Zane Whittingham

I attended a pretty insightful talk last friday, with character animator Zane Whittingham (Whose studio is based in Marsden, near Huddersfield, Wesk Yorkshire), who has had 20 years of experience in the UK animation industry. Working in partnership with producer Kath Shackleton, the two takes commissions for both 2D and 3D animation projects, as well as run education projects and All Animated, a network that brings together animation professionals from across the north (Which I have been following on Twitter this whole time without realizing it, whoa~).

In his early years, Whittingham humorously struggled with gadgets, mistaking printed for scanners (And in the process destroying his heart earned work by attempting to scan them in), but it was no surprise due to the fact that computers, printers and scanners at the time were still generally new  to the public, in his 3 years of studying, only 5 computers were actually available to the entire class, and a bidding had to be held just so that each of them can use one for only 20 minutes a week (Definitely makes me appreciate what I have a lot more than ever).

Interestingly, his portfolio in the beginning that consisted of short traditional animation exercises (He didn't have enough time to do full animations and so focused on something he was more confident in) allowed him to get his first job after graduation. It involved him animation walking and running cycles, as well as design posters, and paint and trace over cels (Which ones has to be careful and precise in, otherwise those mistakes have to be carefully scratched out of the cel).

I have already heard this numerous times since I started this course, about connecting with as many people as you can in the industry, even before you get out there to work, and I am aware that it really is one of the most important aspects when one desires to get into the animation business (And it's actually a lot harder than it sounds, harder than hard)… I'm still trying though, and pathetic as it may seem, this has always unnerved me the most, especially since I keep hearing it over and over.

Perhaps what stuck with me the most from him talk was his advice is training one's self to be diverse with art style, to look into things that you are not interested in, as most of the time, you are required to work on a variety of licensed characters where you will be required to animate in a specific style (Not very often will you be allowed to use your own original style for animations, unless they are your own personal projects). This is especially notable in the animation and game reels he showed us, where each example shown differed incredibly from one another in terms of the style used (And of course the subject matter, ranging from typical children shows to ones with more mature content (And when I mean mature, I don't mean butt naked explicitness-ness, why do people always think that???)).

One has to keep with the times and also learn and familiarize themselves with as many techniques and softwares as they can, Whittingham especially was trained in 3D animating when the industry commenced with their higher demand for it (And obviously to this day, 3D animations stays in high demand, sadly in comparison to 2D animation (But we all already knew that didn't we?)).

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