For part of this brief 'Brand Me' as well as creating a personal indent, business cards, some sort of online website/blog I have to also create for myself a 'creative CV'. I've only written for myself a very loose CV circulating till work before, so approaching this is something entirely new for me and is something I only vaguely understand what it is.
A creative CV is a visual document that outlines a creatives skill set,
for example an illustrator would visually outline their skills within drawing, character designing/environmental designing as well as visual storytelling. When chasing a career in the creative industry you need to interact with that industry with creativity, in order to proceed. As a creative our work is - well - creative! We need to document our skills, which are visuals, as much as possible! And that's what a creative CV is all about! I've noticed that most(not not all)Creative CVS have a heavy graphic design visual aesthetic to them. As a creative who is generally more of a cartoonist then anything else, I feel like putting together an appropriate visual balance is going to be a little tricky for me.
But what kind of things need to be documented, in this document?
Since making my own 'art blog' on Tumblr under the name MollyPukes in August, I've managed to gain over 300 followers from my updates of projects, illustrations, comics and animated gifs.
I began uploading animations onto my page of Tumblr or links to my youtube videos but they weren't very successful at gaining followers (or attention). At the same time I was engaging in a weekly contest hosted on a Tumblr blog called 'OnForm' and my entires seemed quite popular - more popular if they were GIFs. So I converted a segment of animation I was working on into a GIF format and uploaded it, to test the water. A few days later I woke up to my phone going mad and some how the little segment of animation I converted into a GIF managed to receive over 2000notes in a few hours. This upload managed to gather the sudden surge in followers in and interest for my blog too! I was seriously impressed, I was all like '' wow '' and ''wowie ''. Although I'm only just beginning to develop a good online presence, considering I've only been engaging with these websites really since February I'm still pretty proud of myself. However I still need to work on my blog layouts, as I'm still not happy with their visual aesthetic;
Today I had a deadline for one of my university projects, I fell asleep as soon as I got home. 15/04/2016
Today I woke up and did some work, played on a new App I'd downloaded onto my phone and later on attended a dear friend of mines birthday party. 16/04/2016
Today I woke up with a serious hangover and tried to get as much work done as possible. 16/04/2016
I saw my grandparents today, which was lovely. 17/04/2016
Today was one of my days off from working and I slept in till 2pm. It was lovely. 18/04/2016
Today I started out having a bad day, but I ended up having a wonderful day. 19/04/2016
From a combination of developing my own skills as a cartoonist and engaging with independent artists on tumblr, twitter and instagram I've been purchasing a lot more western comics recently. I've always been a fan of Easten comics and regally head down to my local comic book store to purchase the latest volumes of attack on titan or Pokemon. But I've never really followed western volumes of comics as much as eastern comics in the past... until NOW.
SAGA
is a Fantasy/Space comic book series by Brian K. Vaughan and Illustrated by Fiona Staples. It's a wonderful series that has yet to reach it's final volume and could be the most enjoyable comic book series I've ever physically bought in order to support the creators and their wonderful project.
The story circulates a war between two separate species that seems to have no end and then a lady from one of the species military unit and a dude from her enemy get together and end up getting pregnant; which causes some propaganda stress regarding the war their people are engaging within. The storytelling is fantastic and despite certain characters only breathing for a few pages every face featured within Sagas panels and unique and interesting and also entertaining. Despite the heavy war theme featured in this comic series the comedy is fantastic within the dialogue of the storytelling and visual storytelling. I would recommend to anyone to purchase at least the first volume (if not ALL)!
Soppy
'Soppy' is an illustration/comic compilation from artist Philippa Rice. The compilation features images depicting the progression of the relation between her and her boyfriend, with red and black ink only. I love this comic, it's heart warming as well as adorable. Philippa rice has become one of my recently inspirations especially with my own illustration project to produce a comic a day and to take up drawing with traditional ink. Each illustration captures so much emotion and memory from the relationship between the artist and someone she loves and it's wonderful to gaze onto a piece of art that represents that.
I'd recommend this comic to anyone who likes the idea of reading something lovely and cute!
