****Fun Pack link found at the end of this post.****
For those of you who know me, or at least for those of you who have bothered to read my biography, you know I wanted to be an animator. Since I was 12 all I ever wanted to do is classical animation. If you are familiar with the classical animation industry that statement may mean that I wanted to do anything from conceptual work to final painting of the cells, or even post production. However, when I say "classical animation", I mean classical animation--I wanted to sit 16 hours/day, making characters move with the help of loose sheets of paper and my beloved blue pencil.
However, since classical animation virtually vanished in my second year of college (there are still some positions over seas), I turned to illustration and other traditional art jobs. After a lot of soul searching, I discovered that I like to draw (traditionally) even more thank I like to animate. It is a shame really, since my teachers did tell me that I had a natural ability for animating: rhythm and timing came easily, and any issues I had had to do with my lack of drawing ability at the time.
In all the years since college, there was not a single job opening that tempted me to give up building my personal career to work in an animation studio. That is, not until recently.
By accident I came across a Character Designer position for the sequel to my favourite animated series ("Avatar: The Last Air Bender"--if you have not seen it--do), "The Legend of Korra". Well, I knew I would always regret not trying out for that position, so I rolled up my sleeves and worked my ass off for three days, trying to create an impressive portfolio.
I only had three days, because my friends have invited me to visit PEI, a place I wanted to see since I first saw "Anne of Green Gables" when I was a little girl.
Why didn't they advertise that job opening a month earlier? Then I would have given it my all, but no matter how much I wanted to work on that show, I could not say no to visiting PEI. I may never have another chance to visit the island, and the probability of me getting the character animation job was not high.
As it turns out, it was pretty much non-existent, but I'll write more about that later.
So, for those three days I delved into the world of animation, trying to learn the character style, and draw with the economy of line, something I have not needed to do for years. I loved it! I had so much fun, even though I could not get the style quite right (Avatar is very detailed and angular, while I've been drawing simplified round forms). I did create a number of decent drawings, and any artist who looked at them could have seen that I had the ability to do the work with competence. (The problem with art jobs is that Human Resources has a first pass at your portfolio and application, and unless you make them happy your work may never be viewed by an artist at all.)
On the day I was supposed to leave for PEI, I tried submitting my portfolio online, but there were all these glitches. I would try to upload the "release form", and my resume would vanish, or my personal information would be deleted, or one of my schools would disappear. Since my time has run out, I submitted the thing as best as I could, aware that my "release form" did not go through, and I enlisted my sister's help in submitting the form if she could.
Upon my return, I went back to the submission site, attempting to figure out what was wrong with it. Then, as I finally read Terms of Service, I discovered that I had to be a US citizen to use the site.
I'm Canadian.
I was planing of creating a flat book and submitting it physically to the animation studio, but in the mean time the position has been filled out. In the future, I will submit a portfolio for that show. Who knows, they may need someone to work on characters for the following season?
However, clearly it is time for me to refocus on my own work and finish AIMH. Not to mention that I've gotten another job--designing game cards.
So, all that is left for me to do is bid goodbye to the animation field again, and post a link to the artwork I created here for your examination.
What you will see by clicking on the link below is a website version of what we in college called a Fun Pack--a fun pack is a collection of sketches and artwork suggesting the design for the film, with the full knowledge that the designs have not yet reached their final state.
I forget what they call the final booklet with "on-model" designs. Maybe "Design Manual"?
Anyway, here is the link:
Enjoy! And, as always, comments are welcomed and appreciated!
Mili
Please note that I sketched in Korra for reference, to see if my designs can stand with her, however, she is not one of my designs--she is copyrighted by Nickelodeon. Everything else is mine. :-)
For those of you who know me, or at least for those of you who have bothered to read my biography, you know I wanted to be an animator. Since I was 12 all I ever wanted to do is classical animation. If you are familiar with the classical animation industry that statement may mean that I wanted to do anything from conceptual work to final painting of the cells, or even post production. However, when I say "classical animation", I mean classical animation--I wanted to sit 16 hours/day, making characters move with the help of loose sheets of paper and my beloved blue pencil.
However, since classical animation virtually vanished in my second year of college (there are still some positions over seas), I turned to illustration and other traditional art jobs. After a lot of soul searching, I discovered that I like to draw (traditionally) even more thank I like to animate. It is a shame really, since my teachers did tell me that I had a natural ability for animating: rhythm and timing came easily, and any issues I had had to do with my lack of drawing ability at the time.
In all the years since college, there was not a single job opening that tempted me to give up building my personal career to work in an animation studio. That is, not until recently.
By accident I came across a Character Designer position for the sequel to my favourite animated series ("Avatar: The Last Air Bender"--if you have not seen it--do), "The Legend of Korra". Well, I knew I would always regret not trying out for that position, so I rolled up my sleeves and worked my ass off for three days, trying to create an impressive portfolio.
I only had three days, because my friends have invited me to visit PEI, a place I wanted to see since I first saw "Anne of Green Gables" when I was a little girl.
Why didn't they advertise that job opening a month earlier? Then I would have given it my all, but no matter how much I wanted to work on that show, I could not say no to visiting PEI. I may never have another chance to visit the island, and the probability of me getting the character animation job was not high.
As it turns out, it was pretty much non-existent, but I'll write more about that later.
So, for those three days I delved into the world of animation, trying to learn the character style, and draw with the economy of line, something I have not needed to do for years. I loved it! I had so much fun, even though I could not get the style quite right (Avatar is very detailed and angular, while I've been drawing simplified round forms). I did create a number of decent drawings, and any artist who looked at them could have seen that I had the ability to do the work with competence. (The problem with art jobs is that Human Resources has a first pass at your portfolio and application, and unless you make them happy your work may never be viewed by an artist at all.)
On the day I was supposed to leave for PEI, I tried submitting my portfolio online, but there were all these glitches. I would try to upload the "release form", and my resume would vanish, or my personal information would be deleted, or one of my schools would disappear. Since my time has run out, I submitted the thing as best as I could, aware that my "release form" did not go through, and I enlisted my sister's help in submitting the form if she could.
Upon my return, I went back to the submission site, attempting to figure out what was wrong with it. Then, as I finally read Terms of Service, I discovered that I had to be a US citizen to use the site.
I'm Canadian.
I was planing of creating a flat book and submitting it physically to the animation studio, but in the mean time the position has been filled out. In the future, I will submit a portfolio for that show. Who knows, they may need someone to work on characters for the following season?
However, clearly it is time for me to refocus on my own work and finish AIMH. Not to mention that I've gotten another job--designing game cards.
So, all that is left for me to do is bid goodbye to the animation field again, and post a link to the artwork I created here for your examination.
What you will see by clicking on the link below is a website version of what we in college called a Fun Pack--a fun pack is a collection of sketches and artwork suggesting the design for the film, with the full knowledge that the designs have not yet reached their final state.
I forget what they call the final booklet with "on-model" designs. Maybe "Design Manual"?
Anyway, here is the link:
Enjoy! And, as always, comments are welcomed and appreciated!
Mili
Please note that I sketched in Korra for reference, to see if my designs can stand with her, however, she is not one of my designs--she is copyrighted by Nickelodeon. Everything else is mine. :-)
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