Henry Fenwick Animator at Blue Zoo

Many congratulations to Animation Apprentice graduate Henry Fenwick, who is currently working as an Animator at London's Blue Zoo Animation. 

Blue Zoo is one of the UK's most successful independent animation studios. Founded in 2000 by a group of university graduates, they have gone on to produce award-winning commercials and TV Series, and creative independent short films.

Henry Fenwick took our online course in 3D Animation, and used the skills he learned to polish his reel and find work in the rapidly-expanding animation industry.

Kristis Bandzevicius Animator at Quadmark

Kristis Bandzevicius

Animation Apprentice congratulates our student Kristis Bandzevicius on his new job as a Motion Designer at Quadmark. Kristis took our MA in 3D Animation, delivered through our academic partner Buckinghamshire New University. 

Quadmark is a creative training and enablement agency that builds learning experiences for companies.

"Motion Designer" is really another way of saying "animator", and we're delighted that Kristis is using the skills learned at Animation Apprentice and BNU to forge a career in the creative industries.

Angelo Garrizone Animation Intern at King Bee

Angelo Garizzone

Many Congratulations to Animation Apprentice graduate Angelo Garrizone who has recently landed an animation internship with King Bee animation, based at the historic Elstree Studios in Borehamwood, just outside of London.

King Bee have worked on many animation projects, including music videos and TV series. They use Maya, Flash and Photoshop to do much of their work.

Angelo worked hard at building an animation demo reel, and also had to complete a test in Adobe Animate in order to secure the position.

Why Animators Must Fail Upwards

Animators are made, not born.  All of us are likely fail in most of the things that we do, at least at first.  The key to success is to keep at it, and  fail faster.

Great animation doesn't emerge fully formed, it needs to be tweaked, revised and perfected. When you see a Pixar or Disney film, you see the finished, polished result - you don't see the pain the animator went through along the way.

Everything we do can be done better. If you don't keep trying, and practicing, and getting feedback, you will never create anything good.  Your animation does not have to be perfect; you just have to get on with it and keep practicing your craft.

Anna Zielinska Animator at Fundamental VR

Anna Zielinska

Many congratulations to Animation Apprentice graduate Anna Laura Zielinska on her job as an animator at Fundamental VR, a company that specialises in medical animation - bringing surgical procedures to life, and helping to teach the next generation of surgeons their life-saving skills.

Fundamental surgery specialises in low-cost virtual reality surgical simulation.  Digital surgical simulations provide medical professionals with low-risk hands-on experience,  resulting in much better patient outcomes.

Jason Thompson Animator at Cloth Cat

Jason Thompson

Many congratulations to Animation Apprentice Graduate Jason Thompson for starting a new position as 3D Character Animator at Cloth Cat Animation. 

Cloth Cat is an animation company based in Cardiff, and produces a number of TV series including Shane the Chef. 

You can see Jason's work, as well as his demo reel, at his official website here. 

Steve Woodhouse Animator at Sister Pictures

Congratulations to Animation Apprentice graduate Steve Woodhouse, who has landed a position as a creature animator at Sister Pictures, an independent television production company based in Clerkenwell, London.

To see more of Steve's excellent animation, and the strong demo reel he developed at Animation Apprentice, visit his Vimeo channel here.

Dominic Rayner Animator at Operator's Creative

Operator's Creative, Old St, London

Many congratulation to Animation Apprentice graduate Dominic Rayner who has just started a job as an animator with The Operator's Creative, a creative agency based in London near Old Street. 

Prior to that, Dominic worked as a character animator at Lipsync Post, on a new feature film combining animated creatures with live action footage. 

To see more of Dominic' work, including his demo reel, follow this link.

Lee Caller Teaching Animation at Escape

Many congratulations to Animation Apprentice graduate Lee Caller, who recently started a new job teaching animation at Escape Studios.

Lee is an excellent animator and also an excellent teacher, able to pace the class effectively and make sure that everyone gets to a professional level of skill.

Cristian Pall Animator at A.i. Solve

Congratulations to Animation Apprentice student Cristian Pall who has just secured a position as an animator with the games company A.i.Solve.

