Okay so a general update:
(For the benefit of my housemate , PArt 3 is my work experience at Bermuda Shorts)

Part 1:

About a month ago I turned 20. Very depressing. Can't even comfort myself with the fact that I am a teenager anymore. Still, an enjoyable day spent playing games and eating Folk Week fudge.

Part 2:

Few days late we drove to Spain to visit Grandma June again. We also got to meet the two new Belgium alsatian (sp?) puppies she adopted 12months ago...

To clarify, she's an 84 year old woman, who though acts like a 17 year old, is not immortal and is feeling the effects of the two car accidents she has endured since moving out to Spain. They are quite the handful.

The two girls (they're bitches) Sugar and Spice are devoted to her, but are still puppies and VERY protective. Spice just about got used to us after a day or two, but Sugar not so much. In fact she couldn't be let off the muzzle the anytime that we spent round Grandma's villa.

A few people had been bitten (fortunately not myself) but my brother and dad weren't so lucky. They weren't bad bites, but certainly not what you'd class as a nip. Fortunately my dad is so accident prone he's pumped up with tetnas shots and my bro had one after his accident at New Year.

So it was a kinda sore mark on an otherwise relaxing and amusing holiday. Unfortunately a lot of Grandma's friends are afraid to come anywhere near her villa now.

Part 3:

So the following Sunday I went upto London with my God-sister to stay in her flat. Didn't even need to buy a train ticket! It was so late in the day the ticket booth was closed, the self-serve machine was busted and no conductor came down the train for the whole journey to Victoria! It was fortunate the barriers were left open at the other end!

Monday: Walked to Oxford street and found the Bermuda Shorts studio again. Met some of the staff. Only two of the animators were in that day. Spoke with their runner Alex. Spent the morning watching show reels of the company and staff. Then had a play around with their Macs in the afternoon. Then helped Eoin the animator scan in his frames for the last half of the afternoon.


Tuesday: Alex found one of their old briefs to have a look at and see what kind of work they do. I sketched out ideas for the brief on and off during the day between scanning in more of Eoin scans (a load got accidentally deleted at one point). Began playing in flash to see what I could do with this brief.

Wednesday: Began animating some characters for the brief. The characters invovled fire and I wasted the morning trying to come up with a shortcut to animate the flames. New animator came in and had chatted with him in the afternoon about advice for my final film and what's good to put in a showreel/portfolio.

Thursday: A few more scans for Eoin. Met the founder of the company and had a chat with him. Seemed like a very nice guy. A little concerned though when I said I was from Thanet and his reply was "Thanet? Yes I've heard of it..." and said no more :S Continued with impromtu animation experiment in flash. Almost finished.

Friday: Spent morning finishing animation. Eoin had no scanning for me to do and I watched most of the company show reels by then. Put animation through After Effects which took longer than expected but still didn't take up much time. Did another cheesey short with my flame characters to pass the time. Watch animated film recommended by new guy from Wednesday on youtube. Couple of the guys had a look at my week's work and my bits on youtube. Seemed rather pleased with my stuff, said I had potential/good work for second year etc. Alex then found a list of websites for me that are good for finding contact numbers/job offers and went through them all with me.

All between whiles occasionally asking if anyone would like tea/coffee, washing dishes and nipping round to the Post Office. And to be honest I only ended up making the tea/coffee 3 times They were all really nice to me and didn't seem to mind me taking up their work space at all. The week was pretty slow in some places were there was any actual work for me to do, but I did get a couple of good chance to talk to people and find out more about the studio.

But after this week I am still a lot more inclined to try and find work abroad. Even if I don't end up in animation, I think my best bet is try somewhere like the USA.

Oh, and the animation I did can be found here: [link]
I'll upload the silly eventually too.

FINI

So now I'm back at home and REALLY should be working on my dissertation, but one more episode of Smallville couldn't hurt right?

Adios!
XJaxX