MA Character Animation – Concluding Thoughts

Submission done, animation complete, degree show complete. I thought to wrap up my time writing this blog on my MA Character Animation course, it was worth talking about my experiences, the pros and cons, and maybe give future animators who are considering joining this course a balanced and fair overview of my time at CSM. I didn’t see many reviews of the course when I joined, so hopefully this post might help someone out there.

As part of the 2021 – 2023 cohort of animators, we joined when the pandemic was still a prominent obstacle in the world and masks were still a necessity. Much of our first year was a mix of online classes and in-person lectures. We were split into two groups, because the size of our studio wasn’t enough to accommodate 30+ students. We have a small studio tucked away at the back of the university, with not too many computers (many were out of date when we joined, although quite a few have been upgraded). If all of us were to sit in the class at the same time, we wouldn’t have space to all use a computer. And this problem has only increased further, as the university has now doubled the size of the class in the year below us, meaning people in the year below either had to animate with traditional light boxes or find somewhere else in the university. And there aren’t too many places that hold all the software necessary to animate. For the first year, we were largely tucked away in these same groups, so there were some people who I never even met or properly spoke to until maybe the second term. Obviously I get it, space is something that the course struggles with, but it was a shame I didn’t get to look at some people’s work for quite a while as a result.

With that out of the way, let’s talk what Unit 1 was like. Unit 1 was our introductory unit to the course, where we learnt animation principles, did a presentation on a specific area of history or region to animation and got to try out quite a few different ways of making animation. It was the most stress-free time, as the grade we would receive at the end of the unit would have no impact overall in our final grade. We were encouraged to do stop motion, 2D animation digitally and 3D. I got to learn more about timing, how to ease in and out, and shortcuts in animating from Steve Roberts, our main tutor who left at the end of our first year.

I remember enjoying much of these principles, but I have to admit Steve did put me off a little bit with the way he’d teach sometimes. He was very adamant about everyone using TVPaint, and would often downplay other programs like Clip Studio Paint for missing certain features that TVPaint had. I didn’t pick up the program until the end of the year in a group project partly because of this but also I didn’t think he taught how to use the program that great. Terrific on animation principles and exercises, not so much for technical knowledge.

I also have to talk about the lessons on 3D, which I found very hard to engage with. It was technical, because it was all Maya, a program I had never used before. Trying to pick this up whilst learning a different dimension in animation was rather off putting, and our tutor, Kevin Rowe, did his best but this was in pandemic days. We were booked into a computer suite each week, but no one was there on site to help us, as Kevin was teaching from home. I wonder if I may have taken 3D more seriously if I had onsite support as if you couldn’t keep up with Kevin, you’d just get lost and be prone to making more mistakes. A las, it is what it is.

In term 2, we got assigned a mentor: an alumni from the course who would guide us and support us as we slowly make our way into the industry. I got matched with Paul Nicholson. Now I won’t lie, I wasn’t initially sure this was the right move, as Paul is primarily a character designer – an area of the industry I wasn’t looking to go into. In the end, Paul was absolutely the perfect mentor for me. From animation exercises to just monthly chats where I could bounce ideas back and forth, Paul has been such a blessing and I’m glad I got him as a mentor. Not everyone in my class had a mentor who kept in contact, so I count myself lucky I got to chat with Paul.

It’s also a good point to bring up the “work experience” section of the course. Each year, 1st year students help out 2nd year students with their graduation films. I got assigned with Masi, a guy who was working in Toon Boom Harmony for his graduation film. I haven’t actually seen anything of it since last year: Masi was still in pre-production by the time I joined the project, and he only had this one shot for me to work on. It was fun doing tie-downs and in-betweens for him, but I think the scheduling for 1st year assistants isn’t the most ideal. The tutors have mentioned to me that they struggle to find the right time for when to get 1st years to help. They can’t wait till April because the 1st years would be busy with a big project, so they have to schedule it in February-March when 2nd years are still trying to work out what they want to do with their film. Either way, it’s not the most optimum scheduling.

We now move swiftly into Unit 2: the first big project. As advertised on the course, you can expect to engage with client briefs from the industry. We were tasked with creating category stings for the London International Animation Festival (LIAF), where we had to come up with a short 1-minute sting which would be pitched to the festival organisers. Then roughly 8 of these pitches would be selected and whoever pitched those would become directors. I made a pitch based on my social anxiety, and the pitch went well. Ultimately, I wasn’t selected as it was just missing a story, which in the long run was fine. The directors on my course mostly felt burnt out after the project, and I worry that if I was in the director’s seat at that stage of the course, I wouldn’t have coped all that well.

In the end, I joined one of my good friends, Neale Upton, on his project “Open Mike Nite” for the Absurd to Zany category. It was the biggest learning curve, as it was the first time I’d ever worked under someone in an animation project. We did occasionally disagree on the direction, on how characters should move, but you learn to tame your ego and trust in the director’s vision. That’s what happened with me, and eventually I just knuckled down and got on with the task at hand. Throughout this project, we had weekly crits with visiting practitioners like Bianca Ansems and Michael Ho, who could give feedback on things like storyboards and rough cuts. It was helpful, but when the time limit for the project is less than two months, at some stage you have to put your foot down and move forwards regardless in order to get finished. Our group didn’t finish until July, 1 month after the project ended on the course for the November premiere.

