Inmotion Playgrounds

At the start of the DPS year, I attended Inmotion Playgrounds at the Barbican. The animation festival featured presentations from many companies and individuals I respect in the industry. Some stand out lectures to me were from Nina Gantz, James Baxter and Alex Hirsch. Despite all these examples are of individuals who were not companies, I also found a lot of helpful information coming out of the speeches from Fortiche and Industrial Light & Magic.

James Baxter’s presentation focused on fundamental techniques of character animation. Baxter being a Disney artist would have been taught that twelve principles of animation outlined in ‘The Illusion of Life’ despite these principles being taught so long ago they’re still being used by animators today ‘When new artists joined the staff

they were taught these practices as if they were the rules of the trade. To everyone’s surprise, they became the fundamental principles of animation.’  Instead of sticking strict to tradition, he distilled the commonly accepted ‘12 animation principles’ from the Illusion of Life into a smaller number of categories. The new principles he proposed were: Clarity and Communication, Performance; Inertia; Timing and Spacing; Weight and Balance. As someone who found the concept of 12 principles to be an odd number with many feeling like similar things or no brainers, I found these 5 principles to make more sense and be more digestible. As someone who wants to expand upon the concept of animation instead of just following ‘holy’ rules, I liked hearing a respected veteran in the industry also try to improve on commonly held ideas of the past. One of my goals this DPS year was to build upon my fundamental animation skills and this presentation really helped me streamline my goal. Bazter’s presentation inspired me to pick up more books about legendary character animators, I read ‘The Illusion of Life’ by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston as well as ‘The Nine Old Men’ by Andreas Deja. When studying the twelve principles and applying them I will also keep in mind Baxter’s streamlined version as a simpler way to remember what makes a realistic, effective animation. 

Whilst queuing up for the second day of the event, I took the opportunity to network with other people in the line. I met someone who was developing an interesting sounding animated pilot about cowboy bugs. During conversation, I showed them my work and they said they’d like to get me to work on part of their pilot. We exchanged details and I was added to their project discord. Meeting this individual may not have led to any opportunities within the DPS time bracket however I think this may have opened me up to some hopeful opportunities in the future. Even if I don’t get to work with this creator, I could still get my work out there by posting in their discord server. The reason I was queuing up for so long on the second day was because I wanted to secure a portfolio review with my preferred person or company. The company I was aiming to get a portfolio review with was Nexus studios as I thought their company was the one that matched my skill set best. Unfortunately, despite arriving two hours early, Nexus had run out of portfolio review slots by the time I got to the sign up sheet. Having had extra time in the line to look up other companies, I found that Treatment studio did a lot of experimental work so I chose them as a second option. I learnt from this experience that I need to get in even earlier than I expect to get the best opportunities.

Hirsch’s presentation was primarily about pitching animated tv shows and story writing. This presentation was a beneficial one to me because I feel that story writing and plot development is a weak point in my skill set which I would like the tools to improve on. I consider myself to be an experimental animator but I would still like to lean more into conventional storytelling in some aspects of my work. I also found that his advice on pitch decks could expand beyond that of a television program and be useful in many different types of pitch decks and even other situations. I found his approach to seminars to be extremely memorable and understandable, so much of his advice stuck with me due to his unparalleled stage presence. I want to be able to absorb his charisma for when I have to present something next. I intend to implement his advice in story driven projects in my future.

I unfortunately had to leave Hirsch’s presentation early to attend my portfolio review with Treatment studio. I showed two representatives from the company my current showreel to receive feedback. I got some useful advice about what to expand upon in my portfolio. They found my mixed media work to be interesting and recommended I focus on what I like and create a lot more of it. They also advised me to apply for work at their studio, which I then went on to do, as well as other studios such as Nexus, art & graft and Northhouse. They suggested I look into 3D texturing and just learn as much software as I possibly can. Initially I was nervous about booking an industry portfolio review since my portfolio isn’t where I want it to be just yet but despite this I found the experience extremely enlightening and morale boosting. I found it easy to talk to the studio representatives thanks to networking skills session ran before and at the start of the DPS year, I’m glad I attended both these sessions as I found them extremely useful when navigating the professional world. For my next portfolio review I want to be able to present a more tailored portfolio/showreel so I can receive more direct feedback.

I first saw Nina Gantz’s short film ‘Wander to Wonder’ at Anibar animation festival a few months before attending inmotion playgrounds. I was instantly taken in by the film’s world and storytelling so I was excited to learn Gantz was making an appearance in person at Inmotion Playgrounds. After her screening, Gantz  was showing attendees the puppets used in the film, I went to have a look. It was amazing to see the size of the puppets and feel the material they were made of. The experience of getting to move around a professionally made stop motion puppet gave me a new perspective on stop motion as an animated medium as I had only worked with student puppets before. This puppet was exceptionally intricate and clearly made using 3D printing, Gantz also showed off a few different faceplates that she had bought with her. It was shown in the presentation that the team had used at least 50 different face plates in the film whereas even the few I got to see in person outnumbered any I had used on a puppet myself. This presentation made the world of stop motion seem much broader and painstakingly thought out and executed. Compared to other animation mediums like 2D and 3D, I felt that a stop motion pipeline for a university project would be less realistic to the professional workplace due to the cost and scale of a stop motion production. Whereas studying 2D in University at least makes me feel like I’m getting a more truthful vision into what a workplace scenario could look like. Since releasing this I have decided to apply to be a stop motion assistant on an NFTs produced student film this summer. Despite it still being a student run production I feel it can bring me a step closer to real life stop motion experience due to the reputation the school has for stop motion and the professionally made films that have come out of the institution. I still hope to be offered a place on one of the films.

Ultimately, I found this two day experience to be one of the most formative in my DPS journey. This led me to attend more networking events for animators such as the She Drew That farewell party where I met female animators that worked for companies like The Line and Blink Industries as well as directors of indie animation projects which I followed before starting DPS. As much as I took from attending InMotion Playgrounds, it was evident that the representation in speakers and representatives was lacking. At many points during the event I would wonder if there were going to be any female speakers at all, I hope the organisers work on this for future events. This made my experience at the She Drew That event even more important to my development as a female in a male dominated industry. I hope to bring more diverse voices to the industry one day if I am ever in a position of power. The experience of attending Inmotion Playgrounds a few months before was integral to me mastering my networking communication skills and build my confidence in speaking to professionals and talented peers. Thanks to this, I feel fully confident attending more networking events in the future and hopefully I can carry this confidence into the workplace as well.