Animation Personal Statement Example 1

I was accepted onto the Foundation Diploma in Art & Design on the strength of my photography portfolio. Whilst I was progressing though the course, I completed a module, which encompassed both Graphic Design and Photography. When my work was completed my tutors found that I had more strength in my graphic design work and encouraged me to move on to Graphic Design. I used my passion for digital media and IT to develop my visual ideas that was dedicated to the concepts of typography and photography. When I reached my final major project, I decided to do “Classic Popular Culture” and I conceived the idea to do an archetypal movie poster from the era of exploitation films. Accompanying this poster was a film I produced and directed which was heavily influenced by various key exploitation films of the time. After I completed the course, rather than take a gap year, I decided to take a portfolio course this academic year to improve my basic art skills to fully prepare myself for the advancement to university level. Along side this I am learning digital software such as the Adobe Suite and digital drawing practises.
I recently attended a life drawing class in association with Animated Exeter Festival, there I was able to produce life drawings tutored by Sara Easby who teaches life drawing at Aardman Animation. From there I am now able to learn various techniques and processes concerned with capturing the figure. I am a fast learner and can pick up techniques to develop my ideas and concepts further. I feel that I work harder and more efficiently when I am under pressure, working towards deadlines, building work towards assessments and receiving critiques.
During this current course, I changed my ambitions toward animation. I felt that this discipline uses my influences from music, film and art more actively than that of film as one can distinguish the sense of emotion and movement in an innovative way. I was the primary lyricist in a band and I believe that the structure of writing a narrative is the same as writing lyrics for a song as they both provide a sense of story and motion. My personal interests in animation are grounded in 2D traditional animation like the detailed, intricate sophistication of Richard Williams and the heavily story driven epics created by the likes of Katsuhiro Otomo. I'm heavily influenced by independent animations like “I Met the Walrus” by Jerry Levitan and “Yellow Sticky Notes” by Jeff Chiba Stearns. Here they create beautiful work, which not only simulates sentiments and attitudes but they give birth to worlds that fascinate and excite.
Personally, when I think of animation it is the observation of simple actions, for instance, a person walking or talking or alternatively an object falling. I have a strong curiosity to study these events and find out how this can be conveyed with emotion and feeling in a virtual reality like animation. On a grander scale, everything in life is in constant motion. To the simple sequence of a tree gently blowing in the wind, or the mighty progression from life to death. In animation, its not about trying to depict this in a literal sense, but trying to respond to the overall mood, environment, atmosphere and character that maybe conceived in the many acts of the world around us. I want to learn how to capture this through detailed drawing techniques in a university environment where I can learn processes and practises that encompass the world of animation and animators. For me, studying animation would allow me to fully express my ideas not only as an animator but also as an artist working in a creative team, be they students or tutors. I am used to academic study and enjoy the research that goes with learning something new. Animation is an art that I want to study and explore and pursue for the rest of my life.