Eleonora Di Massimo

I was lucky enough to attend Cardiff Animation festival this year and it has been a great experience.

It was my first proper animation festival and I think what made it even better was having a film I had worked on being screened in one of the programmes, as I could refer it to people I talked to or use it as a starting point for a conversation.

In retrospective, I am able to talk about my experience and summarise it into a few categories:

The World of Animation

Attending as many screenings as I can made me realise how diverse the world of animation is. I was obviously aware of it but I was still an eye-opening experience, particularly as some of the films would get screened worldwide outside of a festival environment. Also, the web is really selective of what is popular and needs to be given visibility to, so having to opportunity to see all these independent projects within the time frame of a few hours was an incredible experience.

Through attending Q&A sessions with directors I came to understand that there is some very good funding opportunities for independent films, and a lot of professional have mentioned some major schemes which I will keep in mind for the future. I was overall glad to see the effort to keep an industry alive and also make sure there are different voices being represented.

The Industry

Initially, the talks I was most excited to attend where the ones led by industry professionals. I really wanted to gain some more insight into how to start and apply for jobs or whether there was any specific recommendations about showreels and related materials. I think I came out of every single talk with a few notes of how I can improve my work . I also came out with a little bit more hope for the future, as there seems to be quite a lot of production happening in London and the UK.

Moreover, I felt relieved in hearing that a lot of productions seek junior animators (even if it’s due to a financial decision sometimes), which makes me feel better about my journey so far and where my skills are at the moment.

Overall the festival had a great representation of studios and I got to hear from producers of major tv and film production to owners and directors of smaller studios, which gave me a better perspective of what is out there.

Networking

The Festival also offered a great way to network with professionals and people at different stage in their career, both during pre-set session and casually over a meal or in between screenings. I was lucky that I had a film selected for one of the screening as a starting point for conversation, as I still find it hard to talk to people. I think by the end of the festival it almost became a second nature. I was able to talk with people like Joanna Quinn, Tina Nawrocki, Emma Fernando, Nia Alavezos, and many others.

Along with the two classmate I’m collaborating with on my graduation project, I attended a Screenskills networking event where we were able to introduce our graduation film work in progress animatic to different professionals and we received a positive feedback.  We were grateful for the experience and more determined than ever to finish it and plan for the future of the film.

Overall, Cardiff was a fantastic experience and I’m now considering the film festival we’d want to send or graduation film to. I know that my networking needs to continue after the end of the course for me to break into the industry, but I now feel like I have the competence to do it in a more relaxed way. It was also interesting to get an insight of the animation studio outside London and how they operate. I never thought I would need to be “stuck” in a specific city to get work, but this experience made me aware of how much is out there.

Cartoon Saloon, Ireland.

I came across Cartoon Saloon’s work during my second year of my bachelor’s degree (at the time when Song of the Sea was first released) and was fascinated by the way they are constantly pushing the boundaries of 2D animation. I remained a big fan over the years and this became the studio I would eventually want to end up working for.

I understand it will be difficult to get a junior position there, but I have been keeping an eye on their social media and I see they have a new film in production, and they are slowly starting to recruit for different positions. The one I’ll be on the lookout for are animators and Ink and paint artists. I have applied for the latter in the past and was offered a test, so I think that is a position more likely to be offered to  juniors as well.

All their jobs are based on site in Kilkenny, and they ask artists to relocate there, which is something that I would welcome for this studio. Also, they generally welcome applicants from EU countries, which definitely helps when it comes to setting up a residency in another country.

I interviewed an clean up artist who had worked for Cartoon Saloon during unit 2 and they said that sometimes it’s about being in the right place at the right time, and that gave me the confidence to at least try and apply in the future.

Studio Zmei, Bulgaria.

Studio Zmei is a fairly new small studio in Bulgaria which has recently assisted the production of Genndy Tartakovsky’s “Unicorn: Warriors Ethernal “ along with Studio La Cachette. In spring 2022 I took a colour test for them and was told I passed it. Due to a delay in receiving the clean up shots, the work ended up starting the week I was due to start this course, and when I tried to ask how flexible they would be with working hours, I was told they expected full time availability, so I had to decline.