HEADLOPPER HeadLopper is a traditionally drawn comicbook series by illustrator/wrister Andrew Maclean and is published by Image Comics. I fell in love with this comicbook series after I discovered it in my local comicbook store; I'd followed the artist a few weeks previous, on Instagram and would regally like his videos of WIP ink work he was doing on his latest comic. I recognised the art style when I came across it in my local comicbook store and instantly bough it. I really love the way Andrew portrays his stories visually, how his drawings run across the page and carry your eyes from place to place. I HIGHLY recommend reading up on this comic series and it's not only beautifully drawn, the story is fantastic.
I've been uploading on a daily basic onto Instagram since the beginning of November and so far I've managed to rather a viewing population of nearly 200. In order to up the views on my uploads I've fine-tuned my tags to cover a wider range of possible searches. A popular tag I normally use is 'Sketchbook' and 'sketchbookpage'; because I've noticed work with that tag normally gets the most likes and attention. Either people on Instagram love looking at sketchbook pages of other artists in order to get some form of inspiration or they're liking the photo of the what the work looks like in 'real world' than a clean scan. The sort of things I upload onto Instagram are comics, illustrations or silly little doodles; which seem to get the most attraction. I also upload paintings and photos of myself, which also get a fair bit of attention. I think the most attention on Instagram is gained by the over all 'colours' of the image, Pastel shades of photos seem to do way better then realistic tones.
I've discovered plenty of new artists online recently since engaging within the social media 'art world' and I'm more then glad I did! Artists like Laura Lewis, Fukari, louaikun, sketchdhark, beccaandthebox and so many more wonderful and talented creatives that have inspired me so much in recent months! At the start of this year I felt disconnected as an artist. I'd lost what I really enjoyed doing with my drawings because my drawings had just turned into rushed forced statements that I only birthed because I needed to meet a deadline. But engaging within the Instagram, Tumblr(the good side) and Twitter art community has really boosted my passions for drawing back up again! SO. As a personal project for myself I've decided to keep a visual diary comic-themed sketchbook this month!
I perched a Moleskin mini-pocket sketchbook from my university library, as well as a number of Copic marker pens and Micron fine liners; I've always wanted to keep a mini visual diary with pastel coloured inks and comic stuff inside. So meet my new sketchbook! I've got enough room (if I remember to do a comic each day) for 40days! So this sketchbook SHOULD be completed by the middle of may!
Here's the inside cover of the sketchbook. Oh look, it's me. Oh ho ho. Wonderful.
I'll be uploading each daily comic to instagram in order to maintain my online social media feed thing.
Laura Lewis is an american based freelance illustrator who I discovered at the beginning of this year on Twitter. I was fairly new to twitter and was searching up some popular illustrators to start following and her account popped up; I fell in love with her way of drawing as well as her comics.
Sceenshot of Lauras twitter page
Her online presence extends from twitter - to other webpages like Tumblr and Instagram (these three seem to be the most popular ways for creatives to document their work now that I think about it).
She's started up a patreon quite recently in order for her followers to donate towards supporting her and her artwork/comics.
Patreon is a website where creatives (or anyone) can advertise the need for donates online! This website is becoming increasingly popular with freelancers involved in illustration and may be something I make an effort to try out next year once I really start developing up my own comics and illustrations. Laura also has an account on the webpage 'ASKfm' where anyone can ask anyone anything, basically its just another public page for fans to ask their idols questions.
Since discovering Lauras work I've invested a few quids in some Copic markers, as I saw Laura works in them quite frequently in her own illustrations; I've used art marker pens before but haven't done in a few months. She also doodles alot about her day to day life and this has inspired me to start keeping a 'daily comic' sketchbook, in order to develop my visual storytelling skills within a comic format. I'll upload a blog about my developments into the sketchbook soon! But this lady is amazing and lovely and you need to check her out!
I stumbled across a comic of Andrew Macleans work on Instagram, where it popped up on my search feed titled 'HEADLOPPER'. Let me tell you, this comic series has become one of my most beloved additions to my bookshelf.
