Goodbye

Dear All,

 Thank you for following me on my animation student blog for the past three years. In less than two months I will be graduating with a 2:1 in BA (Hons) Animation and Visual Effects and I couldn't be happier with the result! After three years of stress and doubt over my career and skill as an animator and artist, I can safely say now I am proud of what I have achieved.

 Despite the turmoil, this has been the best three years of my life, especially my third year. I learnt new skills, made many friends and learnt more about myself as a person. I wouldn't have changed anything!

 However within the past few months I have been having a career slump, being unsure whether I should pursue animation or film as a career anymore. Not because I don't love it anymore! But because I am tired of it and I wish to work in a different field. I crave new things and I want to learn more about the world from a different perspective. I believe this would be the healthiest life option for me to do.

 I look forward to what the future holds, but don't be too shocked if you see me working in animation again, I think I just need a long proper break! I don't think I would come back to this blog again, but if I do, I'd be one lucky woman if I still see you reading my posts.

Keep going and good luck!

Louise Isabel Gillies

Off the Record: Colouring

 Colouring for Off the Record is my favourite task to do for the project. The style really comes to life due to the colour and gives the film a unique look. Here is a shot I recently coloured of the nurse and Sasha.

Swamp Cheese: Photoshop Animation pt3

 Here is another shot I animated and coloured in Photoshop for Swamp Cheese, of the girl getting up after being hit by the swamp man.

Target X-Mas: More Layouts

 Here are some recent layouts I made for the back of the convention centre in Target X-Mas.

Off the Record: Keyframes and In-betweens pt2

 Keyframes and in-betweens I made for a long shot, where Timur replaces a record and turns on the machine.

Swamp Cheese: Photoshop Animation pt2

 Another shot I made in Photoshop for Swamp Cheese, this time featuring a background with the swamp man and his cheese, waiting patiently for people to stop.

Target X-Mas: Animation Shading

 Recently I have started to shade some shots for Target X-Mas. Here are the first two I shaded, one of them which I inbetweened before.

Off the Record: Keyframes

 The majority of animation tasks I have been given by Off the Record have been keyframe animations. Here's three of the latest I have made.

Target X-Mas: In-between

 I have done a lot of layouts for Target X-Mas within the past months, and even though I still help the project by drawing them, I asked for something new to do so my portfolio will have something other than layouts on it. Here is what they gave me, a shot of the hitman to in-between. My blue lines are my in-between animations.

Swamp Cheese: Becoming a Production Assistant

 Recently within the past few months I haven't been happy with the work I was doing during my final term at university. I was to make layouts and animate and do many creative tasks for the student films I was working on, but I wasn't enjoying it anymore. Making animation didn't excite me the way it used to, thus my work was looking sloppy. I noticed how my peers still loved doing what they were doing but I wasn't. It came to my attention that maybe creating animation wasn't for me anymore.

 Not to say I didn't love animation anymore! But I believed that I could be more suited for another role whilst staying in the same industry. I knew what my strengths were; I'm very organised. I love to plan and schedule things and I don't mind tidying. I'm also quick to learn and can handle things under pressure (except for the odd breakdown which everybody gets at some points during their life). I also knew a lot about media and marketing, not from education but from observing it in real life, it all made sense to me! 

 Because of this I considered a career assisting in distribution and exhibition. I love the idea of organising events and marketing schemes to help the public notice wonderfully made films which I believe deserve attention. Although I am still a creative person, making art became something I wanted to make a hobby out of whilst I wanted my professional work to be to do with something I knew I was good at.

 This lead me to become a production assistant for Swamp Cheese. For the moment I am helping the producer find film festivals and making a big list of them, ready to apply to them when we can. I am still helping the student films I am on with production since I know they need people to do as much work as they can for them, but it feels amazing to know I also have a job that's connected to what I really want to do!