Isobel Wilson’s Animation Blog

The end of a semester or project is always a great reason to update my social media pages, CV, website and showreels. Which I usually do each term or holiday, but as we’ve worked on such a bg project as team, one that we’re all so proud of, I decided to make/design some more promotional materials as well.

Creating new business cards for sea silk and promotional materials

The last time I created business cards was for my last graduate film in 2020. I have been running low on cards since attending Cardiff Animation Festival in April and being able to give them out so many amazing people, and also including them in my orders from my Etsy shop. Where I sell prints of my work. So I decided to make some new ones based on our newest project, including some of the design work I did. That way I can include them in our display at the showcase for guests to take if they’re interested.

Here are some mock ups of the business cards I had made, I’m hoping to display these at the showcase and at networking events over the summer.

Updating my website

Now that we’re nearing the end of the course, I needed to edit my website in a couple of ways. Firstly to change the about me section to prepare to graduate and remove my old CV from there. And also upload my new design work and visual development work for this project. I can also take some more old work done from the site to make sure its not too cluttered and only my best work is on display.

Making edits for my CV

After our lecture on the important of showreels, CVs and cover letters. I got some feedback from tutors and the guest lecturer on how to improve my CV. I went home that night and was able to make the changes they suggested. These were shortening down my CV from 2 pages to 1 page, as it better shows my level experience and takes out unnecessary parts that just fluff it out. I was able to be concise and direct with my cv and I think it will be better because of the advice I got. I have attached my new CV below. I also got some great advice on how to write a cover letter for applying for production roles. So I will bear that in mind for this summer as I apply for jobs.

Showreel

After our lecture and some advice I got both from the tutors and fellow students, I realised that I needed to update my showreel again. It’s the first time I’d really had help when making and reviewing one before and I found it really helpful as I didn’t really know how to judge my own work and pick the best clips to put in and feature. A lot of the work I had included before was just shots I liked rather than showing a variety of skills in character animation, I was able to resolve this

I’ve attached my new showreel below and also a link to my updated website.

https://isobelwilson.co.uk/work/67f45e26-9b6f-4358-92d8-01f3c4091410-a2tbn-wecjn

Social Media

This term, I ran the social media page for our film along with my own. My plan was to document the creation of the film from start to finish and showcase all the people who were helping us along the way. I encouraged my teamed to post as much as they and tag the page so I showcase them. It worked and we were able to get some great interactions from people online. Hopefully there will be some excitement when the film is realised.

Applying for funding

In the future, I’d like to continue making films that showcase traditional crafts, folk traditions and folklore. Just like some of my previous films and Sea Silk. I think these stories are important to tell and animation is the perfect medium to tell them in. Last term, I pitched a couple of films about lesser known folk traditions from around the UK. I think these would make for interesting films that the areas they are from could use to showcase their local history and culture. So I am interesting in trying to create links with people in these areas to see if there is any funding I could apply for to make these films. Also when in Cardiff, I spoke to some people who were involved in BFI and other Arts funding and they gave me people to get in touch with and advice for applying to grants, Hopefully I can use this information in the future.

Interest in residency

Since starting University again, I have had an interest in applying for a residency abroad to create work. I’ve always loved to travel and gain a lot of inspiration from areas I’ve visited and the people I’ve met. I usually tend to create work based on my own experiences or stories I’ve heard from others. In the future, id love to live somewhere new and created a short film about my time there, exploring the area and the people I’ve met. Some areas I’ve researched are Japan, South America and Eastern Europe. I think I will start to save money once I’ve graduated to try and fund this. It would be a great experience and really help build connections aboard and improve my work in the future.

Applying for short course in subjects/techniques

There are a couple of areas of 2d animation that I’d like to learn more about and practice in the future. So I have been looking into short courses online to try and learn rigging in both Animate and Toon boom. Whilst I have tried rigging in both of these programs previously, I think my skills are lacking a bit and self learning hasn’t always been my strongest area. so swing up some money for short courses sounds ideal for me, especially because they will be an investment for my future in the industry and in my own work. Since working in Animate this term, I really love the final product that a vector based program has produced and want to continue on with that in the future.

Hopeful for internship

As mentioned in a previous post, I have applied to a couple of internships and junior roles. I have yet to hear back from these studios, but there are some internships I have yet to apply for, so I remain hopeful that this summer, I will be able to land an internship at a studio and be able to learn everything I can from people in the industry.

Interest in production roles again

Working as a producer for this past term has only reaffirmed my interest in working in production after graduating. So hopefully through networking and meeting more people I may be able to land a junior role in production. It’s an area of animation that I’ve been told needs more people so hopefully with this newest bout of experience I can move into that area of the industry.

Following the advice from alumni and the tutors, I have been attending more networking events in the hope of building up a network here in London and online as a creative. I have been doing this by attending events like Festivus, She drew that and festivals like Cardiff Animation Festival. Attending these events and getting to speak to a wide range of people has truly been so helpful and valuable.