As you can see I follow him religiously on Twitter
Andrew Maclean is an illustrator/cartoonist based in the US,
who has had a number of comics released under labels like Dark Horse and Image Comics. He began his career as a cartoonist simply and with each publish has become more popular within his own projects and others. Since his latest work 'HEADLOPPER' has grown in popularity so has himself as a creative illustrator. Andrew has a heavy online presence as his social media has a constant stream of incoming new contest such as Work-In Progresses, adverts for his latests works, illustrations, commissions and photos of his beautiful beard.
I recognised the comic HEADLOPPER in my local comic book store in Leeds from the WIPs Andrew had updated his twitter and Instagram with and i've never perched something so fast in my life. Andrew hand-inks his comic book pages and works with a few other creatives in order to colour, cover and shape each volume of the comic series. So far HEADLOPPER has released 3 comics in a 4part comic series and I'm lucky enough to own them up to date! As a creative myself, I want to further develop my skills into storytelling within animation and because of Andrew Maclean, I want to develop my skills into hand drawn comics. I've been lightly working on a comic by myself since the beginning of the year, that has sadly been put way back on the shelf of ideas because of the work I've been doing within university; but recently I've perched a number of fine-tipped brushes and ink in order to begin practicing within hand-drawn comic-book making. Previously to this, I'd been working digitally but now I'm very keen to move into a more traditional way of producing comics and cartoons.
Formally known as 'CanadianRainWater' back in the day,
I discovered this artists illustrations online on the website DeviantART and followed her progress as an artist for years. A few years back she removed herself from the online artist community, because of some sort of problem in her life as an animation student; but I googled her and sure enough, it seems as though this past idol of mine is reborn!
Here's her showreel of animation related work from 2013:
When I was studying as a fine artist I began developing my skills as a character designer and Shamines illustrations and animation work was a wake up call for me. Despite being inspired at that time by animations by Disney, Studio Ghibli and Freelance French studios her work was the only work that inspired me from an 'animators' point of view. She was studying animation, creating her own worlds and doing what she loved and I wanted to be just like her. I'd never considered studying animation as something I could go into past studying in college; I just assumed I'd go into another area of fine art. But this artist inspired me, not only with her illustrations but her stories, her comics, her ideas and what she was doing with her talents. Shamine is currently engaging with the animation industry and looks like she may be applying for some sort of character design or concept job rather than an animator, on top of that she's also maintaining a steady freelance commissioned illustration job which she advertises on her social media platforms. I'm so happy she's back and uploading art again!
Fukari is an illustrator based in Poland, I've followed her artwork online for a number of years now and back pre-art schooling her work was hugely inspirational to my development as an illustrator myself and character designer. Fukaris tools of trade tend to be art marker pens, ink and digital art software. She's currently trying to develop her work into a small business, doing freelance illustration and recently Tshirt designs.
Fukari's shirt advert
Fukari graduated from a Graphic Design degree course a few years back but her drawing skills are self taught as well as her artistic skills. She's since expanded her social media presence onto Instragram and Tumblr. I checked out her Instragram and most of her uploads are adverts for her own products, related to her illustration. Such as Tote bags she's designed the illustrations for and her Tattooing work (apparently she now also does tattooing of her illustrations).
Here are two screenshots I took off her Instagram. She's become very popular and has a huge online following as well as steady interest and business generated by her uploads and creative blogging. Her uploads attract more business for her art, from fashion related to tattooing and comics.
Her work is generally sold/advertised online, including her comics and commissions. However the artist has expanded her interest in illustration into tattoo and she seems to now hold a steady job as a tattoo-artist.
As an artist I've followed for years it's wonderful to see her developing her work into a business. She was once an illustrator idol of mine but now she's one of my most beloved creative business women. Personally I'm nervous about the idea of stepping into the 'freelance' world of animator/illustration but Fukari gives me hope and inspiration for my own future as a creative.
