I decided to do research on animators who are involved with a type of media I am interested in, video games. I found an animator who works on video games at Ubisoft (Assassin's Creed and Far Cry) called Patrick Beaulieu and he took part in an interview about his career path as an animator while giving tips for people also interested in his chosen career.
Something that fascinated me and stood out the most about Patrick is that he accidentally went into animation as for his first job he was assigned an animation position without having any experience with animations or computers. In a short amount of time he learnt a huge deal of animation and learnt to love it. Following this he learnt the basic of 3D animation in a school named Institute Athena and then proceeded to teach himself.
Before working at Ubisoft and on video games Patrick worked for a company called Hybride Technologies where he would create 3D animations or special effects in movies. He was involved with popular movies including: Snakes on a Plane, Sin City and a feature length animation called Racing Stripes.
Now Patrick has his own website named Squeeze Studio (http://www.squeezestudio.com) where companies can hire him and his team to work on movies and video games. His company have a guideline they work with which I like the idea of: never jump into 3D without a 2D plan, trust the power of daily team review and have fun! Basically have a detailed plan, don't take offence from someone criticising your work instead take their word on board and adapt from it and finally enjoy what you do. Here is some of their work.
This is a 3D animation of a teaser trailer for the video game Assassin's Creed 4 Black Flag's downloadable content called Freedom Cry.
This is a short 3D animation trailer for the mobile app game called Titan Empires.
This short 3D animation was a test for the studio to see how the Angry Birds would look like in 3D as it is normally portrayed in 2D.
Overall from Patrick Beaulieu I have learnt a number of different things. A good animator is a passionate animator, a person has to be very interested and needs to strive a lot of work and a lot of time. A animator also has to be very social because the majoritie of the jobs are team based and a co-operating team is crucial to meeting deadlines and meeting professional standards. When it comes to criticism accept the good and the bad, people aren't trying to drag you down but push you forward. Finally it is important to be original because that is what employers look for within interviews, but also practice the cliche as this is the fastest and most efficient way to get better at software.
