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R'Shaun Blackwood
Course BA (Hons) Animation
Character designer and aspiring director, R'Shaun Blackwood has an obsession with the weird and humorous. He approaches animation with the idea that it should be something that people can escape into instead of seeing the real world looking back at the viewer. He says: "Animation can take you anywhere: to fantastic medieval worlds or on interplanetary journeys." To break the feeling of reality in his work, he implements methods such as character breaking and rubber-hosing, to allow his work to feel less like it wants to mimic reality.
R'Shaun intends to use his experiences with social media and his creative abilities in hopes to bring people together through his work. When asked why he aspires to create, he replied: "Since iconic characters and their shows helped me connect to so many people who have made an impact in my life, it feels right to do the same for others with my creations."
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El Bruton
Course BA (Hons) Animation
El, originally from Selby, is an aspiring Character Designer and 2D Animator. In her final year at Leeds Arts University she worked across a multitude of projects such as ‘Impresario’ (directed by Devon Short), ‘World Ruin, Prickling Destruction and Absolute Death’ (directed by Emily Hogg), and ‘Why the Bear is Stumpy Tailed’ (directed by Emma Williams). Designing over 40 characters for a variety of projects in her final year, El hopes to continue this passion within her future career. “For my final year I decided to get involved with multiple projects within my class as a Character Designer and Animator. This meant I could really focus on my passions while also having the variety that comes with working in an assortment of diverse groups. Here I have put together a piece highlighting some of my favourite characters I created this year across various projects.”
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Briony Caswell
Course BA (Hons) Animation
As an artist I specialise in illustrating and 2D hand drawn animation, mainly digital but also on paper. I usually use Photoshop or TV Paint, I have also used Procreate on the iPad to create animations and illustrations. I’m still figuring out my style, but it’s usually comedy, and I use characters with exaggerated features that look non-realistic. I also enjoy making anthropomorphic animations. An example of this would be the characters that I designed for my final film, which are a salt and pepper pot that are a slapstick comedy duo brought to life in my animation. When working in a team, I’m quite versatile as an artist and often take on many roles. In previous projects I have worked as the director, animator, character designer, storyboard artist, scriptwriter and worked briefly on concept art. Even though I specialise in 2D animation, I’m happy to give other styles a try and work to the best of my ability to achieve a high-quality outcome.
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Cameron Cook
Course BA (Hons) Animation
Cameron Cook is a 2D character animator who specialises in dialogue sequences which include lip sync, body language and gesticulation. He also has experience in storyboarding, writing and character design. Cameron has won a D&AD award for his work with the Beano, and in previous years has had his short films – 'AfterLives' and 'Stupid Question', both of which he directed – showcased at various film festivals, including the Oscar-qualifying Encounters 2019.
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Rhys Davies
Course BA (Hons) Animation
I am a Character/Concept Artist from Wales, working mostly digitally in 2D. I love pre-production, creating and developing characters. The following images are some of my designs created for the Character Design Challenge competition, and a turn-around from my own project: a mythological version of the character Llewelyn (based on Llewelyn, Prince of Wales from 1258 to 1282), and the legend ‘Bedd Gelert’ (Gelert’s Grave).
I’d love to work as a concept artist in the gaming industry. I’ve always enjoyed games and collecting the art books in order to see the pre-production that went into them. The concept art and design work that goes into games is always amazing to see, and has inspired me to strive to be part of that process. My favourite part has always been the character designs and so I focused on that area for my final project.
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Rory Gardner
Course BA (Hons) Animation
Rory is a 3D artist with a practical understanding and knowledge of rigging and facial performance. A multi-disciplinary animator with experience animating 3D, 2D, and stop motion.
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Tamara Hardy
Course BA (Hons) Animation
“WANDERER”, song written and performed by The Silk Collective.
