2012 eh?!

What better way to start the year than to get stuck into a gigantic self-initiated project.

Well that’s exactly what I’m doing. Gobblynne presents… AFTER THE BEEP. Please visit  www.afterthebeep.co.uk to find out more and get involved.

I often receive emails from people (mainly animation students completing written projects or their dissertations) asking me questions about my work. I usually respond to each email individually but I thought it was high time that I made a general “Gobblynne FAQs” blog post!

The following questions have been put forward to me in past emails. If you have any other specific questions you’d like to be answered please let me know and I’ll answer them as soon as I can.

How did you get your first animation job?

When I left University in 2005, I began to apply for animation jobs in London. At the same time while I was looking for work, and because I wanted to keep busy, I made two (unpaid) music videos. I thought that producing anything that would boost my portfolio would be beneficial. Once finished, I uploaded them to as many online video channels as I could; I figured that the more people who saw my work, the more chance I would have at reaching out to potential employers. I also scoured the Internet for competitions and festivals to help promote my work. These two videos, “Gone Fishing” by Second Person and “Stay In My Memory” by Bim both ended up being really successful.

“Gone Fishing” was aired on television, and I had numerous press releases with features in magazines such as Computer Arts and DPI magazine. I was honoured with a 4Talent award – a Channel 4 award showcasing the best emerging creative talent from within the UK.

“Stay In My Memory” received 300,000 views in one week on YouTube alone and garnered two “best animation” awards in film festivals. In 2009 I was also crowned ‘Best of British’ as one of eight of the hottest new illustrators picked by Digital Arts.

From this exposure I had clients contact me directly for commissions.

How long does it take to create an animation?

I normally draw everything by hand, so 20-25 frames (different pieces of artwork) for every second of animation. I scan my images in, clean them in Photoshop and colour them individually with photography from my ever-growing photo library. I then take my frames into After Effects and breath life into them! I still get so excited when I see my illustrations moving.

It is difficult to say exactly how long an animation will take to create as there can be countless factors that influence production time i.e. design style and complexity, layer intricacy, render time, etc. As an example of timeframes, two animations that I created recently took me 15 days each, and they are both around 01:30 minutes in length. I’ve also recently completed a more detailed animation which took 12 days for 40 seconds. “Stay In My Memory” was created in my spare time over one whole year!

Practice makes perfect too – I’ve got a lot faster over the years.

How did you create your own personal style of illustration and animation?

Throughout art education I had teachers telling me to research other artist’s work and to draw “in the style of…” but I’m not really  a fan of these teaching methods. I tried to avoid looking at other people’s work as much as possible as I thought that I would subconsciously copy them. It was only when I found my own niche style that I became interested in finding out how other artists work.

I think it’s really hard these days to create art from your own imagination instead of referencing from other people’s work; there’s so much design around us in advertising and on the Internet, TV and films. Bootlegging other people’s work devalues the original artist’s talent. It’s not just artists either, clients sometimes ask for artwork and designs “like this…” instead of trusting an artist to be original.

The more you doodle and experiment and play with your style, the easier it will be to find yourself as a creative. Finding your own niche is important in business, let alone illustration and design.

You don’t work in 3D. Does the dominance of CGI and 3D graphics bother you?

I’ve had people ask me about whether old school hand-drawn illustration will die out because all children see today is CGI and 3D. It is true that technology is ever-progressing but there will always be people who appreciate the work that goes into, and the beauty of traditional methods.

An idea will always start with a scribble of words or images on a piece of paper. In terms of animation these days, a lot of these ideas are reborn in a 3D/CGI world but some ideas are still beautifully captured by using ink on paper or by photographing a plasticine world in stop-motion shoot, for example.

