WAnimate

Interview with Patrick Jordan, our second new committee member and recent Animation Mentor graduate!

wanimate — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 22:12:30 +0000

Welcome to 2012 fellow animators! We are pumped for an exciting year ahead of animation events, including guest speakers as well as new events. Be sure to subscribe to our facebook page, as well as our mailing list to get full access to what’s happening in 2012.

Keep an eye out for the Animator’s Hour screenings every Thursday night, for more details check out http://www.animatorshour.com

Interview with Patrick Jordan, recent Animation Mentor graduate and new committee member

What started your interest in animation?

I was watching Looney Tunes after school once, and in the cartoon there was a wind-up toy soldier that moved in a really jittery way. I found it fascinating that it seemed so mechanical in comparison to everything else in the cartoon, and made me wonder “How do they do that?”. Years later I dug it up thanks to the wonders of YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3Oc1rU7gXY

How did you get to where you are?

I got my first taste of 3D animation through the course at the FTI and was hooked. After a few years of trying my hand at different aspects of 3D, I decided I wanted to focus on character animation and enrolled in Animation Mentor. Since graduating in 2011 I’ve worked on a few small projects, but I’m still dreaming of the day when someone will pay me to animate full time…

How many hours a week do you spend animating?
Not enough! Between work, kids and precious sleep it’s probably only around 5-10 hours at the moment. I’m hoping to increase that with some work on a short film in the coming months. Goodbye sleep!

What animated character do you think most closely represents your personality?

Raphael from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

How do you keep motivated?

I like to get involved in team projects because it’s inspiring to work with talented people and learn from what they do, even if they’re in a completely different field.

Do you have any advice to give to our readers?

Watch old silent movies (Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton) for some great reference on acting in animation. Even though there’s no dialogue, the pantomime acting is so good that it’s always very clear what’s happening. And they’re also very entertaining!

What’s the most challenging part to work on in a shot for you?
Definitely polishing – spending hours tweaking splines and shuffling keys is hard work! And I find keeping a critical eye on the shot particularly tricky when I’m so engrossed in it.

What makes an animation great, in your mind?
For me, great animation is all about creating convincing characters. Making the viewer believe that a character is thinking and reacting to their world is the Holy Grail – rather than a puppet moved by some unseen force.

If you could be any animal, what would you be?
A grizzly bear – eating, sleeping and terrorising hikers. What’s not to like?

Favourite film of all time?
Adaptation

Big thanks to Patrick Jordan for his time. We look forward to working with him to create some new and exciting events this year!

Interview with Katherine Kerr, Perth graduate of Animation Mentor and a new committee member!

wanimate — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 01:46:25 +0000

The WAnimate committee would love to welcome Katherine Kerr and Patrick Jordan to the group. We look forward to working with you to strengthen the WA animation industry!

Interview with Katherine Kerr, recent Animation Mentor and new committee member

What started your interest in animation?

A bug’s life. That scene right at the start where he’s flying through holding onto the dandelion, I just remember sitting there with huuuuge eyes staring at the screen amazed at the textures and colours and movement. I walked out of that cinema, knowing exactly where I was headed.

How did you get to where you are?

By a complete mistake, ticking the wrong box in my uni application I ended up doing Multimedia Design instead of a graphic design course. I went along with it and ended up loving the 3D component of the course, after graduating I I moved onto Animation Mentor, and it’s the best thing I’ve ever done, it nearly killed me at the time but I’m so glad i did it!

How many hours a week do you spend animating?
When the course was in full swing up to 50 hours a week after work and on the weekends, but now it’s down to about 10 hours a week, let’s not overdo ourselves now!

What animated character do you think most closely represents your personality?

Dorrie, from Finding Nemo. It really is uncanny.

How do you keep motivated?

Before sitting down to animate I try and watch at least small excerpt of animation, whether that be a bit of Tangled or Toy Story 3 or just a crazy 2D Disney animation I found on youtube. Anything that gets me excited and makes me think, ‘yeah I wanna do that!’

Do you have any advice to give to our readers?

Study the world & movement around you as much as you can, get regular feedback from your peers and take a break, it’s amazing how perfect you think a shot is until you take a break and come back later. And then you’re good optimism disappears out the window unfortunately!

What’s the most challenging part to work on in a shot for you?
Taking a shot from stepped mode to spline, my heart breaks every time as all my perfect timing goes out the window :’(

What makes an animation great, in your mind?
Making the viewer get caught up in the characters emotions just through beautiful acting choices

If you could be any animal, what would you be?
Seagull – get to hang out at the beach all day and eat fish and chips!

