Meet our rock 'n' roll Previsualization Artist Conor Clancy! When he's not busy with animation work, he's organising the Jailbreak Sessions—an open mic concert—every month! We managed to tear him away from his microphone to chat with him about all things animation.

How did you get into animation?

I remember going through the CAO forms when I was in school, looking at all the college courses going “that’s not for me, that one’s not for me…” etc. Meanwhile my mother was getting her head done in at parent teacher meetings when the teachers kept telling her that I was wasting my time drawing all over my copy books instead of doing my school work. So when she heard about the new animation course that was starting up in Ballyfermot College she knew that was the way to go!

How long have you worked in the animation industry?

I started out as an effects artist in Don Bluth Studios here in Dublin for 3 years.

I then took a 19 year break from animation to do graphics for a software design company, and then about 8 years doing architectural visualization.

After the property crash of 2008/2009 I started looking at getting back into animation and started working in Brown Bag in 2011.

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

I'm a Previsualization (Previs) Artist. In Brown Bag, the role of the Previs Artist is quite varied. We start off when the scripts come in,  going over them with the Director and deciding on what locations we want to use for each sequence.

If a new location is required the Previs Artist will create a very rough approximation of what it should be, called a Proxy Set and will even plan out shots in these Proxy Sets. The Proxy Sets are also used to guide the set builders when creating the final production sets.

We also plan out some of the more complex sequences and give this sort of reference to the storyboard artists.

Once the storyboards are done, we will come back to the episode and make sure that everything is going to work and then we start to set up actual shots, looking at the camera lens, screen composition, speed and direction of the action.

We will also choreograph out any action sequences, depending on the show, that can be a lot or very little, to guide the animators through them.

Here’s an example of a prevised action sequence from the Octonauts series:

When the layout team have blocked out the entire episode in 3D, we will review all the setups and make sure all the shots will look good, and we also make sure any of the new sets are working in the shots.

What are your biggest influences/inspirations?

This is a hard one to pin down because there are so many different artists that inspire me.

I love the beautiful designs of Hayao Miyazaki, I love the sweeping action of Steven Spielberg, I love the stark contrast in the noir films of the 1940s and 50s, I love the impressionist paintings of people like Paul Gauguin, Claude Monet,  the beautiful commercial artwork of Toulouse-Letrec and many other works… too many to list!

What’s your favourite tool to use and why?

I’m a 3D studio user from way back, so 3ds Max is my tool of choice. However in Brown Bag, we principally use Maya so this is the tool that I use most.

A close second has to be Photoshop. No artist should be without photoshop, the Jack of all trades and master of most when it comes to image manipulation!

What advice would you give someone considering getting into animation?

Do life drawing! It teaches the basics of form, weight and anatomy. It also teaches you how to translate what you see with your eyes into what you do with your hands, and as a result, can translate what you see with your minds-eye into what you do with your hands.

What do you like most about working in animation?

I make cartoons for kids. That’s pretty amazing and there’s not much that can beat that!

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

Animation is hard work! Don’t let anybody tell you different. It’s time-consuming and labour intensive. The technology is always changing and just keeping abreast of what is happening in the industry can be very challenging.

Outside of animation what are you most passionate about?

Music. I love music. I compose music for myself and have been known to inflict my compositions on the general public on occasion. I organise a monthly open mic show, the Jailbreak Sessions, which I film and post on YouTube. I also post computer game videos on YouTube.

Pictured below: Conor crooning away as lead singer in the band The Hungry Souls

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