Here is the rough concept for a percentile business card of mine. I took the visual design of my indent and applied it to a standard business card format; to see if it filled the space nicely; I feel like it does, although the text does look bottom heavy, which isn't always a bad thing. I can image the card in physical form would be eye catching, especially as someone who collects lovely looking business cards and puts them on my studio walls. I'll continue to developed this visual concept into a further developed idea for personalize business cards. But I think I need to include more of the following:
Email, (recently I've made a work email address Mollypukes@Gmail.com)
Phone number or contact number
Name and artist name? is it really necessary to put my own name on the card? Considering 'I'm a business?
Eye catching features is a must, makes it more likely that people picking up the cards will keep them if they're attractive
Above is a rough concept of a personalised indent for my animations and creative works. I wanted to include something personal rather than an abstract graphic icon, so included cartoon'ed features of my face; which I feel represents the work I create more than a graphic icon could ever do. I wanted to feature a colour scheme that was eye catching but also representative of the 'vibe' of my work; so focused on sort of ugly pastel shades. I'll begin developing this concept into a fully animated indent in the future.
Back in 2006 I was introduced to the internet,
one of the first sites I remember exploring was Youtube. At the time I was obsessed with a certain kind of cartoon. Cartoons like Sailor moon, Tokyo Mew mew and Pokemon (now of course I know that 'certain kind of cartoon' is anime) and straight away began searching youtube for cartoons similar to what I loved already. I found a Flash animation involving Pokemon characters that captured my attention and love in an instant and held it for years;
A Si was a Flash animation artist that I think studied animation somewhere in the world; His world was well known amongst a community on youtube and Devientart back pre-2010. In recent years dropped off the map regarding the online social media world and I can't find much information on him anymore. I remember when I first watched his animations I was blown away by how wonderful they were, by all these characters interacting with one another on screen; and this wasn't made by a massive studio or company, but someone like me who loved drawing! His work was a huge inspiration for me to start creating my own youtube animations.
A Si began a 'fan project' in 2009 called 'SS Warrior cats'.
A few segments of animation were completed under his hand, but soon into the development into the youtube series he left the project and hasn't really been heard from (in an online presence) since. At the time I couldn't read very well, but finding out that his new animation project was inspired by a series of books I plucked up the courage to enter my local book store and attempt to develop my reading skills. The youtube series is still being released in yearly episodes, where small group of artists brought together by A Si now lead the project and keep the series alive.
I've recently tried to find some social media outlet to get in contact with the artist to thank him for his work and inspiration; but cannot find an account of the artists that's been active recently. Looking back at my early years developing my MSPaint animations, ASi and his flash animations were the first 'independent' student animations I'd seen and idolised - that inspired me to developed my skills in art.
At the beginning of the year I attended a small lecture about how engaging more with Social Media is hugely beneficial as a creative to get your work out to percentile clients and job opportunities. Sites like Tumblr, Instagram, LinkedIN, Twitter and Youtube were recommended to us as Social networking/blogging sites that would be a good way of broadcasting our work online. I've been following artists online from an inspirational perspective since 2008, with sites like Youtube and DeviantART; where I heavily obsessed over a selected few artists from all over the globe that I found inspirational and inspired me to look at my drawings skills part 'being a hobby'. I remember engaging with DeviantART as an artist before considering my skills as a possible career, stacking up a number of follows with MSPaint illustrations; looking back at these drawings I can't describe how much I cringe and question why X number of follows LIKED these illustrations (badly drawn). Then again, I was a child when I was putting my work online. I didn't have a thought in my head about anything involving getting a job or recognition from posting my illustrations online - but rather I clicked upload because I wanted to be part of that. I wanted to be part of a community that shared art, shared a love for creativity. I remember doing the same within the Youtube, creating short WindowsMovieMaker and MSPaint animations with my own characters not to gain attention or support; but because I loved doing it. Social Media engagement has been something I've been doing since I was a child, originally not to benefit my career as I'm developing now but because I enjoyed it.
