Working with Professionals at Leeds Light Night

At this Light Night i got the chance to work with Rebecca Smith (http://mynameisrebecca.com/) Peter Barber (http://www.peterbarber.co.uk/) and Jimmy Power (http://thatjimmyperson.com/) projecting live animation up onto the Vernon St Building using Tagtool along with a few other lucky individuals. Having never done any kind of live performance like this i did have a few times where i screwed up during rehearsal, but during the actual night it went well.

A week before the night, Becca, Pete and Jimmy all came in and showed us their individual work and how they had come together and the work they had produced together. It was very cool to see the work they produced and learn their working process, and it got me pumped to get on with making visuals on the night.

I feel i put more pressure on myself not to screw up rather than the three professionals, and in turn that pressure is what made me screw up early, but as the night went on and i got more relaxed i felt more in my element. And when i turned around and saw a crowd of people ooing and aring i was quite chuffed.

I was working with a friend who has had experience with some more intense projection mapping and producing live visuals for an audience, and though he wasn't as impressed i had a lot of fun. It would also make good CV fodder for the future to say i helped at an exhibition at light night.

Below are some photo's that me and my friend took of the night.

Who am i now?

• Identify 5 things you have learned so far on the programme

-How to use professional digital tools such as maya, after effects, flash, etc

-How to plan to the extent of my abilities ie gaging how reasonable or how ambitious my plans are

-The professional animation process
-Techniques for convincing animated movement
-How to effectively and respectfully work with, and around other Animators

• Identify 5 things that you want to know more about

-ways to start in the industry (Internships ect) and how to get hired

-Relation Between Videogame animation and "traditional" animation

-How to effectively present yourself online
-What makes "good" concept art
-The ins and outs of Maya/Digital 3D modeling/texturing/animating

• Identify 5 skills that you think are your strengths

-Research and development

-My flexibility with working with different forms of animation

-My theoretical understanding and knowledge of animation techniques and practices 

-My ability to quickly pick up digital tools for producing animation

-My passion for art philosophy, theory, and history

• Identify 5 things that you want to improve.

-Professional Confidence (confidence in my work)

-Digital Drawing Skills

-Organisation skills and working effectively to deadlines

-Life Drawing
-Perspective Drawing

• Identify 5 practitioners that demonstrate your interest in Animation

-Edmund Mcmillen; Makes simple but addictive video games that are all very successful. Earns a living by making games that are entirely his idea.

- Chris Sasaki; Gets paid to draw for a brief, with my love for pre production i feel like this would be a fun job, though i would like to build up my confidence/skill drawing before reach a level to take a job like this. 
-Camilo Vanegas; Both this person and the next work at Supergiant Games. A very successful animator who has worked for a company that has only produced successful games. Focusing on character animation he has produced some brilliant independent animated skits with fantastic facial expressions and movement.
-Jen Zee; Another person who works at Supergiant games who creates quite painterly backgrounds, characters and environments. I admire her style as well as the company she works for.
- Makoto Shinkai; His focus on beautiful backgrounds and focus on detail and colour are what takes his animations above the average japanese anime.

• Identify 5 websites/online resources that demonstrate your areas of interest within the creative industries.

-http://store.steampowered.com/ ; This is the website that i get purchase most of the games I research, with forums for video game discussion

-http://www.thisiscolossal.com/ ; A website that features cool new artists and pieces in the media that i often use for inspiration.

-https://www.tumblr.com/ ; Though tumblr is frowned upon as not a very professional website, many of the animators/artists mentioned above have professional blogs on tumblr.

-http://myanimelist.net/ ; Perhaps the least professional of the list here, however this keeps me informed of the japanese animation scene and helps me to keep track of the anime i have or haven't seen (Though this is the anime equivilent of IMDB)

-https://vimeo.com/ ; The professional youtube

I am not particularly proud of my 5 websites, i should research more sites to keep an eye on.