The other week's #AMA questions prompted us to interview our Animators to see what got them to where they are and how they keep improving!

We chatted to several of our animators, here's what they had to say:

What are the three most important things that you have done to get yourself where you are today (and why)?

John Coomey: I stayed focused on my goal. Ignore the “Naysayers”. I had a lot of people doubting my career choice especially as I had been studying Civil and Structural engineering when I decided to pursue my goal to be an animator. Once I knew what I wanted, I put my head down and worked hard to achieve it.

Going to animation based conferences. The more people you know means the more people you can learn from and you never know who will get you your first job. 80% of the projects I have been involved with, I got through people I know.

I looked beyond just animation, by having other interests that aren’t just animation. Life is what will influence your animation and keep you mentally healthy. It’s not good to be stuck in front of a computer 24/7; it is important to put in your time animating but go out and live life too.

Rob Byrne: Been willing to start at the bottom and work really hard. When I started in 3d animation, I had only done hand drawn and flash animation, a visual effects company gave me a chance because they liked my 2d work but they explained to me that they didn’t do 2d there so I would have to come in as a runner and try and learn 3d myself. I joined and spent the day making coffee and taking out the bins and in the evenings the supervisors would leave me old shots (ones that had already been completed so I could not do any damage) to practice with. I asked people for help when they could spare the time, I watched tutorials and I did my best with the shots. In the mornings I would show the supervisors and get their opinions. After a while they gave me some real shots to do and they said I could stop making coffee (I made really bad coffee). 

The second most important thing is to talk to other animators, find out what they like, what they are influenced by and try and learn something from that. It’s easy to only be influenced by a handful of styles or people/studios. It’s important to keep your influences as broad as you can.

The most important thing of all is to learn to accept criticism and to take advice on board. Often (almost always) this will mean changing a lot of work which can be a pain, but it’s important to recognise good suggestions and not be precious about your work. That’s the only way your work will improve.

What do you do to keep improving?

Andy Doyle: To keep improving you have to be constantly willing to learn and realise that you're always going to be learning… there's no finished article as far an animation goes, there's always room for improvement and new techniques and there will always be someone to learn from.

John Coomey: Getting out and living life, you will automatically absorb all the information you need to be a good animator, like observing the different ways in which people carry out the same tasks. I will admit, as much as I try to do something not animation related, my animator brain is always working away in the background analysing everything.

Also I don’t just watch animated movies for inspiration and learning. There is such a huge wealth of great acting in live action movies that it can really help bring your performances to another level by studying them. I don’t do it enough myself but it also helps to get involved in improv classes as it can really help loosen you up to come up with more creative and fresh ideas for your animated performances.

Rob Byrne: I keep animating to keep improving! The more you do the better you will get. Watch films, do life drawing, study animation from your favourite films. Find people who have the same interest as you (college is a good place to start).

How often do your tools and techniques change?

John Coomey: My techniques vary all the time. You need to stay loose when you are animating. Using the same technique can paint you into a corner at times and ultimately slow you down and limit your creativity. I have a basic set of tools I use all the time but I do try new ones, just to see if they can help speed up my work flow or help make things more intuitive.

Andy Doyle: The tools really don’t change all that much as far as animation is concerned, the core animation tools have been pretty much the same for me for years… however there's quite often something new to learn for specific shots which is usually shown to us by our technical director so there's always someone there to help in that respect.

I think to get yourself into the position you seek, you have to sometimes put yourself out of your comfort zone and try to push yourself as far as showing leadership qualities or new skills etc. It's easy to get comfortable at a certain level and the idea of moving up can be daunting but you'll find when you go for it that it's always worth it.

Rob Byrne: Tools and technologies change quite rapidly but usually it’s a process that evolves rather than changes dramatically. Every year the main 3d packages will release new versions, and these will have new features. Animators are lucky as these are not absolutely essential to know inside out as they might be for say riggers or lighters. Once you are familiar with the main principles of animation then the 3d package you use should not matter too much. Technique is something that is always evolving and developing and you learn more and more useful techniques as you go.

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