New agency- Hard and Busy

In the past few months, I worked as an animator in Nice boat animation, which was a busy and fulfilling experience. It allows me to learn a lot of animation related knowledge. At the same time, it makes me more clear about my future goal. But for the sake of good health, I refused the company's invitation to leave me and returned to my hometown for treatment of my cervical spine. Animation production is undoubtedly repetitive long-term desk work. Anyone should be wary of sitting in a seat motionless for 11 hours without rest. I learned my lesson and set a new goal for myself, exercised, and adapted it to future work.
My DPS year start with an animation job, with the end of my full-time job and the convergence of the live brief, my autumn term is coming to an end. I sent my cv and portfolio to some print studio and advertising companies, I got positive responses, but I want to start my new placement after Christmas.

The animation studio that I work in

Management time has undoubtedly become the most difficult challenge of my DPS year. My time zone is different, a full-time job, school projects, and the assignment of personal learning goals all at the same time. When I was in the Nice boat animation studio, in addition to 9 hours of work 5 days a week, I had to complete my own goals, 2 hours a day of sketching practice, and on weekends I would create illustrations on several themes. This year My main goal is to complete a collection of commercial illustrations to make a portfolio, so it is a difficult challenge to create those illustrations in a very small amount of time.
The time zone's difference also makes work more painful. I have two days a week have to stay at the company until around 3 am, and the next day is still a normal working day. I was doing three Live Briefs at the same time. The time zone difference made me won't miss the work and courses of either party, but it also severely compressed my rest time. I still want to learn a lot about illustration and graphic design, animation courses, so I found some tips. When I was doing some repetitive animation work, I will wear headphones to listen to some courses, if I have not heard clearly I will write down and use my free time to solve it.

Part of the sketch and illustration practice ​ I did in the free time

​The advantage of an animation company is that we often meet the animators and directors we admire a lot. Nice Boat Animation has a cooperative relationship with many animation companies, so we were lucky to meet the director of The Legend of LuoXiaohei and the partner company of Cartoon Saloon, who came here to find some new talents and prepare for their new animated film Puffin Rock.

The director of The Legend of LuoXiaohei

Although the whole time is busy and painful, the desire to learn has become stronger. In a 10-day animation project, I strived to become the animation director of the group, responsible for character design, scene design, storyboard, animation, and color. I did all about 70% of the entire animation work. The process of communicating with the team members exercised my leadership skills. Sometimes the team members complained that there were too many shots or the details of the action were not clear. My drawing foundation is relatively solid, which can help them correct the wrong shots and actions. The group director period is probably the busiest time for me. It’s a luxury to be able to rest for 5 hours a day. I deeply doubt that I may die suddenly after a few weeks in this state. Luckily, the finished product did not disappoint, our group is the winner of this project.

Some process of the animation that I made

After leaving the animation studio, I am still their animator but became a freelance animator. When there is a new animation series coming out, they would contact me for remote work. I started to work on my movie poster project. During the process of making it, I was full of interest in printmaking, but I left the UK, I am afraid that I cannot use the abundant resources of the school. So I started to send my resume to local printing studios and printmaking studios, and quickly got a positive response. They asked me if I would go to their studios as a part-time resident artist. Considering the uncertainty of the epidemic, I chose the printing studio closest to my home. I plan to work again after the Christmas holidays. I really don’t want to do full-time work anymore. My ambition will bring down my body.  Working at a part-time job, alternation with my personal projects may be a more wise choice.

Photo and Sketch at Nice Boat

I am prone to anxiety, especially when I am filled with all kinds of complicated things, some ridiculous fears will fill me and wake me up in the middle of the night, some emails have not been answered, the blog has not started, and the new contract has not been written yet, etc. The problem that always bothers me at the moment is my language. The environment that I use in the work is my native language. Language and work habits are some differences in the UK. I am afraid that this difference will cause me to become unfamiliar with the English context.
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If I were to sum up my experience, I was anxious and urgent enough. Last year, when I was emotionally broken I couldn't sleep all night, and get up to make plans and preparations, learn new knowledge, keep drawing. When people's fear of the unknown expands to a certain level, there is no choice except clarify the problem and solve it. I don't want to give up my goals easily, I can only keep learning and trying. At each stage, make a satisfactory product or have a good internship experience is an examination and evaluation of myself. What else can I do? Have I worked hard enough? Am I satisfied? I think I will never be satisfied, so I will continue to learn.

self-portrait

Zixuan Zhou
BA Illustration and Visual Media
Ins: @janzhou