some point after the course is over.

In looking to the future I’ve been trying to decide on career paths, primarily where I’d like to start and what I’d like to get out of animation. I’ve tried not to put too much stake in my first steps as right now I’d just like to get my foot on the ladder. It’s not that I feel like I’m running out of time but I’ve spent many years in another job that I wasn’t content in and would like to be in the industry sooner rather than later!

Right now I’m primarily looking for studio work; clean-up, assistant jobs, things that hopefully would be easier to start in from the ground up. I’ve had conversations with lecturers that have said it’s usually easier to get jobs in clean-up but this is anecdotal and can vary from workplace to workplace.

There are plenty of studios in London that I’m looking at applying to soon, including places like Studio AKA, The Line, Golden Wolf, Moth, Blue Zoo, Animade, etc. We’ve had so many guest lecturers in from so many studios that have just been so interesting and kind, gracious enough to spend a little time with us to help us build an understanding of what it’s like in the industry.

Realistically I’m not expectant on anything from these places – most of them are quite high profile and my style is often not particularly commercial (aka incredibly cartoony), but I’d like to think that with my portfolio of work I could probably get a job as a junior in clean-up or assistant animator.

I frequently keep an eye out for work on animatedjobs, and have been subscribed to their socials for a few years now which has been great for seeing what kind of work is available and when. Some of the guest lecturers have described up and down periods of work, primarily in film and TV production, but they say that there’s usually work available elsewhere during these times, or they work elsewhere to fill the time, or they take a couple months vacation with the money they’ve earnt until there is work.

I’ll write another post soon more specifically on individual studios and the what else I’d like to do outside of studio jobs but my immediate focus outside of graduation is to just take what I can get!

Film festivals have always felt a little out of my reach because I never really considered my work to be “festival material”. I think this was more a point of self-criticality as opposed to not understanding that there is no such thing as “festival material” really, but in my mind there are certain types of film that fare better at these events because they have a heart to them, and the successful films at festivals have a strong sense of identity as well as being competently animated by a large teams or incredibly talented individuals. I suppose this probably stems from a selection bias; only seeing the successful films, and the ones that aren’t as popular (not necessarily a result of them being less entertaining) don’t gain as much traction.

MACA has exposed me to so many more films than I would’ve seen of my own volition, and the variety of work out there is far wider than I had anticipated. Comparing my work against others has always been difficult for me because I so easily see the flaws in my own work and often see it for what it isn’t, as opposed to what it is, making showcasing my work a tricky hurdle for me post-release.

A few months back I submitted Open Mike Nite (our group LIAF project) to Annecy 2023. My initial intent was to not bother because I figured it didn’t have a chance at such a high profile festival, but on the last day of submissions I was convinced that it was worth trying, even if I still didn’t believe it was in for a chance. I’m trying to take a most positive stance on my work, and telling myself it’s worth trying because I (and others I’m working with) have put in so much effort.

I wasn’t surprised when OMN wasn’t selected – I honestly wasn’t expecting it to be at all, but I think the experience was worth a shot. The hardest part really was making the film, and providing there’s no fee for entry then submitting a film to a festival isn’t as intimidating as I thought it’d be. It’s definitely given me a little more confidence that regardless of the result of my entry, whether I’m nominated for an award or simply just able to have my film screened at all, it’s probably worth a little effort.

I’ve been looking for smaller festivals to submit to on Film Freeway, local to London right now (because I can’t really afford to travel just yet but hopefully in a few months time that can change). Categories for super short films (running time <1 minute) are primarily my target right now, but once my grad film is finished I’ll be looking at categories that allow for longer submissions. I’ve already looked into LIAF because it’s close and having briefly met the people that run it while working on our stings, they seem like a pleasure to work with. I wont be submitting just yet but I’m hoping to submit for their late deadline (post June 1st – it costs a little more for entry but gives me time to actually complete my grad film).

I did look into a festival that ran from my old university where I sat my BA in Canterbury. Anifest was one of the few festivals in the area at the time and unfortunately it doesn’t look like it’s been running for the last year and there doesn’t seem to be any information about whether it’ll be back this year or not, which is a huge shame if it’s no longer running! I’m going to keep an eye on their socials and see what happens because it’d be a treat to revisit the festival there after so many years.

The end of the course is rapidly approaching and I’ve been doing what I can to prepare myself for a career in animation. Over the summer I’ll be applying for junior jobs and assistant roles in whatever facet of animation I can find – right now I’m not being particularly fickle about what I apply for but I’m hopeful that within the next few years I’ll have a secure role in either a studio or be working freelance on some projects.