Favourite film of all time?
Lion King

Look out for next month’s interview with Patrick Jordan!

Now open to all: Show Off Your Shorts!

wanimate — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 23:06:24 +0000

Just a reminder about our Show Off Your Shorts! event next Thursday 15 September, 7pm at the Velvet Lounge in the Flying Scotsman.

We are so proud of our WAM BAM winners that we are opening this event up so that everyone can view their work! However, only members have the chance to win the door prize of a limited edition DVD of Shaun Tan’s The Lost Thing! If you are a member, make sure you check in with us when you arrive, or you can join up on the night to go into the draw.

We have a great line-up so far with speakers Michelle Glaser from ScreenWest and Daniel High from EPRA. In addition to the WAM BAM shorts, we also have the funny and slick Bus Stop from Fungus Studios and reels from local studios like ZAC Toons, Prickly Pixel, and boogie monster.

Light finger food will be served and you can buy drinks at the bar.

We look forward to seeing you at Show Off Your Shorts! next week.

All the best,
WAnimate

YOU ARE INVITED TO SHOW OFF YOUR SHORTS!

When: 7:00pm-9:00pm. Thursday 15th September
Where: The Velvet Lounge (Private Function Room at the Flying Scotsman). 639 Beaufort Street, Mount Lawley.
RSVP: Wednesday 14th September to wanimate@gmail.com
This event is now open to the public, but only members can go into the draw to win the door prize of a limited edition DVD of Shaun Tan’s “The Lost Thing”! If you are a member, make sure you check in with us when you arrive, or you can join up on the night to go into the draw.

We will be screening the animations created at WAM BAM 2011, WAnimate’s 48-hour speed-animation competition, and would also like to invite WAnimate members to bring along their animation shorts or showreels to share with the Perth animation community.

We will also have two guest speakers: Michelle Glaser from ScreenWest will be giving an informational talk about animation funding grants and Daniel High from EPRA will chat with us about content for the Perth Cultural Centre LED screens.

Light finger food will be provided and drinks can be purchased at the bar.

If you would like us to submit an animation for screening, please note:
– Files are to be under 5 minutes in length, ideally in Quicktime movie file format, and under 300MB in size.
– If possible, please e-mail wanimate@gmail.com beforehand to organise providing us with your content beforehand.
– If bringing your content with you on the night, please arrive at 6.30pm with your animation on a USB drive.

SHOW OFF YOUR SHORTS

wanimate — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 07:45:14 +0000

YOU ARE INVITED TO SHOW OFF YOUR SHORTS!

When: 7:00pm-9:00pm. Thursday 15th September
Where: The Velvet Lounge (Private Function Room at the Flying Scotsman). 639 Beaufort Street, Mount Lawley.
RSVP: Monday 12th September to wanimate@gmail.com
Please note that this is a members-only event, but you can join up on the night or online at www.wanimate.org.au/membership/

Light finger food will be provided and drinks can be purchased at the bar.

WAM BAM 2011 winners!

wanimate — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 12:50:41 +0000

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE WINNERS OF WAM BAM 2011: “THE HANDSOME TRENTS” WITH THEIR INSPIRING SHORT, ORANGE.

Competition at WAM BAM was fierce this year with a lot of talent on display, resulting in highly entertaining animation of incredible quality. The films were screened on Sunday night to an audience of over 70 people, and are available for online viewing on WAnimate’s Youtube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/wanimate

COMPETITION RESULTS

1st prize: “Orange” by team “The Handsome Trents”

Members: Trent Hudson, Sam Johnson, Luis Logam, Ross O’Donovan, Chantelle White. Theme words: Orange, Pride, Disguise

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“Orange”

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2nd prize: “Beware the Mushroom Cloud” by team “Control+S”

Members: Kim Larking, Kylie Slee, Lauren Swioklo. Theme words: Purple, Guilt, Key

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“Beware the Mushroom Cloud”

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3rd prize: “Red Jealousy Pie” by team “Cliff Edge”

Members: Liam Davis, Luke Davis, Kate Keiley, Joshua Mardan, Michelle Osborne. Theme words: Red, Jealousy, Pie

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“Red Jealousy Pie”

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People’s Choice Award: “The Legend of Bob Mason, Pastry Chef” by team “Dancing Dinosaurs”

Members: Josh Bryson, Mitchell Disley, Lauren Fletcher, Scott Gilchrist, Andrew Mabey. Theme words: Green, Hate, Door

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“The Legend of Bob Mason, Pastry Chef”

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WAM BAM 2011 was proudly supported by ScreenWest, LotteryWest, the West Coast Institute of Training, Lastpixel, Wacom Australia, and Empire Toys.