This wouldn’t necessary be my first choice when looking for a job, mainly due to the low rate offered a few years back. Nevertheless, the studio was very welcome of international candidates working remotely, which I think is always a plus. If I was to take a non-related part time job in the meantime and came across an advert from them, I would definitely consider the opportunity to build up some experience.

I would prefer my first experience to be in a studio where I could go in and learn from the people around me as well, but I know this is not the time to be picky, and I’m now much more open to consider freelance work coming in from independent creators and productions.

I have noticed an increase in animation production funded through more accessible platforms like Kickstarter which have later become quite popular. In the past I applied for one of these, Lackadaisy, as a clean up artist. At the time I didn’t have a lot of experience with the software I was required to use so I didn’t get the role. Once again though, I would still consider this a good opportunity for the future as I would have been allowed to work remotely and using platforms like Discord to access production information and upload my work.

This kind of production somehow felt more accessible to me, particularly at a time when the only animation network I had was online. The director of the project was an artist I had been followed for years and collaborated with in a fan project, so the prospect of applying for a job felt less stressful.

These productions also tend to be someone’s passion project brought forward to an  animation lover audience which is investing more and more into independent animation, particularly in the US where big production houses dominate the mainstream market. Artists are also more open to recruit people without any previous experience as long as they have a good and relevant portfolio.

As I’m coming towards the end of my course I am starting to research for studios producing  2D work so that I could start contacting them once my showreel is done.

These are a handful I have discovered over the years and where I’d like to work at some point. Particularly for the ones in London, I know I would need to be ready to accept a freelance position, as I noticed that in some years, internships are hard to come by and end up being extremely competitive to get.

I have been advised to just try and a apply for whatever position matches my current= skills, and not to worry too much about specifying that I’m looking for a junior role, as that would be evident by my showreel.

Shotopop, London.

Shotopop is a small studio in London specialising in animation and illustration content for a wide variety of applications. 2D digital animation is heavily featured on their website, and it’s so varied that I don’t think they might be looking for a specific style in a showreel, but rather prefer versatility.

I discovered this studio by looking at an alumni profile on Linkedin. He had done some clean up work for them so I decided to reach out last summer asking whether they offered any kind of internships.  In the same email I also mention I was happy to assist with animation, clean up and colour and sent them my showreel.

I received a reply when I was starting university back in September and they seemed really pleased with my work and where looking forward to collaborate with me.

As I knew it would have been difficult for me to balance my university project with a contract job in animation, I mentioned my availability would be over summer. In the next few weeks, I think I will reach out again with a new showreel and also mentioning my availability for the future.

Studio AKA, London.

I was introduced to Studio AKA during my Batchelor’s degree when my course invited Philip Hunt and Grant Orchard to give an industry talk. I have been following their work ever since as they have worked on quite a lot of advertisement and idents, and I’m always quite in awe with the quality of their work, considering it’s still a small studio.

I tried to apply for an internship a few years ago and they haven’t offered them ever since. I remember contacting Ren Pesci, who’s till the production coordinator at the studio, but unfortunately the news were not positive. I got the impression they might have a good database of artists and I’ve been told they usually employ them on a freelance base, so I know it’s not the easiest studio to apply for as a junior.

Also. having no contacts there makes it even harder considering the size of their productions. I think it will be emailing the studio in the near future asking if a visit to the studio can be arranged. It’s mainly because I’m curious to see the studio, but it would probably be better to introduce myself without the expectation of a job. That way I would also ask what kind of projects they will be working for in the future and the best way and time to apply for a position there.

Blinkink, London.

