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Meet Art Director Andrew Hamilton #Interview





Meet our supercool Art Director Andrew Hamilton! He's won the Brown Bag Films Halloween costume competition with a homemade Optimus Prime costume that awed and amazed! When he's not busy DIYing awesome costumes, you'll find him modelmaking and sculpting away! Check out his sculpts 'Zombie Animator' and 'Killer Croc'! We managed to tear him away from all this creative productivity for a few minutes to chat about all things animation.

How did you get into animation?

I got into animation in a very convoluted way actually, I originally wanted to be in the Practical Effects industry, which covers a wide range of jobs, the best ones being making animatronic creatures and characters.

It was in transition year of secondary school that I became really interested in this as a job and discovered that IADT ran a degree course called ‘Modelmaking and Design for Film and Media'.

After checking out the course on an open day I was hooked, and devoted all my spare time over the next 2 years to building a portfolio to get into the course, with animation being my second choice as I had heard good things about it from my brother Ian who was a few years ahead of me and who completed the Animation course.

During the modelmaking course I discovered the fun of stop motion animation and also began learning digital modelling and quite crude animation techniques.

After finishing this course there was the option to do a final 4th year in the neighbouring animation course, myself and 3 other modelmakers joined the existing class and proceeded to produce graduate films along with them, but I had loads to learn in terms of animation.

The class was fun, making some great friends along the way, they gave me animation advice and in exchange I could give them digital modelling/rendering advice I learned in the Modelmaking course.

How long have you worked in the animation industry?

Only about 5 years, I managed to convince Darragh O'Connell to give me a job fresh out of college, where I spent weeks as a uvw unwrapper, unwrapping models prepping them for texture, and eventually started to texture items more and more.

It’s funny to think that only that short amount of time ago there were about 40 employees in Brown Bag Films!

What’s your current role and what does it involve?

Currently I am an Art Director, which involves overseeing the show I'm working on from a visual standpoint. Working closely with the show creator, I will review all designs and asset builds for all aspects of the show including modelling, 2D design, colour concepts, textures and lighting.

What are your biggest influences/inspirations?

I love nature and wildlife, I could watch David Attenborough documentaries all day. I find a lot of inspiration from natural forms and creatures, but of course a lot of movie making legends have also inspired me, probably Jim Henson and Stan Winston had the greatest impact on me as a young artist. The work they did in the industry was incredible and inspiring.

What’s your favourite tool to use and why?

In my current role I use Photoshop every day. It’s such a versatile tool that can be used to texture items, do concept art, and also provide visual feedback to our artists on their work. However, recently I have had renewed interest in Zbrush, which is a fantastic tool for helping to explain a design in 3d very quickly and is a nice change from painting in Photoshop.

What advice would you give someone considering getting into animation?

Research the different roles in the industry, you can be in the animation industry but not be an actual animator! There are many related jobs like modelling, rigging and texturing that are incredibly fulfilling and can lead to bigger things themselves.

Once you decide on a role, tailor your portfolio/showreel to be specific to that role - that will help you stand out from the others in the crowd!

What do you like most about working in animation?

Working with enthusiastic and talented people is the best part, and it’s wonderful when something finally comes together on screen and everyone is really happy with it. It gives a real boost to everyone involved to see really great work coming out of the studio.

Discovering other peoples talents that may not be exactly related to their role is another exciting thing, whether it’s a production staffer who is a photographer, a modeller who paints on canvas, etc.. it’s fun to see and discover new things about people.

What’s been the most challenging thing about working in animation?

The most challenging thing is the fast pace of the work, sometimes there is very little downtime on a project and keeping your creative and enthusiasm energy levels at 100% week after week can be tough. If things go wrong it can be far too easy to let it swallow you up but it’s something that everyone has to work on to get past and always know that the results will be worth it in the end.

Outside of animation what are you most passionate about?

I’m quite passionate about my own personal artistic development in some other aspects of traditional media that I don’t really get a chance to do in work, drawing on paper, painting on canvas.

But my biggest passion at the moment is figurative sculpture, trying to capture human/animal/creature forms in clay is very enjoyable and it’s a fantastic way to relax in the evening.

The clay is almost like a stress ball, there is something so natural about it, it’s a great way to end the day after looking at a computer monitor for so long.

Are you interested in getting into animation? Keep an eye on our Behind-the-Scenes and Tutorials pages for more interviews and #TopTips!


Anahita Tabarsi

Anahita is Brown Bag Films' Marketing Director, Digital & Social and drinks more than five coffees a day...

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