PPP- Visiting Professional: Reg Isaac and the Importance of Life Drawing in Character Animation

Reg Isaac is a freelance animator who has worked on numerous projects for television and the web. He specialises mostly in 2D character animation and shared with us some of his experiences in the industry after he graduated a couple of years ago. His first job out of university was working on the Prodigy music video 'Nasty'; a rotoscope animation project with a 3 week deadline, directed by am ex-graduate at his university.

Reg discussed some of the roles he has taken on working at various animation studios since graduating. His second project was a 5 month contract working on Simons Cat, starting off as a character animator working in TV Paint but moving to effects animation (rain, lights etc...) when he couldn't draw the cat on model. He later moved on to animation cleanup on the same project and 5 months later redid his initial animation test to see how he had improved drawing on model due to working on cleanup. 

He later went on to work on character animation for various television/web projects due to being recommended by networking contacts and people working on his previous projects, such as The Wrong End of The Stick (which we saw at MAF back in November) and The Charactershop. As well as character animation, Reg also took on some smaller projects working on character design for a stop motion animation project. He then got a job working animation cleanup for Lupus Films' 'Ethel and Ernest' after leaving examples of his life drawing around the studio for the director to see at the end of the day. 

Working for Lupus Films' Reg says, tested his employability. Daily, he was required to produce around 12 frames, working out to around 5-6 seconds a week in TV Paint, which he describes as a good middle ground between Photoshop and Flash. Reg then settled in for a couple months at his job at Lupus, as he wanted the safety of a several-month long project after working freelance for a while. His main piece of advice for us moving into the industry was to know what level you're working at at any point in time; be confident but not overconfident and have some idea of what it is you do, why you're good at it and where you want to be. In regards to character animation, Reg emphasised the need for initial poses to have volume and be on model, as well as the importance of using video reference, especially for more complex movements and the need to go to festivals/networking events to mingle with professionals, not just other students. 

After the talk I stopped by to ask him about cleanup; how one gets put in such a position and what skills are required to work in that position. Reg reiterated the importance life drawing plays in this and how important it is to have an inherent knowledge of anatomy and art direction. I showed him some of of my life drawings which he encouraged me to stick to.

In the talk he gave to our course, Reg stressed the importance life drawing plays in 2D character animation. During his time at university, Reg went on a 10 week life drawing holiday to cornwall in order to practice figure drawing, and during that time developed an in depth understanding of human anatomy, drawing people candidly in parks, pubs, shopping centres and at the beach in order to get a variety of body types. Reg takes on a lot of character animation work, which requires him to be able to draw figures on model, so being able to draw from sight is a valuable skill to have.

5 minute pose, Pencil

Over the course of the year I have been attending Life Drawing classes at The Fenton on a weekly basis with a few of my course mates. Every week there are two models, usually one male and one female of varying body types. I've gone out of my way to attend these sessions as much as I can over the year and have kept most of the drawings I have done.

1-2 minute poses, Charcoal

For the first hour of the session,  the model usually starts off with a series of short 1-2 minute poses, before moving to 10-15 minute poses; shorter poses allowing for more diversity and exaggerated posturing and serving as a warm up to the 20-45 minute poses in the second hour.

10 minute pose, Charcoal

The lighting in the room makes for strong, prominent shadows which can be used to emphasise form and volume in your drawings. 

20 minute pose, Pencil

20 minute pose, Pencil

10 minute pose, Oil Pastels

 10 minute pose, Oil Pastels

10 minute pose, Pencil

20 minute pose, Pro-Marker

I've tried to mix it up as much as possible with my life drawing this year, using a variety of different media from oil pastels to pen & pencil, though I think charcoal is my preferred medium for life drawing as it allows for more natural, flowing shapes. The imperfections of life drawing I feel are vital to developing as an artist, so I'm not afraid to take risks with Life Drawing and try new things.

PPP- Summer Internship at Paper Owl Films

Last August, shortly before starting university again, I was on a three week internship at Paper Owl Films in Holywood County Down, working in the Art Department on a show for Cbeebies called Pablo, which was about a young boy with Autism who created a fantasy world to escape to with his drawings. For most of the two weeks I spent at Paper Owl I was tasked with creating rough sketches for background assets in Photoshop, referring to storyboards and the scripts, highlighting any props or individual assets which were missing from the prop list and providing sketches for the animators use as reference.

Excerpts from the Design Bible for Pablo (Used with permission)

This being a 30+ episode television project for the BBC, I had to work within a very strictly defined art style, outlined by the art director in the design bible, a document which specified almost every stage of the design process, from the types of brushes I needed to use to the do’s and don’ts as to how to approach drawing certain props and what colours to use. The experience of working on Pablo helped me appreciate and understand how small studios such as Paper Owl function, and the skills I would need to develop to get a job working on a project like this in the future.

While I was on internship at Paper Owl Films I attended a monthly networking event in Belfast, in which animators from all over Northern Ireland, from students to major industry figures, mingle and network over drinks. Attendees included employees of Sixteen-South, an animation company based in Belfast which has worked on a number of Children’s programmes for television, including Lily’s Driftwood Bay and Sesame Street; and Dog Ears, a Derry based company which has collaborated with Cartoon Saloon in the past on shows such as Nick Jr’s Puffin Rock. Throughout the night I talked to a number of people who worked at these studios, exchanging business cards and contact information. Both Sixteen-South and Dog Ears seemed to specialise in children’s animation for television with a focus on art/asset creation, which is what I had been doing on my Internship at Paper Owl and what I would say was my main area of interest at that moment in time.