Blinkink is a multimedia production studio which works on a wide variety of projects. 2D is well represented, and I have encountered quite few opportunities for internships and junior roles. I came to know the studio as a word of mouth and I was given one of the production coordinators email a few years ago. I have had them reaching back a couple of times, unfortunately when I couldn’t take on the job (most time I was giving a very short notice), but I overall tried to keep a good relationship with them without having done any work for them. I hope that in the future I will be in a position to be contacted for a job I can accept, and in a few week’s time I will email the production coordinator again with a new showreel and availability dates, hoping that they will have some 2D assistant role I could take. As mentioned, this year’s internships where happening at a time when I couldn’t work full time, so I hope the studio will offer more of them in the future.

I have been researching the role of assistant animator and clean up artist as it’s something I am strongly leaning on to start my career. I have briefly covered the role for a student film abroad, but at the time I wasn’t fully aware of how dynamic the role was going to be or what it fully required.

Assistant animators take the animator’s drawings, make each frame precisely on model and apply the final ‘line’ that will be seen on screen. This is known as clean up. They will often have to fill in frames that the animator did not need to produce. To do this they follow the animators ‘charting’ – visual instructions left for the assistant animator as to where missing drawings should come in the timeline. This is known as in-betweening. They might also lip sync, which means drawing the mouth in a way that lines up with the speech.

Screenskill.com

This role is normally advertised under few different names depending on the country or studio one would end up working for. In bigger studios there might be an animator assigned to just clean up the roughs and bringing everything on model and the job is later passed to another artist in the Ink and Paint department, where the final lines will be applied, as well as colour. In smaller studio, an assistant animator will probably cover all of these role, as the amount of animation to clean would be much smaller.

To better understand what the role is about and what kind of skills are necessary, I have approached and interviewed Kimi Kurbanova. Kimi is an animator who has worked on various project for Cartoon Saloon and Studio Meala, mainly as a clean up artist.

What is the difference between the role of a clean up artist vs the one of an assistant animator when working for a big (in terms of number of employees) studio?

From my experience of working in both a big studio, as well as smaller indie studios, these titles are interchangeable. As a clean up artist, I cleaned up on-model drawings, and inbetweened the animation based on the animator’s timing charts and notes. Clean up and Assistant Animation go hand in hand here. Having said that, this of course differs from studio to studio. But in any case, it helps to have solid draftsmanship for both roles.

What would be the weekly tasks of a clean up artist? Do you find the weekly quota changes massively from project to project? Or studio to studio?

Each Clean Up department has their own structure of working, but this is what a week would consist of for me:

Typically, a Lead or an experienced Clean Up Artist would be assigned to draw Spot Keys – these are the foundational, storytelling beats of the shot. These drawings require a good eye, as the drawings have to be perfectly on model. They serve as a guide for the next artist, who will be drawing the rest of the Keys, Breakdowns and Inbetweens. Consistency is important with each step.

Once the Spot Keys are approved, the next step is to draw the Keys and Breakdowns. This task may be assigned to the person who drew the Spot Keys, but could also be assigned to someone else.

When Keys and Breakdowns are completed, a Lead or Supervisor will have a look at these and either give feedback notes or give you the go ahead to move onto finishing the Inbetweens. When the entire shot is complete, it is checked again by the Supervisor for approval and is then ready to be reviewed by the Director.

Depending on the project’s style, there might be an “Additional Cleanup” step where colour separations are added for the Ink and Paint and the Compositing department. As an example, this could be cheek blushes, eyeshadow, highlights and such.

In the studio I worked at, the weekly quota was counted based on the amount of seconds of fully cleaned animation that the Director approved. 

From my experience, the quota tends to stay the same on a project, but of course circumstances may change, meaning the quota can be lowered or increased – depending on the output of the team. 

3 – Was there any sort of advice you wish you’d been given prior to entering the industry?

Before entering the industry, I wish I had a better understanding of everybody’s roles within a studio. It of course varies for each studio, but a general idea of who I should be liaising with throughout the day would have saved me from wasting other people’s time.

For example, it took me a while to realise that I should be communicating with my Leads more to show them my work in progress, instead of always going to my Supervisor. And that I should be keeping in touch with my Production Assistants and Coordinators more regarding deadlines and if I’m struggling with shots.