Tamara Hardy is an illustrator and animator. Her interests lie predominantly in 2D, with a high visual appeal in textural, colourful design. She loves character analysis and storytelling, but her passion lies within creating beautiful visual worlds in which the character exists. The art direction for the world she created in this piece relied upon a cohesive colour palette, full of complementary colours.
Tamara animated, directed and produced this music video, along with a talented team of designers, storyboarders and animators. Her vision was to capture the personal emotion of the artist and her desire to explore the world, find her place within it and her peace within herself.
The video shows the journey of a girl who is vulnerable and lost, symbolised by this unfamiliar environment she falls into. Colourful, random shapes surround her to denote her confusion. Symbolism was very important in this video, showing her growth and adaptation to her environment that she felt unnatural in. The koi fish is used as the ultimate symbol of courage – as he swims encouragingly around her, the girl’s spirits are lifted, guiding her along the right path.
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Hannah Holliman
Course BA (Hons) Animation
Hannah is an aspiring Storyboard Artist, originally from Portsmouth. Throughout her time at Leeds Arts University she has celebrated various successes such as an RTS Yorkshire Student Award Nomination in 2020 for ‘Crook Takes King’, as well as winning the SYIM International Animation Challenge 2019 hosted at Rubika in Valenciennes, France.
“For my final year at Leeds Arts University I decided to fully pursue storyboarding as my main practice. This allowed me the opportunity to be involved with a variety of final films from my class. It was tough to decide on what to present at the End of Year show, with my role being so collaborative across projects; in the end I’ve created a shot by shot comparison reel to show the development from boards to film. Each film offered its own unique challenges, and I had a lot of fun collaborating with all my course mates. I would definitely recommend checking out all of the films in their entirety.”
‘Heart of Stone’ is still currently in production and is scheduled to be released later this year.
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Cara Jeal
Course BA (Hons) Animation
carajeal.wixsite.com/caradoodle
I love to use a combination of different textures which mimic traditional mediums, such as watercolour and pastels. I believe this helps to create a more interesting aesthetic to an animation.
This piece is a breakdown of a background created for an animation that is currently being developed. The animation is about the realities of what happens when you bring a toddler to a café. My hope is to progress onto other aspects of a day and to continue this project for many years. Due to me being a mother myself, I believe my perspective will be able to show people the humour in what can be a difficult and testing time when being a parent.
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Zhama Jumbo
Course BA (Hons) Animation
Presenting the work of Leeds and London based 3D artist and illustrator, Zhama Jumbo. Zhama is an avid explorer of 3D character modelling and animation, and continues to grow in this skillset as he takes it on as his main profession. He also works with standard commissions as well as company rebranding, and illustration is one of the most popular outlets amongst his clients. Zhama also has an extensive portfolio peppered with briefs from musicians.
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Jenny Leece
Course BA (Hons) Animation
cathyjayart.wixsite.com/cathyjart
The last 3 years have allowed me to develop and explore my interests and passions. During this time, I have worked on several projects and overcome many obstacles through hard work, and critical and creative thinking. Throughout this period, I have focused on worldbuilding, background design and painting, set design, character design and props. I have been particularly drawn to watercolour for my animation, incorporating it in different ways and seeing how it can enhance the narrative.
My practise has involved examining Japanese culture and animation through different lenses. I have also been looking at how mental health and wellbeing affects young people. 'Ellie' was my main project during 3rd year. Her story centres around her first year at a prestigious performing arts school. Although she is very talented, she is dealing with mental health issues and self-image. She gains a part in the school's end of year show thanks to the support of her friends after she is unfairly assessed and given a more minor role.
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Morgan Messenger
Course BA (Hons) Animation
Morgan is a storyboard artist and character animator, interested in composition and comedy, working with the Adobe suite, Storyboard Pro, and TVPaint.
