Joanne Chalkley - Animation Bridge Trainee
Flexibility is the key to success in the UK's burgeoning animation sector where traditional techniques are increasingly combined with the latest CGI technology to meet an endless demand for series, adverts, graphics and idents. The ability to cross disciplines is perhaps nowhere more key than in the production of high end feature animations such as Aardman's recent The Curse of the Were-Rabbit which mixed computer generated imagery with the company's trademark model animation to bring the latest Wallace and Gromit adventure to the big screen.
Skillset is now helping UK animators with a background in traditional animation to make the leap to CGI by funding South West Screen's specialised continuing professional development programme Animation Bridge.
Based at Aardman's Bristol-based studio, Animation Bridge offers an intensive 12-week course of training in 3D modelling and animation with Maya tutored by animators from Aardman, Dreamworks and a team of external trainers.
Joanne Chalkley was one of seven participants on the first programme which ran from November 2005 until March 2006. She has been a freelance animator for 15 years working on series for Cosgrove Hall and individual productions including Hamilton Mattress for the BBC and the Tim Burton feature The Corpse Bride.
"I'd been thinking more and more about CGI, not as an alternative to the stop-frame puppet animation that I was doing, but as an additional skill," she explains. "I had in fact bought a computer with the right spec to run the Maya package but then new jobs kept coming up which got in the way of the learning. And you can't just do it a couple of evenings a week, I think you have to be totally immersed in the system. I'd also looked at courses but they all cost thousands of pounds in fees alone, let alone taking time off the day job.
"What was great about Animation Bridge was the course itself was free and there was a contribution towards loss of earnings which was really important when you've still got a mortgage to pay. I did turn down work to do it but having three months to really get to know the package was fantastic.
"What I loved about it was that we were learning within a proper working studio," she adds. After learning how to build and rig characters and objects with the Maya software the participants final project was animating a scene from Aardman's latest production Flushed Away which involved daily liaison with the US-based production team.
"We were having conversations with the producers of the CGI features and the directors and some of the other animators," she explains. "And we were working to a professional production schedule, so although our shots wouldn't be used on the final film we had to deliver as if they were going to be.
"I think the course really equipped us well. It was a great chance to step out of what we'd all been doing for years and actually broaden our skillsbase. The next job I go for will definitely be one that uses my new skills."