4-  How was your experience trying to get your first job in animation after graduation? Is there anything you did that you think helped you secure that first (or even later) job (s)? (Skills, networking, your personality etc..)

It took me a while until I found my first in-house studio job, almost 2 years to be precise. I had been doing a bit of freelance up until that point but not really earning a stable income. 

I believe what helped me get my first job was the fact that I was readily available for a project that was urgently seeking animators. It also helped that I already lived in the same city as the studio and had a showreel showcasing some basic animation skills and a CV that showed I had been actively involving myself in other projects. It’s so cliche to answer these questions with “right place, right time” when getting a job, but for me it really was the case! 

Another animator/ clean up artist I follow, Marc Hendry, has recently published a video thoroughly explaining the clean up process:

He explains how in the production of Cartoon Saloon’s My Father’s Dragon, his role as a clean up artists would involve cleaning up about 10 drawings a day. This is obviously very specific to a certain studio workflow and the fact that he was working a feature production with a longer timeframe. He says his role is not just about adding cleaner lines, but also redifinng the drawings and most importantly, maintain the volumes of the characters.

Cartoon Saloon’s pipeline is quite unique, so he would receive a couple of cleaned frames to refer to. He would later proceed to clean up the key frames (unless this was already done by a clean up supervisor), and later move on to break downs and finally, the rest of the inbetweens. This ensures that there’s more consistency with the character as normally key frames would be quite different from each other. In this way, is harder to make mistakes with volume changes. After the clean up of a scene is complete, he would later do a fix pass to check for any possible mistakes.

In the video he also talks about a stage between the roughs and the clean up. Depending on the style of the animator assigned to a certain shot, the animation might need an extra level of information before the cleaners lines are applied. This is because the notion of “rough” is different to every animators (some have cleaner style than others). Animators such as Glen Keane are more focuse on the performance rather than keeping a character on model from the very beginning. This means that extra work is necessary for the assistant animator or clean up artist to add what is needed to make the character on model before proceeding to the proper ink stage.

To be suitable for this role one must have a good overall craftmanskills, a solid understanding of animation principles, be familiar with timing charts and excellent communication skills. As mentioned, I have had a bit of practise working for other animators and I have quite enjoyed the task, so I would definitely like to apply for this role in the future. I wouldn’t mind starting out as an animator but I’m aware how competitive the industry is and where my skills are at the moement, so I think the assistant animator position would be more suitable for me.

I started to have a look at the producer role in animation. 

Producers overlook and manage the whole animation production, making sure it stays within a fixed budget and delivers a production on time. Those working in smaller studios (which I think would be the majority of studios in the UK), would also take on creative responsibilities.

Although most would have a contract with a studio, there is a possibility for the role to be on a freelance base.

Part of their job is also to find ways to fund certain projects by attending and networking at events, film and art festivals.

The producer is in contact with every department to ensure they have everything they need. 

The essential skills to be a producers are:

• Leadership: a producer needs to be able to communicate, manage and motivate an entire team. People skills are necessary for this role, particularly during a tough production or a closeby deadline.
• Organisation: they are in charge of organising different people, and depending on the size of a company, that could mean the entire studio! They are the one planning the production according to the client’s deadline, so attention to details is fundamental.
• Business: they need to be able to budget the cost of a production correctly and to constantly seek funding for future projects.
• Animation Production Knowledge: in order to be able to correctly put a schedule in place, they need to have a thorough knowledge of the animation pipeline to calculate how long a production is going to take and hire people accordingly (if the studio is lacking the artists required).
• Problem Solving: there will inevitably be problems rising during a production. Whether these are small or big a producer is often the person a lot of artists in the studio would turn to to solve them.

The Producer role is often obtained after a few years working in the industry: one could move on from a director or production coordinator role. From the perspective of someone starting out after graduation, a runner role could be the start to a future career. 