To develop an online following as an artist I first began with creating accounts under my artist name 'MollyPukes' with the following websites; Instagram, Youtube and Tumblr. I created a new Tumblr account for my own creative work as well as edited my YouTube account with my artist name to better sculpt my presence on that social media platform. Instagram was a new thing for me, I'd never consider it as a platform for artwork and only assumed it was some sort of gallery for Selfies and personal photos. I'll update on my progress in a few weeks! Wish me luck!
(LOGO HERE)
About the studio:
Thumbs Up studios is a small animation team that produces a range of 2D hand-drawn animated interactive games for the hand held market. The Studio also accepts freelance job opportunities such as animation, storyboarding, character designs and comics. The Studio is planning to expand into the video game market by first creating puzzle and interactive flash games.
Target Market:
All Ages(5+). Educational, Mobile gaming and Apps.
Promotion:
Online social media, website, engaging in brief and contests and entering work for recognition.
Aims:
Thumbs Up studio aims to develop further into their range of free-to-play mobile apps and games to the App market. Such games will produce a profit with in game purchases. Thumbs Up Studios also plans to gain international relations and networking with other businesses and studios, by taking on freelancing opportunities and partnerships in order to expand their global market. In turn, the studio aims to expand itself as a business and take on more staff in order to complete larger projects.
Financial Aims:
Thumbs Up studios aims to achieve a large financial following with their Mobile App Games in the coming years. The studio plans to first break-even on their investment on developing their games within the first 2-3 years and then begin to expand.
Staff Members and Roles:
Currently Thumbs Up Studio houses 4 members of staff, Wing Chiu, Mathew Winnington, Greta Narbutaitytė and Molly lester who taking on multiple roles in order to minimise costs. Molly Lester and Greta Narbutaitytė are Thumbs Up Studios representatives, handling external contacts such as E-mails and Networking. All members of staff are animators within the studio, taking on roles most suitable according to their individual talents. Additionally Mathew Winnington and Wing Chiu are the studios post-production members of staff on the studios projects. Project scheduling and budgeting within the studio is discussed with all four members before a representative for that segment is selected for leadership.
Studio Layout:
Our Studio is located in Leeds, within a small district of rented offices.
Equipment:
The studio offers work spaces for both traditional animation and digital animation. The traditional animation work spaces offer light boxes and craft areas for hand drawn features, as well as space for hand drawn frame creation. The digital animation work space offers much the same, but focuses on the most up to date drawing software. The studio also hosts an open workspace for crafting and an area displaying high-tech Cintiqs and larger scanners. The Equipment used for gaming creation has yet to be finalized and the studio is still discussing between software such as Unity and Construct 2. Unity offers a free service for everyone, cross-platforming with good performance and supports 2D and 3D and Construct 2 offers up to date software but lacks the compatibility with mobile gaming.
Competing Studios:
Freelance studios that engage within the animation industry with mobile gaming as well as the existing industry in the App market as well as animation studios in the area. Slurpy Studios produces educational historial and entertaining animations for children, but doesn't compete with the mobile gaming department. Amanita Design produces interactive games with a hand-drawn hand made aesthetic, but again does not compete with the mobile gaming department.
Budgeting and Costs:
To begin developing the studio with copyright and equipment the studio will first need to invest a huge amount into itself before beginning to develop a business. For studio equipment in preparation for begin production the cost would be somewhere between £18000-£22000, not including monthly subscription software services such as photoshop, after effects ect. Renting the location in Leeds would cost monthly between £800-£1200, not including bills. Bills (electricity, wifi, water, gas,phone) would roughly come to £130-£150 a month. Workers pay would be a steady £8 an hour to begin with, between four members of staff weekly working a 10hour day would cost £360 daily.
Subtracting the money invested in equipment at the beginning of the studios formation, the cost of running the studio should looks roughly like this:
Microtransaction is the exchange of real world money into game money in order to purchase virtual goods or benefits. This business technique is often used in Free-To-Play games, where players can choose to purchase quicker, easier or more then they would in 'free play' mode of the game. This profiting technique has been shamed for 'tricking' players into paying cash into a claiming to be free game; often with children playing the APP and purchasing within game unknowingly with their parents credit card (that is already linked to their online mobile network). This form of profiting has proved hugely successful, roughly 90% of profit made on Android and iOS mobil gaming networks in 2013 came from Free-To-Play games.