A.i.Solve describes itself as "an Artificial Intelligence Solutions provider bringing together the best in AI, VR & MR products and solutions".

We asked Cristian to tell us a little about the new position, what is involved, and how he secured that crucial first job in the animation industry. 

Marcio Leiria 3D Animator at Ampetronic

Marcio Leiria

Many congratulations to Animation Apprentice student Marcio Leiria who has just got a 3D animation job with Ampetronic, an engineering company who are "world leaders in the design and manufacture of audio induction loop systems". 

Mario's new job is a reminder that the animation industry is much more broad and diverse that it used to be, and that there are new opportunities in surprising places. 

We asked him a few questions about how he got the job.

Henry Fenwick Animator at Jellyfish Pictures

Many congratulations to Animation Apprentice graduate Henry Fenwick, who is back at Jellyfish Pictures, working on the new Dennis the Menace  TV series for the BBC.

Henry got his first job at Jellyfish back in 2015, and getting asked back to the studio to work on further series work is a testament to Henry's skills as an animator.

Jellyfish was founded in 2001 and since then has grown into one of the leading boutique visual effects and animation houses in London, starting from VFX origins and expanding into TV character animation work.

Kevin Richards Animator with Cloth Cat

Congratulations to Escapee Kevin Richards who has just started a new job as an animator with Cloth Cat animation in Cardiff.  Kevin is a traditional animator who took the three-month intensive animation course at Escape Studios last summer, which included access to the Animation Apprentice videos and other course materials. Kevin converted his 2D skills to digital 3D animation in Maya.  working hard on his demo reel, and getting regular feedback to make his reel, website and CV job-ready.

Pete Nicholson - Animator at King Bee Animation

We're delighted to congratulate Animation Apprentice student Pete Nicholson who has just landed a job with King Bee animation, based at the historic Elstree Studios in Borehamwood, just outside of London.

Pete got the job after doing an internship at King Bee; a tried and tested route into the industry. Internships are often - in effect - a kind of prolonged interview process. Which, in this case, had a happy ending.

Jason Thompson Breaks Into The Games Industry with Man O' War: Corsair

Man O' War: Corsair.

Jason Thompson is a graduate of Animation Apprentice who has recently broken into the games industry, working on the newly released game Man O' War: Corsair. 

We asked Jason to talk about his experience, and what advice he might give to other students hoping to break into this fast-growing but highly competitive industry.

Success! Animation Apprentice Student Benn Garnish Lands a Job on Cinesite's "Charming"

Charming is due for release in 2016

Animation Apprentice Student Benn Garnish has landed a job as a senior animator a Job on Cinesite's debut feature film "Charming"

Charming is produced by John Williams (one of the producers of "Shrek") and is being directed by Ross Venokur (Animal Crackerz).

The film has begun production at Cinesite’s Montréal studios.

Charming describes itself as "an irreverent animated comedy that re-imagines the tales of three iconic princesses: Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, who find they are all engaged to the same Prince Charming".

Marc Godfrey Animator at BBC Bitesize

BBC Bitesize

Marc Godfrey was one of the first students to sign up for our course at Animation Apprentice.

He is also one of the most dedicated, and we are proud that his dedication and commitment to the craft of animation has been recognised by the industry in the form of a job witha new Glasgow-based company "Once Were Farmers".

Giuseppe Candido Freelance Animator

Giuseppe Candido at graphicchameleion.paintmine.com

Giuseppe Candido is a graduate of Animation Apprentice who has built a successful career as an animator and 3D generalist, working on many and varied projects for a wide variety of clients.

We asked him to talk about his recent work, and what it takes to be a successful freelance animator.

Rex Grignon, DreamWorks animaton supremo, reveals Nine Secrets of Success

Rex Grignon

Rex Grignon is the HOCA at DreamWorks. That is to say, he is the Head Of Character Animation, and therefore holds one of the key leadership positions in the studio. He has worked on some of the biggest DreamWorks hits of the last decade, including ANTZ, Shrek, and all three Madagascar movies. Born in Canada, he came home to give the keynote speech for The Toronto Art of Animation Festival International, aka TAAFI. Rex talked about some of the key lessons he has learned over the past two decades, and most especially from his years at PDI, Pixar and DreamWorks.