A runner is a good opportunity for any sort of progression into the industry, but to an extent, the role is slightly more in line with a producer’s. They would take care of the basic needs of a studio, such as stationary or food for employees. As a runner you are expected to learn as much as you can while performing your duties. After a while, they start to gain a good knowledge of how a studio is run. 

I think I wouldn’t mind starting my career as a runner, as I’ve always been curious about the behind the scenes of animation production. I would still like to move onto something that would allow me to use my drawing skills, as I love the practical aspect of it. However, I have worked in roles where people skills were essential, so I think I would be able to transfer those into a studio environment. 

Upon a class visit to Nexus Studio, we were told that animation producers are hard to come across, so it could potentially be easier to start as a runner/ studio assistant, and potentially change career afterwards.

I noticed that sometimes these kind of position are advertised under the name of “studio assistants’. I have previously tried to apply for this kind of role, but it was for MPC, which made the application very competitive. The studio was also aking candidate to have an interest in VFX and 3D animation, which I couldn’t prove at the time as my portfolio was prevalently 2D.

Dispite considering the runner position as a valid gateway into the industry, I don’t think I would consider the producer as a career goal though. The financial aspect wouldn’t be suitable for me and I still find networking quite a daunting experience and I wouldn’t want the responsibility to secure fundings that way.

I’ve been researching the role of animation editor to better understand how I could relate it to my role in the group project. 

I have been helping out creating an animatic but our process has been a little bit unconventional and I discovered that the wayI was doing it is a little bit different from what an editor in the animation industry would use. 

An animation editor follows the great majority of the whole production process and it’s there to such an early stage as the script writing. They also seem to be involved during the storyboard process to best match the script to the right camera angle and type of shot. This is also to ensure that all the animation that will be produced later will make it into the final cut, so that animators will not loose time or footage.

An editor job on a major animation film production can last up to 2-3 years. They can make creative contributions throughout the entire production but are expected to participate in storyboard sessions. With their input, a certain sequence can go through five or more changes before it’s determined to be suitable for the final film.

In an interview about the editing process of “Fantastic Mr. Fox“(2009), editor Andrew Weisblum talks about how the whole film process started by putting an early version of dialogue and sound effects onto a timeline used to create an animatic. From that, concept artists and designer would go on to create sets and puppets. With the film being shot with the stop motion technique, he soon realised that the timing of the 2D drawn animatic wasn’t necessarily working for the puppets, so they had to go back and refigure out the timing from scratch.

Animation would be shot at about 30 scenes at the same time. As soon as the animators were done with their shot they would give their scene back to Weisblum and his team, who would insert the final shot into the animatic and tweak the timing if necessary. This process would go on for a year or so. He also explains that from the very first recording up to the final piece, about 2/3 of the film material was scrapped. That shows the amount of work an animation editor does within a feature film production and how much the original idea changes because of their imput.

In order to be able to take on such a comprehensive role, one needs to have skills in:

• Storytelling: this is essential to make a film more compelling and generally flow, so that the audience won’t have problems understanding the story.
• People skills: because the editor is present at almost every stage of the production, they need to be able to communicate their ideas clearly and work with different people.
• Animation Production knowledge: they need to have a thorough knowledge of the whole film making process, particularly referred to animation, so they know at what time they can step in and potentially make changes.
• Specific software knowledge: have experience using different editing softwares as production requires.

This generally feels as quite a senior role, as more years of experience might give you a better understanding of the storytelling project. There’s also an edit assistant position which could be a more feasible way into the industry for someone without any prior experience.

They might be asked to keep a log of all production materials, from storyboards to animated scenes or sound/ dialogue. They might also be asked to contribute to rough cuts or edit of individual clips and do more administrative tasks such as booking recording sessions or studios.

Although I feel I have a pretty good knowledge of animation production (at least for a 2D workflow), I think my storytelling skills are not quite there yet for me to apply for this kind of position when I graduate. I think my strength is the animating, and I still struggle to plan a storyboard, let alone deciding which shot would be better for certain scenes. 

The edit assistant sounds more achievable and I have done this kind of work in the past in a completely different work environment, but I overall enjoyed it.