PP3- Moving Forward (Evaluation)

Making the leap from three years at University, surrounded by friends and peers, with a network of people to support you, financial certainty in the form of a student loan, to the cut-throat real world of freelance animation is going to be a rough one, and it's not necessarily going to occur overnight. Establishing sufficiency, even if it means taking on a part time job not related to my degree, is going to be the key to a happy and successful future in my intended field. I am not expecting to wake up and be in a cushy studio job overnight and understand it's going to be bumpy as I try to form my own path and develop my own creative voice; as is the nature of the industry.

Moving forward then I intend to move home and weigh my options.

• Part-Time job & refine showreel. Apply for jobs.
• Part-Time job & refine showreel. Freelancer.
• Apply for studio jobs. Work for Dad. Live at home. 
• Apply for Internships. 
• Live at home and do nothing. Be sad. 

Over the summer I fully intend to finish my grad film to a high standard with the help of peers, as well as beefing up my portfolio and showreel, revisiting uni work and continuing to hone my skills as a 2D generalist. All the while I will also be looking for part-time and full-time work, both in animation and outside of it in order to become self-sufficient as soon as I possibly can. As of the time of writing I have been actively seeking feedback and inquiring about work to various 2D studios around the country and received feedback pointing me in the direction of job applications as well as internally circulating my portfolio details internally to their company database.

I can see myself taking on Freelance work and fixed term contracts working for studios in the near future but in order to bring in work I need to continue work to define myself as the best 2D generalist animator I can be. This means continuing down the path of honing my character animation, design and layout skills which I identified this year as being my specialty as a practitioner. I now feel as a result I have a clear direction in which to take my showreel and will continue applying this mindset to portfolio work in the future to ensure that I continue to craft the best possible showcase of my work I can.  I am also open to going anywhere to work, so I am not tied down with any obligations to anyone; I feel comfortable in going where the work is and am willing to compromise depending on the situation as long as in the long term I continue to advance my practice to the place I want to be.

I'm ending my time on BA(Hons) Animation with a fairly clear idea of where I want to be and where my strengths lie. I feel confident that as long as I keep animating I will eventually get to where I want to be. But it's going to be hard work and require a certain level of discipline. In a years time I want to be at least part-way on my journey to being sufficient and thats only going to happen if I keep pushing my brand out there, sending out my CV, honing my craft, updating my online presence and networking with professionals; all while never losing the passion for creating illustration and animation. It is also important I continue to reflect on my practice in a critical sense and to evaluate scenarios for working towards where I want to be if I am to continue improving as a creative.

In conclusion Whitley Bay is a shithole and I don't want to stay there.