My overall thoughts on the project are mixed. Whilst we had a great time making and I’m proud of the work we got to make, I didn’t really feel like we got much out of it afterwards. LIAF didn’t upload most of the stings to YouTube, it was barely marketed and it felt a little bit like our hard work was an afterthought. Only the directors could be invited to the in-person screening as the venue wouldn’t have fit our class. For the hard work we put it, it felt like it ended quietly.

For the second half of Unit 2, we had to create a 1-minute animation based on a word we gave to writing students at CSM. For this project, I decided to challenge myself and try to learn the art of rigging and Toon Boom Harmony, and I chose the word “Carefree” so I could animate a character a little more looser and upbeat. We got our prompts back from our writers, and I felt like the story focused on being clumsy rather than what I had in mind. I had shown a clip from “Diamond Jack”, a grad film by Rachel Kim that illustrated the kind of attitude I wanted, but I still liked what I got and worked with the recorded dialogue. For being described as a collaborative project between MA Character Animation students and writing students, it didn’t really feel like that. I only met my writer once throughout, and that was at the start. It didn’t really feel like I had a chance to give my input on the story. This is something that the year below have had a chance to do, as they’ve restructured the project to allow for writers and animators to talk, discuss what changes may be needed and have a chance to re-record the dialogue. I did end up with a film I was happy with, but it felt a little like the potential to explore wasn’t quite there.

It was in this term (the 4th term) that I really became aware of the industry links we had. We had the likes of Shelley Page and Daniel Quirke provide feedback, and this industry connection fed into our final unit: the graduation film/portfolio (a new route designed to allow students to create a portfolio of short exercises rather than a full-blown film as is traditional). In our final project, we had Osbert Parker, Sacha Beeley, Margaux Tsakiri-Scanatovits, Sophie Koko-Gate, Kate Jessop, Jenny Wright and more sit down with us to talk about our films and the ideas we had. Even though it was stressful trying to get a film done in a limited time with feedback left, right and centre, I really felt like I got a lot out of the course at this point.

For my graduation film, I wanted to balance creating a typical film with a story, but also try the portfolio route by having characters in different environments. And thus, Squabble was born – a film much like WandaVision in the sense that the characters would travel through different eras of television. We had from January to June to create the film, and this was the project that encouraged all forms of collaboration. We pitched to students from the RCM, and I got to work with the wonderful Mike Meurs who delivered the most incredible score for my film, absolutely wonderful stuff. I got to work with a 1st year, Somtochi Onyishi who brought several terrific backgrounds which was an absolute blessing as someone who wants to focus on animation. I also had a last-minute sound designer with Elisabetta Pola, who did some great mixing right before the deadline. It was a project where I got to show off to people in the industry my core skills as an animator whilst getting to work in a team to bring a film to life that I couldn’t have imagined. For me personally, it was the most rewarding term of them all.

That being said, I do have to address an issue which both my peers mentioned and my tutors have said they struggle balancing, which is often the timing of lectures. This was most prominent in the last term, when the course arranged for guest speakers all over the world to talk about their practices in the industry, both personal and commercial. I was ahead of my project so I attended most of them, but the attendance rate from the class was a lot lower, because everyone else was busy working on their projects. It’s a shame, because the lecturers were fascinating to listen to and gave key insight into the industry, and everyone else would have attended if not in the middle of production. I’m not sure what the solution to timing the lectures is, perhaps at the start of the year when the project stakes are lower? That’s something I’m sure the tutors will be considering moving forward (we recently had an external examiner come in who we discussed some of these issues with, so hopefully these will be raised).

And that’s my experience on this course in a nutshell. Despite feeling a bit like the course is hidden away and forgotten by the college, I’ve had a terrific time. I’ve learnt a tremendous amount from both my tutors and friends, I’ve seen some terrific animation develop before my very eyes. I’ve gotten to try out all types of animation, as before I enrolled, I’d only ever known the “anime” style. I do believe the tutors care, and that they give their best shot to help us out in both feedback and technical knowledge.

Of course my experience won’t be the same as everyone moving forwards – the course enrols close to 60 students each year now, so things like personal tutor time seem significantly more limited, and resources in the studio may be harder to come by as everyone will be wanting to using the computers. I’m not sure how they’re gonna get everyone together at the same time given our small cohort was already split. But at the very least, it sounds like some of the problems I had with scheduling, with projects and collaboration are being addressed, so I hope future students can get more out of the course than me in that regard. I also have to criticise the showreel “event”, which while was helpful, was somewhat communicated poorly which meant we didn’t get nearly as much out of it as we wanted to. Some guest industry professionals didn’t turn up in the end (not the tutors fault, it happens), but it didn’t feel much like an event as it was a normal crit. We only had two industry professionals in the morning for mixed-media and 3D (one of whom was a 2D animator which the 2D animators missed out on since their name wasn’t mentioned). It had good intentions, and we came away with as much as we could, but it could have been so much better and much more useful with clearer communication.

Despite its teething issues that seem to be growing steadily because of the higher-ups, my time on this character animation course has been nothing short of magical. I’ve come away with a huge portfolio of work, with a diverse range of styles far beyond what I was capable of before I joined. I’ve made friends for life, learned so much from both tutors and classmates alike, gotten to talk to plenty of industry people and honed m skills as a 2D animator far beyond what I could have been capable alone. I’ve loved being a part of this course, so its sad to move on from this place. To future students, I don’t know what the future of this course holds. I don’t know if the quality of teaching will be up to a high standard with the increase in class size, but I’ve had a wonderful time and I’m forever grateful to these guys for making the last two years fly by. To the MACA 2023 class, we made a mighty fine class.