In this post I’m covering my showreel from last year. My intent is to update it soon with some of the projects we’ve worked on since, including the LIAF commission which must’ve been just after I’d made this showreel!

It’s great to look back and see how I’ve already developed my skills in the last year and where I could stand to put more work into, but generally speaking I’m happy with what’s in here.

I intend to update it in the next week so I’ll make another post when the 2023 showreel is uploaded to Vimeo. Margeaux gave some great tips and feedback about making showreels this week so I’m going to use that knowledge to try and improve it as best I can and hopefully it’ll help me land some jobs as soon as possible after the course is over.

Storyboarding is something I’ve been interested in for a while now, primarily because it speaks to my style of drawing. Rough, loose, scratchy, doodles, all seem like things you can get away with as long as the images are readable.

On the last two projects we produced for this unit of work, I took storyboarding on as a role for myself; given the last films we all produced were solo efforts it isn’t much to talk about, but in terms of the group project I had a lot of little ideas floating around in my head that I wanted to make sure I could put forward to the other guys in the team and have them either explore or reject. It was a great part of the process and I’d like to think we all had a lot of fun at that stage!

With that said I don’t think I knew much about what a storyboard artist actually needs to do on a professional level – it’s all well and good to say that they set up initial ideas for layout, composition and character acting, but how much work goes into those tasks?

This mini documentary by Pixar is a really interesting look into what decisions are made at this stage in pre-production, why they’re made, and how loose it can be in terms of set ideas – I really like this part of production! Mostly because you can look at hundreds of different ideas and not be too bogged down by how you’re going to achieve certain things at that point.

Anecdotally speaking, I’ve heard that Storyboard Artists tend to work far too hard, taking on roles that they probably don’t need to at the stage of production they work in. I’ve seen a lot of highly detailed and animated storyboards from TV productions, and seen many posts on social media that talk of how much work time is being put into boards. I don’t know if this is because of peer pressure, or if it’s just an accepted thing in the industry, but it seems documented enough that it’s probably an industry issue (despite how good the boards may look as a result!)

The last two projects have really helped me explore different ways of trying to storyboard, and I’ve gone back and forth between analogue drawings for loose and explorative ideas, and digital to tidy them up a bit and piece it all together. I’d really like to try and explore this part of pre-production more with some other ideas I have, so unit 3 will give me a great opportunity to explore that.

After reading the SakugaBlog post about “The Layout Crisis” in the Anime industry, I realised that I didn’t really understand the significance of how important the role is to creating flowing animation. The post itself does talk about how, over the years (in particular since the widespread adoption of computer animation), the role has seen itself merged into other roles, tasks being combined, and the job itself especially in the Japanese anime industry isn’t quite the same as it once was.

The role of Layout Artist involves “working from storyboards… [using] a film’s characters, sets, props and cameras to stage, block, and shoot the film, shot by shot” It seems like the kind of role that is largely forgotten about but is incredibly important to making sure films look the best they can! It’s every bit as much of a creative process as any other part of the pipeline, requiring artistic vision, patience to reiterate, and bits of knowledge from all aspects of the animation process.

Regarding “The Layout Crisis”, I personally couldn’t tell you if the role has been downplayed in the last couple of decades as a result of technological upheaval, but I can certainly see the case in point, especially in the anime industry. Maybe I just have my rose-tinted specs on, but a significant portion of the shows I’ve seen lately don’t hold a candle to the imaginative and evocative series from between the late ’80s to the early ’00s. Perhaps it’s a result of limited budgets, or maybe it’s to do with the integration of jobs into other jobs. I don’t think it’s indicative of animators and artists being ‘worse’ now, but I think the trend has been improving over the last few years.

It certainly seems that 3D animations have an advantage in that it’s easier to try new camera positions and adjust background elements on the fly, but I don’t necessarily think that means the role is any easier – there’s still a lot of skill involved and having the right eye for what looks good is still critical to being a successful layout artist. The main thing I’m likely to take away right now is just how important the skills layout artists have are, and how they can be transferred across multiple roles. Maybe I’m wrong but they seem like they’re the middleground between storyboarding and compositing, needing to know a little about everything to pull a sequence together.

Despite that I think the role is interesting – it’s something I’ll make sure to consider when I’m making my own work, but I know that I’ve never been a particularly good background artist (which is probably why I should try harder to learn more about it!). Focusing on making shots interesting through cinematography, placing characters and camera movements that cement the work produced in storyboarding, these are things that I should be considering to really push my art to the next level.