Hello Digital

DigiToons Masterclasses

• Tue 16th 6:00pm - Tue 21st October 9:00pm

• West Midlands

Hi8us has given six budding animators the opportunity to work with the Brothers McLeod, to create their own one-minute animations.

Hi8us undertook recruitment activity to attract applications from far and wide. Together with Greg and Myles (Brothers McLeod), Hi8us selected six people based on talent and potential, but also on those who would most likely benefit the most from the support.

Ending up selecting six female applicants was a bonus because the DigitToons Talks with people from across the animation industry revealed that there are very few female animators or animation directors.

Hi8us is very pleased to be re-dressing the balance in the animation industry in the same way that it has with Comic Art —there are more published comic artists as a result of it.

To give a snapshot of the sessions — each session begins by the group looking at some really cool and hard to obtain, groundbreaking animations as well as those that are very bad.

The screenings are accompanied by Greg & Myles insightful commentary on what makes them work well or not work at all. Essentially, it’s Greg & Myles deconstructing animations.

In addition to this, over the sessions, Myles has worked with the group to develop story ideas by sharing with them key elements that make up a great story, plus how or when to break those rules. After everyone came up with their stories, they were shown how to storyboard them.

Alongside, this, Greg has given the group an intro into using Flash for Animation, and how to get the best out of it. Often, this is aided by Greg showing the group animations he’s made, and then showing them how he achieved effects and movements in Flash — all very, very useful stuff — it’s inside knowledge!

Along the way, Greg and Myles have also been explaining how the group’s ambitions need to match their timescale — so they may dream of making some complicated animations, but this needs to be balanced with the deadline!

After the storyboarding, most of the group are putting together animatics. At each stage, the group gets support and feedback from Myles and Greg. In the next week or so, the group will complete their animations and then they will add the sound. Then voila!

The animations will be ready to be premiered at the Hello Digital Festival (TBC). Having been armed with important knowledge around distribution from the workshops, each animator will also send their final animations to all the relevant festivals, blogs and showcasing sites.