LINEPlay is a Japanese Social and mobile gaming App, which gives players the opportunity to have a virtual avatar that they can communicate with players online with and personalize. It's hugely successful in the eastern gaming market, as it features a faint 'virtual pet' situation which has proven to be already popular within the Japanese video game market. Released by the NAVER Corporation as their most 'social network' like app, their company has also produced a number of popular puzzle games as well as generated merchandise featuring their game characters in highstreet stores and online. The companys first release was 'Dragon Nest' - a fantasy MMORPG meaning ' an online role-playing video game in which a very large number of people participate simultaneously' which was hugely successful and profitable. Released for Microsoft Windows in 2010 it generated enough money for the company to then begin developing their own games for the mobile gaming market. As of 2016 the brand 'LINE' is hugely successful with its characters both virtually within games and physically within merchandising. LINEPlay benefits from the 'Microtransaction' format in order to profit from being a 'free game'. The player can customize their avatar in unique outfits and their avatars home; most items must be bought with exchanging real money but some purchases can be achieved within game with 'free game money' that the player can earn. I'm currently playing this mobile game casually and honestly I'm hooked!
Mobile gaming apps have taken the world by storm since the release of the Apple produce 'iphone' in 2007. Held-held gaming has been attracting buyers since the late 1970's when the very first in hand console was released by Mattel titled 'Auto Race'. This form of hand held gaming is near unrecognizable compared to currently phone APP games, but is based within the came entertainment function. Modern APP games are often designed to attract the player into spending more more within the game in order to progress or benefit further within the game. The difference besides physical features between the 'Auto Race' and modern APP games is the cost. To purchase the 'Auto Race' it would be a single payment for the entertainment but with modern Apps; they advertise to be free in order to attract the most attention and there for players, before then constantly tempting them with in game purchases to make their profit. A sneaky effective way to make the biggest profit over time with your buyer. In 1989 Nintendo released the 'Game Boy' (their first hand held gaming console) at the cost of just under £90, which was hugely successful globally selling 118.69 million units world wide. Nintendo pushed forward the possibility of 'anytime' gaming, something the modern mobile Apps still use. Easier play means more buyers, means more availability - and means more profit.
The first mobile game was released on Hagenuk MT-2000 device with 'TETRIS' which inspired the release of the notorious 'Snake game' by the Nokia phone company on their devices a few years later. The Apple APP Store was released in 2008, which opened up an (arguably) official market place for mobile gaming. However before Apple developed their first mobile, Japan had already been introduced into a wide range of mobile gaming in the early 2000's with virtual pets and puzzles. The Japanese company and brand Namco introduced the western market into mobile gaming in 2003; but the market for mobile gaming in japan is still the largest and most successful globally. Despite being 'late' to the mobile gaming market, Apple still revolutionized mobile gaming; they created a market that costumers could pick and choose where to shop for Apps and mobile gaming. On the Western Apple APP market the top and most popular mobile games are as followed;
Angry Birds, a slingshot style game where players interact with different characters and their unique abilities in order to win the level. By Revio entertainment.
Candy Crush, a match three style game where players interact with different candy styled icons to achieve unique power ups and earn the highest score. By KING company.
Fallout Shelter, a virtual pet style game developed from the 'Fallout' apocalyptic games where players interact with virtual characters and maintain their survival. By Bethesda Software.
Crossy Road, a simplistic pixel style game where the player must interact with their own animal and control its movements across the roads in order to earn the highest score. By Arcade Game.
Temple Run, a quick reaction style game where the player must interact with their own character and complete direction based threats in order to earn the highest score. By Imangi Studios.
All of the games listed above by different studios are advertised free, however contain in game purchases (with real world money) for additional bonuses such as second turns on levels, or 'rare characters' to play as, which most of the time hold no benefits to the game past their appearances. Also these games are incredibly popular within the mobil gaming market because they're easy to pick up and put down; their simple, their easy to earn a 'win' or an 'achievement'. Non of the games listed above contain complex features or storylines that have to have the players full attention or understanding to be enjoyable; anyone can play these games, which is what makes them so popular.