I feel like I have gained a better understanding for how the industry currently is and gotten valuable advice from more senior women who have worked in the industry for a long time regarding how to scope out good working environments, dealing with potential problems that might arise and how to deal with working in a male dominated industry. Things are slowly changing and wider opportunities are being opened to more people. However, many of them had similar experiences which they wanted to share to those who are newer to the industry in the hopes we would be able avoid them. I found this level of honesty and empathy to be truly humbling.

Cardiff Animation Festival

At the end of April, we attended CAF as a group as Hannah and Eleanora’s LIAF film was being screened and they offered me a place to stay whilst we were there. I had never visited Cardiff before and hadn’t been to a film festival since 2019 so was really interested in the types of events they would host. I also knew this would be a great chance to network with people and perhaps get the word out about our film and the CSM MACA showcase.

On the first day of the festival, it was the industry day so we were able to attend lots of interesting talks ranging from; how to get funding in animation to where people got their start. I found these interesting as I have been thinking more about how to apply for funding for make my own films after graduating. One event that we went to that was really good was a ‘speed dating’ event hosted by screen skills where we would get 10 minutes to speak to a group of industry professionals about whatever we wanted regarding animation and the industry. We really found this helpful as we were able to talk and show parts of our film and get feedback from people as well as ask general questions about specific areas of the industry. There were people from the BBC and BFI in attendance as well as solo film makers would I admired. Their feedback was all super helpful and we found some level of reassurance when people said that the film was looking good and that they were interested in seeing the final product.

in the evening we were able to see Hannah and Elenora’s film in the Slice of Life showcase, it was great to be there in person and show my support for both of them. It was a really strong show filled with so many amazing films and animated documentaries. I really enjoyed myself.

On day 2 we attended the brunch q and a and got hear from a variety of creators of films being shown at the festival, it gave us an interesting insight into their practices and inspirations. We attended more showcases and then in the afternoon got to see a talk we were all excited for! The cuphead talk, I had played the game when it came out years ago and was a big fan (enough through it was far too difficult for me) and so many people were interested in how the concept was created and the work that went into creating a hand drawn 2d game. One of the animators and character designs was hosting the talk and sharing her experiences. To top it all off, Joanna Quinn hosted the q and an after. This was really a highlight of the festival for me as I was able to talk to both Tina and Joanna after and share my work with them.

We were lucky to attend some great short film shortcuts but also see some amazing feature films as well. I was excited to see both Kensuke’s Kingdom and Robot Dream prior to going to the festival and neither disappointed, we laughed and cried and were just amazed by the stunning storyteller and animation in both films. the q and a after Kensuke’s Kingdom was really insightful as the filmmakers explained their 11 year process of getting the film made and some of the struggles along the way. It was created at Lupus Studios, which is a studio near me which I have been following the work of since I moved to London so it was great to chat to some of people who worked on the film.

Overall attending Cardiff Animation Festival was amazing and I think we learned so much as a group, got to make new friends and get valuable insight from people who have been in the animation industry for a long time. I know we all want to attend again next year and hopefully show our finished film as well!

Throughout this term I have been keeping an eye on studio’s websites and social media pages for internships. I don’t have any immediate plans once we’ve graduated so I think trying to get some valuable studio experience would be a great way to go.

I have applied to internships in the past and never been successful so here’s hoping that the development I’ve made in my animation and design skills over the past year will be enough to land me a spot as an intern somewhere.

In terms of where I applied, I was able to find some on my own and also applied to the ones recommended by the tutors, although I expect these will be very competitive. But you have to put your name in the hat to be considered so it always a good way to get myself to update my CV, showreel and website with my new work. I am looking forward to updating my showreel once again with new work once we have our showreel lecture and our film is complete.

I applied for a background and location designer role at Sun and Moon studio

I saw this one posted on their instagram page and thought I would just apply as I can easily edit my website and CV work around my background design work and it’s a role I’m interested in. I don’t think I have enough experience to get the role but if I can get any feedback at all then that will be super helpful. I interviewed once before at Sun and Moon during the pandemic, to work as a colourist but lost out to some more experienced. So here’s hoping I can find a role where I can gain more experience.

in terms of internships, I applied for the golden wolf internships both in production and animation as I am interested in pursuing both and would be happy with either

Golden wolf is a very popular studio so I assume this will be highly competitive to even get an interview so I wouldn’t be too disappointed when I get rejected but its good to share your work and get your name in front of recruiters.

I applied to a couple of others but lastly I will be talk about applying to the art and graft internship. Last year I didn’t get chance to visit the studio in person as a I was at nexus but from what I heard from the students who went it looks like a great place to work. So when I saw they were opening up internships I was very interested. It seems like they aren’t looking for specific roles to be filled like other studios so I might be able to get a role in production rather than in animation.

I will likely apply for some more if I come across them this month, my team and I are heading to Cardiff animation festival this month so I will try and sniff out anymore I can see.

As I mentioned in my weekly post of this week, I had the opportunity to work with a couple of students for the narration of my student film series. I was able to get a small budget for my films which I could towards hiring some students from a call out I did last week.

The turnaround was quick but I was really pleased with the entires I received and struggled to pick just 3 from all the entires. Once I did I was able to pull together the three scripts and set a date for recording the narrations.

