Studio Brief 2 - Creative Report

Here is my report from contacting a professional.

Study Task 3 - Contacting a proffesional.

I sent an email to Kenneth Anderson :Website: asking him if we would be ok with me asking him a few questions about being a character designer, which he responded that he would be happy to help.

My email :

Hello,
My name is Medi-Haf Edwards, and I am a student, studying Animation at Leeds arts University (Leeds college of art).
I was wondering if you would consider answering 5 questions I have regarding being a character designer. I adore doing character design myself, and your answers would be really helpful to me.
Please note that your answers will be put into my blog.
I am looking forward to hearing from you.
Thank you very Much

Medi.

 Kenny's Response :

Hi Medi!

Sure thing, feel free to email them through. Happy to help.

Cheers!

Kenny

I then sent him an email asking the following : 

Hi Kenny,

Thank you so much!

Here are my questions.

How did you get into the industry?

What advice would you give someone who wants to get into character design?

Do you feel that it is better to specialise in one style or to have a variety of styles? 

What is it like working in the character design industry?

Does most of your work come in the form of a brief from clients or do you self-author your briefs?

I really appreciate you taking the time to answer these questions.

Thanks again,

Medi

Around a week went by and I sent Kenny another message to check that he had received my email, which he responded he had been busy and would get back to me as soon as possible. 

This weekend I received a response from Kenny.

Hi Medi,

I hope you are well! I have answered your questions below. I hope they are of help to you!

All the best

Kenny

How did you get into the industry?

I studied animation at art school with the intention of working in animation as some kind of artist. After graduation, I started my career working in games and animation production - in many ways I was in the right place at the right time to get the first jobs I did. The skills I learnt in these jobs became very useful when I later on decided to become a character designer. It was really just a matter of setting up my freelance business and putting the word out there - eventually work started coming in. Of course I had spent a lot of time improving my design skills prior to this point and only took the plunge when I felt I was ready.

What advice would you give someone who wants to get into character design?

It would depend on their current skill level. I think first things first, learn how to draw, especially the human form, but also how to use tone and colour. Fundamental drawing ability is a must! Then focus on taking those skills and learn how to design, how to stylise the human figure, how to caricature and draw from the imagination with personality and emotion. Dedicate a lot of time to this - without good character design skills, the following will be irrelevant!

Once comfortable with character design, it is good to get some experience in some form of animation production or something similar. This could be work experience, an internship or a junior level job. Maybe even some freelance work. The important thing is to start learning how to take direction from someone else and to draw to a brief and start figuring out how to design within certain limitations and a certain context. For example, a character design for a high end console game might be very different to one for a pre school childrens show!

I think flexibility is a good thing to have - by that I mean being able to work between different industries. Characters are everywhere, from advertising, to animation to illustration. To survive solely as a character designer it makes sense to take advantage of all those markets.

Most of all, don't give up. Some really talented people will walk into character designing for the big studios with little effort. However, if you are like me, it will take years to get any good at designing - stick at it and play the long game if its what you are really passionate about. 

Do you feel that it is better to specialise in one style or to have a variety of styles?

I think a bit of both. It's good to have a style that a client can come to you and say, we love your style! Will you design something for us? But its also good to have a degree of flexibility, as a good designer will have to adapt to a particular brief. It also makes good business sense - a degree of flexibility will open more doors for client work.

What is it like working in the character design industry?

It's a job at the end of the day! There are good days and bad, boring jobs and fun jobs. And of course all the stuff that comes with running a business - taxes, expenses, marketing, dealing with clients etc. I wouldn't say there is a specific character design industry, more like various creative industries which rely heavily on character design such as animation, games etc. Sometimes a job will be so much fun that the characters draw themselves - others it might take so long to nail a design that it becomes a chore. But the key thing is, it allows us to draw almost every day, which is pretty cool.

If you are freelance, like I am most of the time, it can be good and bad working from home. Its great having the flexibility of when and where I work, when I take days off etc. But it can get a bit lonely at times, working alone all the time. And of course, irregular pay, no company benefits etc. It is a tough life at times! But when you see your characters come to life in a kids tv show, or on the front of a magazine - it's all kinda worth it.

Does most of your work come in the form of a brief from clients or do you self-author your briefs?

All my work is client work so I am always working to other peoples briefs. The only time I'm not is when I am working on personal projects but I don't really consider them work. Maybe one day though I will be the position where I can work to my own brief, create something and then sell it to make a living, whether its a graphic novel, a TV show idea or a series of illustrations. That is probably the ultimate career goal for a character designer, to sell something of their own, bring their own creations to life and to the world.

Study Task 10 - It's Showreel Time

Here is my showreel , I really enjoyed  creating this. I've used personal, first and second year work in this, and even animated the title to make it look a little more professional.

How I've developed.

I feel during the course of this year my art has improved a lot, I've worked as a line artist for a series of animations now, and am pleased to say that my line art has definitely improved.

This was my first animation from first year.

And here is an animation I did the line art for during this year. 

Personally I feel I have definitely improved the smoothness of my lines, keeping them all intact unlike my first animation. Which I feel it was loose and poorly done, it had a lot of wobbles in which I feel I have bettered a lot in the course of the last two years.