Over the summer break during a trip to Northern Ireland I attended the monthly animation networking event '2D3D' for the second time. During the event I caught up with various professionals whom I had worked with a year prior on my internship at Paper Owl Films ltd (and even people whom I had worked with during my work experience at 360 Productions in Derry in 2013) as well as others working at studios such as Sixteen South and students from the University of Ulster animation course. During the event I garnered feedback on my summer showreel from professionals whom I had met before in order to showcase how I have developed and grown as an animator.
Feedback I received on my showreel was to incorporate more secondary and overlapping action to my character animation and find a piece of specialist software in which to specialise as this will make looking for studio work easier when the time comes. I inquired about Toon Boom Harmony and TV Paint, which from my experience at Annecy I gathered was prominent in European industry for 2D frame-by-frame animation. I'm told, many studios will often offer a 6-week crash course in said specialised software for incoming interns and graduates entering industry.
Also during the event I expanded my networking links and referred some of the Ulster university students to fellow students in the UK as possible useful contacts.