To infiltrate this market of mobile gaming anyone wanting to developed their business into this field of gaming must produce a product that is easy to accomplish, is in some way rewarding, holds some personalised elements and has some sort of risk factor within the game.
Researching into exciting animation/cartoon studios I've discovered a number of 'new comer' studios operate from shared accommodations and locations of those working within the studio. Recently an animation student I already idolise and follow 'Sun Creature' Studios, released a short video documenting how their studio is laid out. Their studio is much more 'home-like' then I would of imagined and was pleasantly surprised about how even the smallest of spaces and location can be transformed into a hub of business. Below is a link to the video Sun Creature uploaded;
Sun creature operates their animation student within a very small group, most of them taking on multiple jobs in order to maintain structure within the business. Their studio is located within a small building, with rooms for work spaces and desks as well as areas for chilling out and cooking. Their studio really is a hub of creativity, funded by a kickstarter event the studio held a few years back and they have since continued to developed an even wider support.
Independent animation studios have always begun life like this and some have developed into huge giant businesses that seem to have lost that 'home' touch, much like The Walt Disney Studios. The Disney studios of course began life as a team of few that then grew and grew in order to compensate for their growing work load and wallets. At the time Disney studios had little to no compression with animation studios in the west because they were rare, their studio developed in an age where animation was really just taking off as an opportunity for business.
Returning back to an 'independent animation studio';
These studios focus on small groups working on multiple jobs to keep costs down as well as keep work spaces small and there for costs down again. These studios work on a range of freelance projects from TV shows to Apps and everything in-between. Often located in parts of homes, buildings or even offices - This 'type' of studio seems to be common amongst currently forming/developing businesses from the past 20years and onwards. The end result for these studios, would be to expand in size and in turn, expand in profit.
To develop from a small team in someones basement into a huge business leading the field of animation; there needs to be developing profit. Studios form and create; of course creating art is a beautiful thing, but bills must be paid and work must there for be appreciated (and sold). Beginning life within a newly formed animation studio can be stressful, often bank-breaking; but a new trend online is helping these poor new-comers to business. KickStarter is an online website where newly formed businesses can put forward their ideas for donations of support. The website is flooded with artists/creatives and their ideas near constantly, all desperate to make their dream of producing X into a reality.
For example
, I searched 'Animation' and this was the result:
As of today there are '4,698' projects online wanting donations and support that are come way related to the animation field. There have already been hundreds of animation projects funded on this website, such as the up-coming stop-motion film 'Anomalisa' and the webseries 'Bee and Puppycat'. This website offers a huge opportunity for any animator or animation studio, depending on if public support or attention towards your project is a positive one.
Another way to balance the work load/support within a small studio would be to take on small freelancing work by first heavily adverting yourself online or within networking; this could involve infiltrating popular websites with your work such as youtube, facebook, Tumblr, LinkIn and so on. Small studios often develop into a fully working animation studio by the means of successfully winning an animation contest or award with their work, there for giving themselves publicity.
If Thumbs Up Studio wants to infiltrate the animation field to begin with the studio would have to focus on currently popular forms of animation, such as Apps and phone animations; Which have already been proven to be incredibly popular and successful with 'Candy Crush' by KING company. Focusing on 2D animated and hand-held games the studio would first have to 'risk' a large amount of money to then hopefully make up for with a profit in the long run.
'Thumbs UP' Studios is an animation studio based in Leeds that focuses on hand-made mobile gaming; such as Apps and Flash Games. The team itself is made up of 4 staff members, each taking on multiple roles within different departments.
My role within the studio firstly, is an animator.
Animating both digitally and traditionally I'll take on a number of projects at once in order for them to be completed as well as separate illustration related freelance jobs our studio is approached with. My skills within drawing and design gear me towards approaching traditional jobs as well as digital design or concepts. As a joint force with Greta; we handle the studios networking and external adverting - This also involves management on Emails, Phones and an office presence.
