#KreativeKliniks, a skill share series to help creatives learn more on specific subjects returned on Thursday 27th August with a conversation on the importance of Teams and Collaborations when it comes to effective Animation. It was facilitated by Izaq Lugolobi from Crossroads Animation studios , an award winning animation studio and production house with a creative design inspired by Ugandan culture. He spoke on the value of teams and collaborations in creating great animations.
Animation is important because it enables us tell stories and communicate emotions and ideas in a unique, easy-to-perceive way that both small children and adults can understand. Animation has helped connect people throughout the world in a way that sometimes writing and live-action films cannot.
’If I am advertising using a character that a targeted audience can relate to, it so much easier for them to pick and interpret the message.''
Izaq Lugolobi was drown to Animation because he feels like it is an Art from that sort of allows one to be their own ‘’god.’’
Teams are Animation departments within a film studio that work on various aspects of animation such as storyboarding or 3D modeling. It can refer to a single department that handles animation as a whole or to multiple departments that handle specific tasks.
The creative industry is slowly moving away from people working alone to working in teams. When collaboration happens organically, the benefits are enormous on many levels.
Importance of Collaboration
Collaborating with creatives who have a similar mindset but different skills or experience can directly benefit you. A team member with more in-depth knowledge, previous experience with a specific task, another perspective on a situation requiring problem solving, or even just a new shortcut in your favorite software, can teach you new information in practice, while you and others are applying it together in real time.
When used effectively, Collaboration results in more condensed production processes. If the team is a well-organized one, this also ensures better productivity, often higher quality, more creative output, longer-lasting motivation, greater efficiency and faster delivery.
A well-structured team is capable of achieving results that would take unreasonable amounts of time or require unfeasible resources for an individual to obtain.
Working in a team is like a puzzle; every member has a unique shape that becomes part of the big picture. Being able to experience the role of each and every puzzle piece, regardless of the professional area or discipline they come from, helps each individual realize his/her own role and that role’s importance in the entire project.
Among the many long-term benefits of collaboration and teamwork in the creative industry, one must not neglect the power of networking while on the job!
Skill set Needed For Animators:
-Among the skills required for a career in animation and gaming, perhaps the most important attribute is creativity. You should have a passion for sketching and drawing, and while this is technically not necessary, it is invaluably helpful in virtually all aspects of the industry.
Understanding visual communication and being able to tell a story through it is vital.
Patience and a meticulous eye for detail are also required.
The use of 3-D animation has increased significantly in recent years. So, being able to use computer tools to generate visuals, while utilizing knowledge of mathematics and physics, is important as well.
Types of People on an Animation Team:
Producer and Production Assistants
The producer is pretty much the boss of the studio. This team have to contend with the budget, scheduling, sourcing of materials/software/hardware and making sure that the project keeps developing creatively and efficiently
Director
They provide the creative leadership for the series/project and oversee all its visual, design and narrative decisions.
Animation Director or Creative Director
Animation/creative directors have almost always been in animation for a while and have experience with sourcing, casting and creating the various animation teams before encouraging consistent, quality performances out of them.
Scriptwriter
Animation demands creativity with the word, not just with the stylus! Script writers and editors will work closely with directors, clients and vocal talent during production from before even the storyboarding phase.
Character Designer/ Developer
This is a job for the truly creative people out there: devising the characters that you’ll see in an animation, sometimes all the way through concept creation to assisting in the modelling process.
Storyboard Artists and Assistants
During the early stages of an animation’s life, the storyboarding team will be responsible for sketching out, shot by shot, exactly how they want the animation to look.
Modeller/ Model Maker
Modellers and model makers are responsible for creating characters, props and environments in a three-dimensional space.
Riggers
Character rigging is the process by which a 3D model is given its ‘skeleton’. This happens before animation occurs to give the animators the ‘joints’ and ‘bones’ which can be grabbed and manipulated in order for specific parts of the model to be animated.
Animator
Common types of animators you can expect to find in the biggests studios include 2D Computer Animator, 2D Hand Drawn Animator, 3D Computer Animator, Stop Motion Animator and of course, the Assistant Animators who support them.
Lighters or Lighting Technical Directors
They make sure that the lighting, mood and colour balance is consistent throughout a shot or a scene.
Voice over Artist
Lend their voice to the characters
Sound Designer
Responsible for everything audio during production.