He has produced storyboards for several projects these last few months: “Why the Bear Is Stumpy Tailed”, a stop-motion film based on a Norwegian folktale, directed by Emma Williams; “Ribeira”, another stop-motion animation about a surreal journey along the riverbed in Porto, directed by Pypah Santos; “Wanderer”, a 2D hand-drawn animated music video, directed by Tamara Hardy; and “Lights Out”, a 3D GCI animation following a lonely firefly, directed by Catriona O’Donnell.
Morgan has also worked a character animator for Haraldur Pétursson’s “Heart of Stone”, in which Medusa sings her stone heart out.
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Iago O'Flynn
Course BA (Hons) Animation
A small sample of work I've produced throughout this year, displaying my main interests in character design and backgrounds.
I was able to really develop my interests this year through the support of my tutors, and had the pleasure of working on a wonderful animation with a very talented animator. With what I've learned and produced over the last three years, I hope to enter the world of concept art for games in the future.
I want to thank everyone in Animation for these past three years, it's been a pleasure!
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Catriona O'Donnell
Course BA (Hons) Animation
Catriona is a 3D Modeller and Animator from Northern Ireland. She has a passion for creative storytelling and is actively seeking new ways to use her 3D skills in projects for animation, pre-visualisation or illustration.
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Sophie Panteli
Course BA (Hons) Animation
After three years of studying animation I found that my interests lie not so much in the foreground of the story, but instead in the environments. I’m fascinated by the detail and ambience that background art and sets for animation can embody; how they can still contribute strongly to the story whilst not being in the limelight. I’ve found real joy in working small scale, creating models and sets from tactile mediums such as paper and cardboard. The magic in working digitally is equally fulfilling, therefore I find my curiosity for world building extends to both stop motion and 2D.
In this case, ‘The Diner’ was a chance for me to practice creating concept art for stop motion sets. Behind this fully rendered final concept was a series of developments and a 3D Maya model for perspective. Light plays such a huge part in creating true ambience and atmosphere and is something I aspire to continue working hard at. Stepping into the animation industry, I’d be delighted to work in stop motion so I could continue to develop my dexterity.
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Prathik Poojary
Course BA (Hons) Animation
Prathik is a generalist animator and illustrator with a focus on character and effects animation. Coming from a multi-cultural background – born in India, raised in Uganda and based in Leeds – he loves telling stories from all sorts of perspectives. He enjoys exploring the different mediums he can use to tell these stories too; everything from stop-motion-ketchup, through 2D tradigital, to paper cut-out fire effects. He has taken on different roles in the projects he’s worked on, but primarily thrives in the production and the post-production sections of the animation pipeline. Some of his recent work, 'AfterLives' (2019), has also had success in the festival circuit, being screened at festivals around the world.
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Tisa Rahman
Course BA (Hons) Animation
Having been born and raised in Saudi Arabia before studying medicine at an army medical school in Bangladesh, Tisa has led quite an interesting life! Despite it all however, there has never been anything more exciting to her than the magic of animation. So, better late than never, here she is following her dream many years later and loving everything to do with 2D animation.
Her specialist interests lie in storyboarding, 2D character animation and compositing, but she has experience in other parts of the animation pipeline. She has even directed a few projects, one of which won a D&AD New Blood Award in 2019. The transformation from doctor to animating doctor has been a fantastic journey, and she can’t wait to see what more she’ll discover in the industry.
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Filipa Santos
Course BA (Hons) Animation
I’m a 2D and stop motion animator and director. I’ve specialised in 2D animation but decided to do my graduation film in another medium as I love trying out different mediums while animating. Whether it be stop motion or 2D, making things move is what brings me fulfilment.
This short film is set in my hometown in Porto, Portugal. The area of Ribeira is one of my favourite places on the planet and I wanted to make my final film a homage to my culture and upbringing. The short features an old lady, Fernanda, who is taken on a dream-like journey through the beauties of Ribeira by a giant fish. Fernanda has a life changing realisation that she’s not as happy as she could be and starts doing more of what brings her joy.
