Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1079787
SPRING 2019 11 O N T H E J O B AMANDA LI / DISNEY TV Li's degree in architecture from Penn State comes in handy as a background designer. After several years working as a junior architect she realized she was only enjoying the design and conceptual portion of the job. "I grew up drawing and had always enjoyed the visual arts so I moved to LA and began my transition into animation," she says. "I gravitated to background design because I still love creating worlds and spaces. HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR JOB? I currently work as a background designer on the show Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure. My role is to design and create environments for the action of the characters and props to take place. WHAT DOES YOUR TYPICAL DAY LOOK LIKE? My typical day usually involves getting a list of scenes that I am responsible for from a specific episode. I prep the files by looking for reference and gathering any reusable assets. Sometimes, I have a conversation with my supervisor before I start on a new episode to make sure I understand the feel and direction of the story. Then I start roughing while keeping action, composition, and storytelling in mind. Finally, when I am happy with the rough lay in, I will clean it up and turn it in for approvals. WHAT IS THE BEST PART OF YOUR JOB? The best part is getting to be creative and flexing my design muscles and, of course, drawing everyday. WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES? The biggest challenge sometimes is burnout, if you work too much or the content you are working on gets monotonous. When working on 3D produc- tions, the hardest part is always the turnarounds if the set is complicated. WHERE DO YOU GET INSPIRATION? I get my inspiration from the world around me. I try to be perceptive anytime I go somewhere and make mental notes of things I find interesting—be it how people interact with architecture, details of how things are put together or new plants I find on a hiking trail. WHAT TIPS WOULD YOU GIVE AN ARTIST INTERESTED IN YOUR CAREER? You have to have a good handle on perspective and feel comfortable drawing multiple views. Secondly is getting a good handle on scale and putting things in an environment that looks believable relative to everything else. Sometimes, I recommend just playing in a modeling program like SketchUp so you can get your mind into the habit of viewing and mapping space in 3D. Drawing from life is always good practice and, of course, practice a lot. RYAN CECIL SMITH / CARTOON NETWORK When Smith graduated from college with a fine art degree he wasn't quite sure what to do with it so he took a day job and drew comics and zines on the side. It wasn't until his mid- to late- 20s that he discovered the animation industry in California. "I continued to make comics but with animation and film in mind, developed a more relevant portfolio and sent my work to artists and studios," he says. "It was about five years before I finally got a full-time job in the industry, which I love." TELL US ABOUT YOUR JOB. I'm a background designer at Cartoon Network for OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes! Every week the design team is assigned a new episode. We work out what's reusable and what are new designs, and basically have a week to create everything that's needed. Sometimes I'm creating big new key environments, sometimes I'm doing single shots… it depends on what's needed. It's always different and fun. WALK US THROUGH A TYPICAL DAY. We operate on a weekly schedule, so on Monday I'll have a handout meeting with my fellow BG designer and our art director, and then by Thursday and Friday we'll turn everything in. On a typical day, I will have two to five backgrounds I need to get done. So I'll gather reference shots from our animatic or previous episodes, compare sketches with other designers, and draw through the day. After we submit designs for approval we'll have a notes meeting and we might have to address them at the beginning of the next week, as well. WHAT'S THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE? This job is very fun and I love the challenges of creating new environments, dressing up spaces, and designing things so they can be re-used in multiple contexts. I love the whole process, including working with other designers and storyboarders. It's good that on my show, we communicate with each other freely, and trust and respect each other. I suppose the most difficult challenge can be, frankly, [when] I have to design something that isn't particularly interesting to me or might be sort of tedious… but, honestly, it's just up to me to figure out how to have fun with it. WHERE DO YOU GET INSPIRATION? I get inspiration from all over. In terms of design, I get excited by photogra- phy from the likes of Steve McCurry and Hannah Starkey, and I especially love manga from the '60's and '70's, and anime from the '80's and '90's. ARE THERE ANY TOOLS YOU CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT? I would be very sad if I couldn't use cyan mechanical pencil lead for drawing comics.