Current Job Title / Employer 

Animation Supervisor, Lola Post

As Animation Supervisor, my role involves overseeing a talented team of around 20 animators, collaborating closely with the director and VFX Supervisor to ensure continuity / quality of performance and working with production to bid and cost sequences. I help interpret the director's creative vision, develop character performances and oversee animation quality control. Throughout the production of the show, I closely assess and review my team's shots in session called 'dailies', giving feedback, making necessary notes, and doing draw overs for posing/arcs that I believe can be enhanced. 

I also have to communicate with the other various departments (modelling, rigging, simulation, crowd etc), ensure proper casting of shots to artists and collaborate closely with the rigging crew to build puppets for the characters to enable us to achieve the required performance. Amongst my technical responsibilities is managing the animation pipeline which involves choosing the tools and techniques that will form the backbone of the show, as well as using Python to code tools that can automate tasks and help speed up animation. On top of this, I create a wiki page which covers everything from reference, client guidelines, technical info and the show requirements and creative direction.

Dame Alice Owen’s Class of?

1999

Brief description of your path after Owen’s.    

After I left Owens, I went to Teesside University to study 'Visualisation' which was at the time one of only a few digital production courses available in the country. It was pretty technical, lots of graphical maths and programming, but also had a creative side which I massively preferred; especially the animation modules. As I grew close to graduating I was aware my animation skills weren't really at the level they should be and fortunately found out that I could be sponsored to stay on and do a masters in Computer Animation. Spending the extra year focusing solely on animation really paid off - the show reel I left with secured me my first job as a junior animator.

How your path lead you to where you are now? 

After graduation I worked as a spent 3 years as a junior animator at a post production company which was a great learning experience as the company handled almost every aspect of the post production process. After I left, I worked as a freelancer, mainly in TV/commercials/games for 13 years or so, eventually making the move to on-set work at Shepperton Studios and from there into features, with my first lead animator role at DNEG on Venom in 2018. After a few shows as lead animator, I moved to a CG Lead role to learn more about the back-end production processes, like bidding, scheduling and client relations etc, which then lead to my being hired as animation supervisor.

Did your time at Owen’s inspire any particular skills or attributes? 

During my time at Owens I was encouraged to try and participate in various activities and subjects that I might not be otherwise drawn to. From sports to languages to instruments, being exposed to a wide range of experiences and interests helped me develop a passion for always expanding my knowledge.

Favourite Owen’s memory? 

As a member of several bands / orchestras, I performed at several big concerts in London at the Royal Festival Hall which were amazing to be a part of.