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Devon Short
Course BA (Hons) Animation
This 2D animated short was based around the concept of ‘Nostalgia’ and how the world could look through a rose tinted lens. The aim was to create a heartwarming and family based narrative that could be presented in a visually compelling way. A lot of thought was put into differentiating the styles between reality and memory during production. As a result, the audience is able to become totally immersed in the story depicted without the need for dialogue or language barriers.
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Gabbi Slater
Course BA (Hons) Animation
During my last year of university, I wanted to create relatable characters, with stories that are grounded and sympathetic. I also wanted to touch on a subject many young people have to deal with: mental illness. The characters have been designed with certain mental illness, which gives room to discover their story: What made them like this? Why do they act in such strange ways? How can they get better? I wanted to answer these questions and tell a very personal story through these characters.
Blair and Wren are normal teenagers struggling through everyday problems, troubles at home and dealing with feelings they can’t quite make sense of. Anyone can identify with these problems and I wanted to show that cartoon characters can go through these things as well.
The film focuses on Blair and her journey with mental illness, having to deal with a traumatic event as a child, and learning how to navigate her emotions as she deals with the fall-out. As Blair tries to deal with these problems by herself, her childhood friend and crush, Wren, attempts to help in any way he can, though his actions tend to be rebuffed by Blair’s cold and tough exterior.
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Katarína Sučíková
Course BA (Hons) Animation
Katarína Sučíková has recently discovered her passion for stop-motion animation and is exploring its possibilities through 2D and 3D media. In Summer 2019 she was the Director of Animation for 'The Bins and The Bees 2019'. In her final year of the BA (Hons) Animation course, she has been studying puppet and set making techniques for her graduation film, 'Jazierko Svetlušiek' ('Lake of the Fireflies'). This film is in Slovak – her native language – and carries personal values, with the environment and music inspired by folk tales.
"During my studies at Leeds Arts University, I have also undertaken academic research into Sign Language in animation and sustainability in set building for stop-motion. My biggest inspirations are Barry Purves, Oliver Postgate and the Tecarat animation studio; all have influenced my practice in the last three years. In the future, I want to continue my studies into a Masters Degree, with an ambition to produce an animated fairytale classic in British Sign Language. Until then, I am continuing to be a team member at Leeds Animation Workshop and focusing on finishing yet another environmental film, this time a local commission."
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Petra Taylor
Course BA (Hons) Animation
My practice involves working with traditional mediums and techniques (primarily watercolour, acrylic paint, needle felt and polymer clay) to build sets and puppets to tell a story. I believe the traditional materials I use have a certain beauty which allows the audience to feel a connection to the piece.
Depicting the unreal using real, physical materials is a concept that has fascinated me ever since I began my studies. I love being able to turn fiction into a reality that exists in its own world. The short film I created for my major project reflects this.
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Eloise Wayling
Course BA (Hons) Animation
Eloise enjoys all things world building, creating universes and designing the beings that inhabit them. Her visual development and background and character designs are predominantly explored digitally in 2D. She is flexible in her approach to style and aesthetics, letting the story lead the visuals rather than sticking to one approach. Combining her passion for storytelling and diversity in animation, she takes influence from the rich differences in the people around her, adventuring around the world and stories from different cultures.
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Emma Williams
Course BA (Hons) Animation
I am an artist based in Leeds, West Yorkshire who specialises in textile sculpture, puppet making and set building for stop motion animation. From an early age I have drawn inspiration from the natural world and folklore, especially Old English folklore and Norse mythology. My favourite medium for sculpture and puppet making is needle felting because of its versatility and texture. It can be used to create sections of a character or a whole puppet and is something I have been experimenting with for years.
My inspiration comes from the nature I find on walks through the wilds of Yorkshire and the Scottish Highlands, and often the smallest things draw the most of my attention. The tiny world of insects, moss, fungi and flowers is what inspires me to make tiny worlds of my own through the characters I create and the sets I build for animation.
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