This week in our Professional Practice lecture we talked to three industry guests, and previous graduates of Ulster University in Animation. We talked to:
Zoe Woods – Graduated in 2018, Working for Framestore AI as a Layout technical director in London
Aisling McElroy – Graduated in 2018 – Working for Italic Pig as Production co-ordinator in Holywood
Greg Woodcock – Graduated in 2008 – Working for Dimension Studio as an Animator in Newcastle/London
Source
https://eu-lti.bbcollab.com/collab/ui/session/playback/load/552fb1c85c104967ad082a0eef3476a1
https://eu-lti.bbcollab.com/collab/ui/session/playback/load/bdc37370fd624c6784e73e618616dd70
Zoe Woods came to talk to us first.
Zoe Woods is currently a layout Technical Director at frame store IA. she graduated in 2018 from Ulster University. Zoe completed a placement year at Enter Yes as an Animation Intern. Zoe went into the animation course wanting to work in the Gaming industry, however she bounced between gaming and VFX while studying. She has worked on shows such as Millie Inbetween, Pip and Posy, and Jessy and Nessy.
Zoe started as a runner at BBC Blackstaff, where she organised the behind the scenes of a show. She would organise the extras, do coffee runs, make phone calls, emails, hand out sheets and scripts and organising filming abroad, partys and more. Zoe became a Data wrangler at Jam Media, where she would look after the renders and point out issues that may appear – communicate with IT & compositors to address errors. Zoe moved onto 2D Render lead at Jam Media, where she led the team to organise shots, identify issues, and checking everyones work. Zoe then went onto become a Layout artist for many studios, where she sets up scenes, props, and characters ready for animation, setting up placement, blockings, and cameras to correct places. Zoe taught us a lot about the current role she takes as a layout artist, the studio workflow and how it is changing every year.
Aisling McElroy talked to us next.
Aisling McElroy is currently a production co-ordinator for Italic Pig, and she graduated in 2018 from Ulster University. Aisling went into the animation course wanting to do a bit of everything, but also always loved working within a team and organising a project – this led her to working in production. She completed a 3 year placement at Sixteen south, working on three different projects. She had dabbled in the likes of design, edit, audio recording, scripting etc. She graduated as a generalist, but wanted to pursue a role in production.
She found a job in Blackstaff Games where she produced for a small platform game, ‘Buildings have feelings too!’. Aisling took an opportunity to organise gaming play through for students in Belfast Met. She then went on to work for Taunt studios for a brief time. She was managing and reaching out to companies within Belfast and London to build up the studio, as they were just a starting company. Aisling moved over to Italic Pig where she has been working for 2 years now. Her role was an art-line producer at first, where she looking after the art department of the studio. She would be in change of the documentation, making sure everyone knows what they are doing, and scheduling. More recently she has become a Lead Producer for five different projects. She is learning to produce with many different teams, managing projects and deadlines. Aisling explains her role and the studio workflow when answering a few questions we asked.
Lastly Greg woodcock talked to us.
Greg Woodcock is an Animator working as a freelancer, currently working for Dimension Studio. He graduated in 2008 from Swansea Met University. He has been in the industry for 10+ years, and has created many projects such as console games, advertising, TV adverts, mobile apps casino games and more. Greg works primarily with 3D animation and rigging, and has a range tool sets in Autodesk Maya – going from project to project he said he is always learning new skills and collects tools to use in the future.
Greg’s first job was for the studio Serious Parody creating animation / body mechanics for a wrestling game. Currently he is working with VR and mobcap for a VR game at Dimension Studio. He takes on roles such as working with human IK & skeletons, and setting in keyframes. Greg emphasises the challenge of starting to find opportunities in the animation industry, and how the more experience you get, the more opportunities you could find.
These guest talks were very interesting to listen into. It was great to hear from people in the industry and what they have experienced so far into their careers. What I learnt about most is the reality that my options/roles may or may not change further in the future etc. could start wanting to be an animator, but become a producer. It also was interesting to know about what duties these guys took on for their different kinds of jobs, and how they felt about them.