Programs like The Simpsons and Family Guy are still going mightily strong. You may say “but they are all CG” but they’re not! The Simpsons is drawn frame by frame and then coloured with digital ink and paint. Quoted from a website about the Simpsons, “The animators draw out story boards and rough sketches for how the episode will look, followed by a set of black and white drawings for the whole episode. These are then shot under a camera, pieced together and combined with the voice track. The drawings are sent to Korea to be drawn neatly and inked.”

In the last few years there has been heaps of whiteboard animations advertising huge brand names and there’s alway been loads of stop motion about too – think of how well Aardman are doing (including their soon to be released “The Pirates! – In An Adventure With Scientists”). Trends seem to come in waves too and different styles and themes will always come back around.

There will always be a place for mixed media “hands on” art, it is certainly still very popular and I think it’s bursting with personality.

How did you make “Stay In My Memory” by Bim?

I loved the idea of making a pop up book come to life, so that was my plan. I listened to the song over and over (and over) again and scribbled down ideas then I got to making the pop up book. I designed each page, worked out how the pop-ups would work and subsequently created nets using Photoshop. The book was then professionally printed and I assembled it successfully… thankfully!

The pop up book, along with the girl at the end, the pirates and the dragon, are all filmed using stop motion photography. I hired some lights and set up my camera in my parent’s garage and used a remote control to take hundreds of photos while I moved each page of the book/character recurrently.

The next step was to edit the photos together on my computer in time with the music and create the basis for the video. I then drew the characters on paper, scanned them, and cleaned and coloured them in Photoshop – there’s 1,651 drawings just of the characters, ouch! I then composited it all together using After Effects.

The fish and bird in the animation were created by origami – my first attempt! There were a few different techniques added once the animation was put together too, for example using the 3D effects in After Effects to create shadows from the illustrated girl falling on to the pages of the book.

Do you have any advice for people who are shy – how do you talk to clients or other artists?

A couple of years out of University I was asked to give a talk to other students about promoting oneself. I prepared a speech, got my silly little PowerPoint presentation ready, then stood up in front of lots of expectant eyes. I went red. Instantly. Mumbled for about 5 minutes. Forgot everything I was going to say, then went to the bar and drank the free wine.

It gets easier though, the more you do it; I now attend creative network events, talk to groups if I’m asked to, and I often phone my clients instead of emailing them. I think you need practice to gain confidence, it’s not you being “different” or “shy” by finding it hard – everyone does.

Do you have any advice for aspiring illustrators?

Make as much work as possible and create a strong portfolio! Keep going! Knowing lots of people and networking really does help too. The majority of jobs that I’ve had is from word of mouth or people who’ve seen my work at festivals or on the net. You’ve really got to work hard to get yourself out there. I’m not going to lie and say it’s easy!

There’s a few grants available here and there if you search the net (i.e. The Arts Council) especially for recent grads, where they fund artists to create work. It’s pretty much a paid job to be creatively free, but you’ve got to pitch your ideas/process/budget well first.

Remember, if you don’t have paid work, keep working, get yourself out there, take every opportunity, work hard, push yourself and most importantly, have fun!

I’ve recently been working for Samsung creating illustrations for their new Galaxy Note. Look! It’s me!!

I was asked by Aspect Film And Video (www.aspectfilmandvideo.co.uk) if I would like to get involved in an unusual project where I would be creating some illustrations AND presenting in front of a camera. I never thought “acting” would be part of my job description (gulp!).

I have to say it was one of the most enjoyable jobs I’ve been involved in. I was given the Samsung Galaxy Note and was asked to use its illustration programs to create artwork.

I am so used to sitting at home in my own Gobblynne world that it was insane for me to be the focus of a video shoot… but I quite liked it… I might have to find more jobs like it…

Ooooh look at my shiny new website, isn’t it beautiful? All credit is due to the wonderfully hard-working Tim Davis at www.timdavis.me who cleverly put the new www.gobblynne.com together and made all the buttons work. THANK YOU TIM!

And you seem to have stumbled across the blog page. Hello! Through my travels here in blog-land I’ll keep you up to date with what I’ve been working on. More soon!