Luckily I was accustomed to using the recording sound booths in the film and tv department, from when we used them to record audio back in January. they gave me a short induction again to refresh my memory and I was on my way! I was able to book this space all afternoon so had time in-between to edit/swap and change things.

I may have to make changes or perhaps re-recording in the future but for now I have a lot to be getting on with!

For months I have wanted to go home and collect some stuff from my parents house that wasn’t able to move down south with me. One of these things is a rostrum camera stand that I’ve had for years. I filmed all of my early films with it and as it’s been super busy in the studios recently, I thought I could do some tests at home instead.

Above I’ve included some images of the set up in my living room and of the materials I plan on using. I will obviously iron the fabric so lay it flat with some tape to keep it consistent. The materials weren’t as easy as I remembered so I plan to use a greater variety including; felt, wool and perhaps paper. I plan to test these next week at some point.

This week was a busy week!

Monday

I started off the week completing my research and design work for the third shot, with the knight and horse. Jan, the director, picked me for this role as last term I created a knight character. I really enjoyed making that character so was happy to be apart of the creation of this one too!

Here are some of the reference images I collected

I was designing both the horse and knight for this shot so was looking designs that were historically accurate but also easy for us to work with.

Here is what I came up with!

And here are the layout tests with both characters included;

Tuesday

I then did some very basic animation so we could put him into the animatic we had to see how the timing worked.

I continued my research for the film by looking into cave paintings, here are some paintings I compiled

Wednesday

It was our turn to film our LAV – Live Action Video references, it was great to have access to the big space and some props from around the room, it really helped us work on the timing and spacing for our shots.

After this I started to work on creating some animation for the horse and sourcing a reference video we us. I knew I had some videos of my horses walking and managed to find a video of one of them, Limbo walking through my garden back home. I thought it would be perfect for the what we needed.

Friday

I went into uni today to create the roughs for shot 3 and 4 which will be my shots! I used the reference footage we shot on Wednesday and the used the animatic we created a reference for spacing to create the shots in TV paint. It’s a program I’m not super familiar with but should really learn more about as it is industry standard.

I think I have the keys down but will need to work on the timing before I move any further with these. The most important thing is the character animation being on point so we can really express the emotions and motions of these characters.

Next week will be a busy week but I’m excited to continue on with the animation and hopefully we can really nail it down!

Tuesday

Today we had our meeting for review our animatic’s 1st round. It didn’t go quite how we expected but we received some great feedback and spent the rest of the day changing it for Wednesday. We went back to storyboarding to make sure the timing and the message of each era is clear to audiences.

Wednesday

We completed our animatic and were able to do some lighting and texture tests

Friday/Saturday

Today I worked half days to further explore the character designs for the children who will be featured in shot 4. We aren’t 100% decided on which time period or where they are from but I was testing out classic silhouettes for old clothing.

I did this through having the young girl in a long dress with large puffed sleeves and wearing a bonnet.

Below are some of the reference images I complied for understanding victorian children clothing and of silhouette photography that was popular at the time.

From there I was able to do layout tests with some of the poses I created. This helps understand the size and scale of the character. Here are some examples of that.

For the young boy, he was a bit more difficult. He might be wearing shorts, a flat cap and suspenders.

We met up in the evening for an online meeting, reviewed each others work from the past couple of days and planned what we were going to do until we met up on Tuesday. I need to continue my work on the kids and also do some development work for a new scene. This scene will show a knight and his horse walking through the cave. This scene will represent the Middle Ages in Europe.

So I’m on the Cave team! I’m really excited to be apart of the team that I am, it was my first choice and I really admire the other amazing artists on my team. This is gonna be a really demanding term with probably;y lots of ups and downs for everyone but overall I think it will be a great learning experience for us all. This will be the first team exercise we will work on as part of our course and I’m hoping to learn as much as I can from my other team mates.

At the start of the week I wasn’t able to attend the meetings as I was away in Vienna. However, my team caught me up on everything and we met up on Friday to go over the roles for everyone and create a bit of a schedule for the upcoming weeks.

Here’s a link to out group padlet:

https://padlet.com/janzhou/cave-liaf-project-esce95znh3yj3sz9

We will post updates on here and on dedicated one drive folders.

I have worked as a producer previously and wanted to take on that role again so I am the producer for Cave. This mostly means I am in charge of creating the Gantt charts and lists of things we need to do.

I have started to have a go at creating these but as we go further with the project they will need to be updated. Here are some screenshots for this.

I’ll also be helping with the instagram and other socials to help promote the film.

This weekend I was able to visit Vienna for the first time. My family were traveling there as my brother was competing in the marathon they were hosting but I was able to stay for a couple more days after that and explore all the galleries and museums around the city.

I was surprised with just how many galleries they had with so many recognisable artists such as Klimt, Picasso, Bacon and others.

The Kiss was the painting I was excited to see in person whilst in Vienna and was so happy it lived up to my expectations! The colours were honestly so vibrant and vivid 🙂

Here are some other pictures from my trip and include some other amazing works and lots of pieces/artists I had never heard of but now would like to research further.